Possible to remove a partition? (Dell)

[DAnDan]

I recently bought a dell XPS M1530, these come with a 320Gb drive, 10Gb of which is given to a recovery partition.

I want to get rid of the recovery partition, without having to format/reinstall windows. So I'm just looking for a tool or program that can do this for me.

Thanks all.

 

[TomaHawk]

I assume you have 'Vista'.. if so look here for its own built in disk management tools: http://windowshelp.microsoft.com/Windows/en-us/help/d9a4d35e-efdf-406c-a049-0860180129a71033.mspx

Otherwise if you have XP there are two programs I'd recommend:
- PartedMagic (Free) > http://partedmagic.com/wiki/PartedMagic.php
- PartitionMagic > http://www.symantec.com/norton/partitionmagic

Hope that helps.

 

[DAnDan]

Thanks for that, yeah I'm on Vista 32.

I used the disk management to delete the partition, but now I have the 10Gb unallocated space, it has the option to turn this into a new simple volume, but I can't find out how to add it into my main partition.

 

[Ascendancy]

Thanks for that, yeah I'm on Vista 32.

I used the disk management to delete the partition, but now I have the 10Gb unallocated space, it has the option to turn this into a new simple volume, but I can't find out how to add it into my main partition.

Right click on your main partition and choose "Extend partition" or something to that effect.

 

[DAnDan]

There's the option for "extend partition" buy it's greyed out, so not really sure how to go about it.

 

[AtaRo]

why would you like to remove the recovery partition? it is only 10gb and you can use it to restore your disk to factory default.

 

[mrochester]

Try turning the unallocated space into a simple volume and then extending the main partition.

 

[Django x2]

You cant add it because it is listed before the primary partition. You need to do this through a DOS tool like Kill Disk or something. Write the disk to zero then re-install again.

 

[TomaHawk]

You cant add it because it is listed before the primary partition. You need to do this through a DOS tool like Kill Disk or something. Write the disk to zero then re-install again.

Exactly, you can only extend your primary partition with partitions/free space which are concurrent and come after the partition you wish to merge with.

So only real way I'm aware of doing what you desire is to do a full format; re-install etc.

 

[bledd]

sometimes removing the recovery partition will nail your boot options, so backup first..

i'd just do a full format tbh

 

[Django x2]

sometimes removing the recovery partition will nail your boot options, so backup first..

i'd just do a full format tbh

Doesnt work. The Dells seem to hide this partition from the OS so when you install Vista for example it immediately lists it as Disk0 partition 2, you cant see partition 1 which is why you have to kill it from DOS

 

[bledd]

oh, that's dumb

well use parted magic boot cd (gparted is on it) to do it, lovely gui based partition/recovery freeware cd