Why is recovery drive full? Dell Inspiron 1525

I have to say that  I am not replying to your problem, as I have just been searching for the answer to exactly the same problem, and I also have the Inspiron 1525. 

I have had 2 Dell desktops previously but neither have had this 'Recovery (D)' drive.  I have searched the laptop for information, and I have also searched the internet.  In 'My Computer' it shows that drive D is full, but I don't know what I am supposed to do about it.  The message that pops up all the time now is 'low on memory' as Recovery drive is full, and it gives me the opportunity to empty the recycle bin that contained 2 small files!

Fortunately I still have a good desktop, which I am using now, as the Inspiron which is only a few months old is barely functioning as it is so slow.

You may now have discovered the answer to this problem since your post in January - I hope so.  If not, is there anyone out there that could enlighten us?  It would be much appreciated.

To Both:

The Recovery Drive is not for storage or for your use. It is just a image of the the original installation and is used to return the computer to factory settings. It is not to be added to or used in any way. Leave it alone. You will probably never use it at all and it is supposed to be full. It's just a partition on your hard drive, not a separate drive. When you backup your computer, use an external hard drive or removable media. Never use that partition for backup or anything.

I'm having this exact problem, although my laptop (inspiron 1525) isn't running any slower than before. I've had it for a year in about August and this problem cropped up about 2 or 3 months ago. I finally broke down and called Dell and they told me it wasn't a hardware problem but a software (ie Vista) and that I needed to talk to their software people, which wouldn't be free and is why I haven't yet done that.

I've gone as far as to back up my files on an external harddrive and reset my computer to the factory Dell image but when I started it up it had the same message, which doesn't make sense since there shouldn't be any files on it!

Sorry this wasn't a solution but I'm hoping that with more posts, maybe someone will take notice of this thread and post a remedy!

Thanks Mary, that is very helpful.  It would be better if the popup message explained this rather than just saying that the REcovery drive is full and leaving us to figure out what we are supposed to do - nothing it now seems.

This could be unrelated but my Inspiron 1525 laptop takes 3 full days to do a McAfee scan, and the same security software on my Dimension 5150 desktop which I use most of the time (both are 160GB), takes very little time to do the same scan. 

If you still ahve the problem try opening the recovery d drive and viewing the folders there. There should only be   Dell, Prog files, sources, tools, users and windows.

Any other folders are the problem, it appears that the auto back up backs up to the recovery d drive by default and needs to be changed in back up config.

Looking at microsoft support the back up file is named after your laptop name and then backupsetfolder follwed by date, this is the folder to be deleted as well as the medial folder which is part of back up. The file is to large to be sent to the recycle bin and will be perm deleted. (May be worth cut & pasting  folders to C: drive first to ensure prob is solved before deleting completely.

I know this prob as the same thing has happened to my mum's laptop and all other forums say is you should not do it which does'nt help much.

Very simply open main menu click "Computer"   you will see the drives listed. double click recovery(D:) which will open drive folder.

The only folders then visible should be :- dell, sources, tools, users, windows & program files.

For some reason by default the back up files are sent here and you should see in addition to above a folder named same as whatever you gave your laptop follwed by backupsetfolder and a medial folder, these 2 folders only should be deleted, they are large folders and cannot be sent to recycle bin so are permanently deleted.

That should clear the recovery drive, you will then need to change the default back up to stop it happening again.

open menu, got to all programs, scroll to accessories, click,  the look for system tools folder, click. you will then see "backup status and configuration" click,  this opens menu, then click change backup settings and you will then see that the auto backup is set to save to recovery (D:), change this to cd and i cancelled the auto backup to prevent it happening again.

Hope this helps

My Inspiron 1525 had its Recovery Drive folders erased by a friend. Is there any way to restore the contents of these folders? Please help!

My Inspiron 1525 had its Recovery Drive folders erased by a friend. Is there any way to restore the contents of these folders? Please help!

I'm by far not a computer literate person and had recovery drive full problem awhile back but I was wondering if you tried to back up your computer since your friend deleted the files.  If your computer still functions and is set to back up to the recovery drive maybe this would restore the files. I hope it works.

I also have  a Dell Inspiron 1525.  Not only am I constantly getting the full messages, but I can not download anything from my Dropbox because of it.  I don't understand how the answer to this is to do nothing.  There are things my computer will not let me do because of this.  Does anyone else have a solution? Please....

I am having the same problem. From what I found is that WIn7 has a folder called "winsxs" (Windows Side By Side). It has duplicate copies of the dll files, so multiple programs can run at the same time. In my case I have a 14GB recovery (system files) and that folder alone is 7GB. When I go to manage the drives, I can shrink the Storage drive and reexpand it all I want, but the C drive will not expand into unallocated space. I even tried Parttion Manager and the drive is loaded as ACHI instead of ATA, I believe that is the problem. I would love to get my hands on the rocket scientist that though splitting the drive up and keeping Windows on it's own tiny drive was a good idea...You do know the Windows folder grows over time on its own, to track drivers, dlls, windows updates, c'mon engineers

Hi, I am having the same difficulty as many others. I reinstalled my Windows 7 CD on my Dell inspiron. Afterwards, the recovery drive said it was full and I am unable to download anything else even though my C drive is more than half empty.  The recovery drive now contains a duplicate copy of the program files. When I have tried to delete one I cannot because I am told I am not the owner; TrustedInstaller is the owner. Does anyone know how I remove TrustedInstaller as the owner so I can delete the duplicate copy of the program files and how I change from downloading on the recovery drive to downloading on the c drive. 

Thank you!