How Do I Delete / Remove HP Recovery Partition

HP Computers – Guidelines For Removing The Recovery Partition

Laptops, notebooks or desktop computers manufactured by HP are known to have a unique recovery partition that occupies quite a huge portion of the hard disk. The size of this partition is somewhere around 5 to 10 gigabytes. The Recovery Partition, normally placed in D:/ drive is hidden and contains diagnostic tools and recovery information.

This special Recovery Partition is an easy-to-use set of three utilities which help you restore individual programs and drivers or hard drive of any HP system to original factory condition in case a system failure occurs.

While trying to access HP Recovery Partition, you will get a warning message notifying that any alteration or deletion of the recovery files in the partition could lead to prevention of system recovery in future.

The only issue with keeping the recovery partition on the hard disk is that, it consumes a lot of disk space which could otherwise be used to store any other important data. You are anyhow not able to view the contents of this Recovery Partition since the information remains locked and hidden.

You may as well remove/delete the recovery partition to free disk space and maintain a Recovery DVD/CD instead, as the hard disk can get corrupt at times. HP offers a program known as “Recovery Manager” that helps you remove/delete the recovery partition. Once the partition is removed, you can redistribute or merge the recovered disk space to any of the other partitions.

HP Recovery partition contains a total record of all drivers and individual programs along with all software installed and shipped collectively with the system. It also contains images for MS Windows operating system.

You need to note that, with no recovery partition on the hard disk, you would be unable to recover individual drivers and applications unless you rebuild the entire system from scratch by reformatting the hard disk drive with the help of Recovery CD/DVD.

Hence, creating enough number of Recovery discs (to take care of disc failure or burning) before deleting/removing the recovery partition is of utmost importance. You need to follow the easy steps mentioned below so as to remove/delete the Recovery Partition.

1. Connect the system to AC power adapter incase of notebook computer.
2. Close all running applications as you will need to reboot the system.
3. From the Start Menu, go to All Programs and check for System Recovery or Recovery Manager. Now run PC Recovery or Recovery Manager. Windows Vista users can alternatively type “Recovery” into the search option.
4. Incase you are using Recovery Manager; click on it once it is listed in the searched items list.
5. Incase you are using PC Recovery tool, select the option “PC Recovery” from the searched items list and click on Next. Wait till the computer restarts.

Now you will see a dialog box with a welcome message. Click on the OK button.

1. Now click on Advanced Options button in the PC Recovery/ Recovery Manager Dialog box that appears.
2. Select the radio button with the option “Remove recovery partition” (it will show “Delete Recovery Partition” in PC Recovery) and click on Next button.
3. You will be prompted to verify deletion of the partition in Recovery Manager. Choose the option “Yes “and hit the Next button.

A reminder message for creating recovery discs appears on the screen. If you are yet to create recovery discs, you may click on the “Click Here” button.

However, PC Recovery will not prompt for any confirmation of deletion.

1. The process for removal/deletion will now start.
2. As soon as the process of removing HP Recovery Partition is over, restart the PC.

IMPORTANT: Users who are using the older version of PC Recovery need to remember that the entire disk would be formatted on removal of recovery partition. Therefore, data back up needs to be taken before going ahead with the above mentioned process. Also, operating system along with the programs needs to be manually installed onto the hard drive.

Recovery partition can efficiently be removed without affecting any existing system partitions and data using the Recovery Manager tool. Disk Management tool present in Control Panel or third-party applications including Acronis Director Suite and Partition Magic may be used to merge the freed space with other existing partitions or create a new partition.

In a few models of HP, you will see “HP Backup & Recovery Manager” in “Add & Remove Program” or “Programs & Features” (in Vista) within the Control Panel. In such a case, you might remove the partition by just uninstalling “HP Backup & Recovery Manager”.

Third party applications such as Acronis Director Suite and Partition Magic or Disk Management tool can also be used to remove/delete the recovery partition. However by doing so, you will get a Partition Overlap error message every time you start your system.

Related reading:

1> Remove / Delete EISA Configuration Partition Utilities.