Restore partition...

[Xyon]

Hi all.
First time posting.

So here's my situation and question...
I have an M17x R4. I have made a restore flash drive from AlienRespawn.
I have been using the system with no problems at all for two months now, so its not a functional issue here.

I have two drives installed. The boot drive was (obviously) set up by the system by default. But there is a "recovery partition" thats taking up space that I'd like back.
I tried deleting it (when the system was bare...as to not worry about losing a setup), and tried merging it with the main partition. Both attempts messed up the main partition...so I left it alone and continued on.
I still have enough space for functioning, but as mentioned, I'd like to have that space back.

Does any know, or can anyone suggest a way to accomplish this?

Thanks everyone.

 

[Xyon]

No one?
Nothing?
I guess nobody knows, huh?

:-(

 

[BlackJair]

I truly recommend you to keep that partition.

If you really don't want it I think the only way is to do a Fresh Install of windows, or at least that was how I deleted it.

 

[Xyon]

Yes. I understand that. I am just hoping that it wouldn't come down to that.
Thank you though.

 

[stupreme]

Ok - this is what you do to get all the space (don't know if you did this or not) Startbutton>controlpannel>administrativetools>computermanagement>diskmanagement you will then see disk 0/1/2/3. right click on the partition you want to lose and delete volume. hope that helps.

 

[BrokeHombre]

When I did my machine (I installed an SSD for the OS and the 750GB HDD as the data drive) I had to go into the BIOS and disable the secure boot and a few other things before it would recognize the SSD and to wipe the HDD completely clean of all partitions. It took me a few tries but I was successful. AlienWare has the drives locked down pretty good. All the threads I found and read here were extremely helpful, but not one mentioned having t go into the BIOS to do what I had to do in order to wipe the HDD clean of all partitons and do a clean install of Win 8 on the SSD. Trust me though - doing a clean install is the way to go. My machine runs so much faster off the SSD when booting - Love my AlienWare

 

[RG512]

First disable the secure boot and then go to computer management in control pannel.
now go to disk management. You will find a partition in blue (if using win 7 x64) and then delete or shrink volume.. whatever you wanna do.. But Its highly recommended that you keep this partition because this 10-15 GB is very crucial and far better than your backup from alien respawn.

 

[Xyon]

@stupreme
I haven't tried that (didn't know that option was available). I'll look into it this week. Maybe thats the key.

@brokehombre
I actually have almost the same setup. 128GB SSD for boot, and 1TB secondary HDD for storage.
Everything runs well. Just hoping to reclaim that space.

@RG512
Yes, I understand about that partition being way better than the AlienRespawn flash drive that I made. I'm sure I can clone the whole drive (on a spare) and/or make a windows backup if necessary.


Additionally, I do have Win7 x64. Sorry I forgot to mention that.
And besides that partition being better than the AlienRespawn restore disk/flash-drive, is it useful for anything else? If it is, I would definitely consider leaving it be...but if not, I'd like to see it go away.

 

[Xyon]

PS. I've tried using a disk partition program to merge the main partition with the recovery partition, and then the system wouldn't boot...did a restore to factory.
Then with the same software, I tried just deleting the recovery partition...again, no booting and did a restore to factory.

I left it until now, and figured I'd ask anyway if there was a way to do this without losing my current setup. If I clone the main drive, I know I'll be fine, but I feel its better to have all the info possible before proceeding.