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Delete Dell recovery partition and create data partition
Hi everybody,
Two years ago I bought a Dell Inspiron N5110. In addition to the existing windows partition, I wanted to add an Ubuntu partition as well as a data(NTFS) partition. Well, I added the Ubuntu partition, but because of the Dell recovery partition(14,65 GB, 7,69 used, formatted in NTFS), I had no primary partition left to create a data partition. I didn't take the time to solve this until now.
Here you can see the different partitions. The 4,66GB one is the linux swap partition and the 18,63 one is the linux partition. They are of course contained in an extended partition created using GParted while installing linux.
Basically, what I would like to do, is to delete the recovery partition. I didn't had a look into it, but I have read that as it contains some boot data, so that win7 won't boot any more if I delete it. The partition is tagged as "active" (unlike my C main windows partition). I guess this is a classic problem, but I couldn't find a tutorial nor a satisfactory answer on this forum (I apologize if it's the case). I guess that it isn't enough to set to not active the recovery partition and to set the c partition to active(i.e. that this won't move the critical data from the recovery to the c partition). Furthermore, I've read that repartitioning your disk could affect the functionning of the recovery partition in case of an emergency, is this true?
Thanks a lot in advance for your help.
Greetings,
Harald
Harald31
3 Posts
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November 10th, 2013 04:00
Yes sorry, I had an issue and the image wasn't incorporated properly to my message. Here it comes. Sain means healthy, actif active, partition principale means primary partition. You'll notice though that windows don't see that the ubuntu partition is an extended one.
ieee488
4 Operator
4 Operator
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11.1K Posts
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November 9th, 2013 14:00
Please post a picture what your Disk Management window looks like when you are booted into Windows 7.
It is hard to tell from words what is on the hard drive.
And, yes, doing anything with the partitions, renders the recovery partition useless.
Raczo
105 Posts
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November 10th, 2013 14:00
The boot files are in Recovery. If you simply delete this partition, Windows won´t boot.
If you want Windows to boot from OS (the Windows partition), you must first use a special procedure to “install” the boot files in this partition. Then you must define OS as “active” and try to boot from it. If all goes right after several boots, you can delete Recovery safely (from the boot point of view).
If you are interested, I could post some references. Before you decide to delete Recovery, be sure you understand the consequences related to recovering the system in case of an “emergency”.
Harald31
3 Posts
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November 13th, 2013 09:00
If I get it well, I can not use this recovering function any more anyway, no? I don't care about these 15GB, what I wanted to get back, is one primary partition more.
Hmm. I guess that this procedure is quite risky. As in my case I consider that it is more likely that my hd crashes than that I have some issue with my windows partition( btw, I have everything backed up) , I guess that I'll go for the following "solution". I think that I will uninstall Ubuntu, then add most of the free space I have left to the windows partition and reinstall ubuntu. Thank you very much for your anwser.
ieee488
4 Operator
4 Operator
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11.1K Posts
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November 13th, 2013 11:00
The recovery partition is to allow you to re-store the laptop to the condition it was when it was shipped from the factory.
Consider that should you want to sell the laptop in the future, you will not be able to have a clean install of Windows for the future buyer.
If you don't care about that, I would suggest using gParted to delete the recovery partition and create the two partitions you want for Ubuntu.
Then re-install Ubuntu.
Lili baba
1 Message
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August 1st, 2015 16:00
Ubuntu
Diceyus
6 Posts
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October 20th, 2015 23:00
I have a related question, what if I want to split my primary partition, the complete drive for me, into two, will the system restore functionality still work?
leomaves
1 Message
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August 13th, 2018 13:00
When you apply the drive partition the operating system sees them separately as different drives. So functionality works differently for each partition. Partition manager needed to be enabled for each partitioned drive and the laptop data recovery will work accordingly.