Recovery drive (d) full

As advised, you should not store backups on the same drive... at least not without also having them copied to/duplicated on an external source - i.e. an external hard drive, CD/DVD, or a pendrive (/flash drive).

But you shouldn't be using the 'Recovery' partition for backups anyway :emotion-3:

That partition contains the files required/used by the Dell restore process, and adding your own files to it, could corrupt the restore process - such that you won't be able to restore your system to its factory settings!

When you say backups..I never changed anything for these files. I just let it do its thing. Was something changed and I never realized it?

I also have the reinstallation DVD that came with my computer along with drivers DVD.

You are saying I should purchase an external drive for backups..which is fine..you can get one for under $100. in most places. I was just wondering why these files where in there and why when I searched the forums for answers I never seen the list that I have..meaning the extra files I seem to have in there..MediaID.bin..Dee-Pc and Programdata..

Should I take out anything that I have in there and direct it to my C drive? and ofcorse how do I do that?

I appreciate your time on this matter.

Thank you all..

Dee

Ok so its safe to move these two files to a USB drive?

Seems like the Dee-Pc is System Restore points? How did they end up in there? Should I move them to copy to C drive after I copy them to USB drive?

Gosh, I feel so confused and this is not the only Dell system I have had..just new to this D recovery backup.

Thank you,

Dee

Hi Life_Sparkles, The only files you need in there are,

Dell,

Program Files,

Sources,

Tools,

Users,

Windows.

As for your other files, either move them into your C drive, then burn them to disc, or send straight onto an usb drive pen.

Is there a certain place in C drive I should be directing dee-PC and MediaID-bin and Programdata to? I know I will be copying them to a usb drive pen.

I am sorry about all these questions but I really want to make sure I do this right.

Thank you so much for the answers for this question.

Dee

Hi Life_Sparkles, You can copy them to anyway in your C drive, Ie Program files, or even to your Desktop. Then copy them your USB.But, what you can do in the future is to create an folder, and save it to there, until you are ready to transfer the contents to your USB.

RobinBredin..

Thank you so much! Seems easy enough. I appreciate your time on this.

Dee

And I thought that I wasn't too bad with computers having bought my 3rd Dell in 9 years.  First 2 were desktops, newest one is Inspiron 1525 with a full (red) 'Recovery D drive'.  I do not understand what this drive does, nor why it is full, but my laptop is working very very slowly.  Even the McAfee scan is doing about 4 files avery 15 minutes!  It is virtually unusable and I do not understand why.  I am currently using my desktop.  The frustrating thing is that I can find no information as to why I now have this extra drive, or how to use it.  The stuff that you have explained is all beyond me, I am afraid. 

It therefore seems that Vista is not for the majority of home users who are not computer whizz kids!  My hardly used new laptop of only a few months, now seems too full to use even though it has a 160gb hard drive with little on it! 

And I thought that I wasn't too bad with computers having bought my 3rd Dell in 9 years.  First 2 were desktops, newest one is Inspiron 1525 with a full (red) 'Recovery D drive'.  I do not understand what this drive does, nor why it is full, but my laptop is working very very slowly.  Even the McAfee scan is doing about 4 files avery 15 minutes!  It is virtually unusable and I do not understand why.  I am currently using my desktop.  The frustrating thing is that I can find no information as to why I now have this extra drive, or how to use it.  The stuff that you have explained is all beyond me, I am afraid.  It therefore seems that Vista is not for the majority of home users who are not computer whizz kids!  My hardly used new laptop of only a few months, now seems too full to use even though it has a 160gb hard drive with little on it!

My laptop is still flashing up the message that my D drive is full all the time.  It is driving me mad.  I never use this drive and I still don't understand why I have it.  It was never on my previous Dell PCs.  What is the point of it, and how can I shut it up?

Larna,

The  'Recovery D drive' was put there by Dell to be used instead of a Installation DVD so you can re-install your operating system as it came from the factory. It is basically your re-installation DVD put on this D drive. This will re-install Vista only. No other applications, programs or files that you have added to your computer can be re-installed from the D drive. Do not try to re-install or restore from the D drive until it is cleaned up or fixed.

The  'Recovery D drive' is not suppose to have anything else added to it, ever. If anything else was put in there it is likely that it will not work properly, if you can get the files out that have been added since you received the computer, it might work again.

The 'Recovery D drive' is usually 10GB with from 5GB to 8GB of used space. That leaves 5GB to 2GB of free space available, this will get used up fast if something is added, which nothing should be. It seems that this 'Recovery D drive' gets used inadvertently for something like backup files, unknowingly or by accident. When the D drive gets full the computer will give you a warning that it is full and won't be able to write to it anymore. Your Anti-virus doesn't know it's full, the Anti-Virus needs free space on the D drive when it runs a scan on it, and so it's trying to run the scan with a very small free space which slows it down - a lot. Just cancel the virus scan on the D drive until you get it sorted out.

Never add anything to the D drive, make sure your backups are not going to the D drive, they should go to a different physical disk like an external hard drive.

You will continue to get the’ D drive is full’ warning until you can remove some of the excess files from it. 

Vista is a very good operating system and will handle many of the required actions on your computer automatically, it will also give you warnings if you are about to do something that might cause you trouble. I find Vista to be very capable and stable as well as non-whizz friendly, but nothing is perfect.

You should try to get Dell support (you have a fairly new computer) to help you with this, their software support is for 3(I think?) months, I'm not sure of the exact length of the software warranty. If possible they might be able to remotely access your computer and remove the added files. If that scenario doesn’t work, then list all of the folders in the 'Recovery D drive' and someone on this forum can try to help you remove them from the D drive. 

Good luck,

Larna-

I think I saw in an earlier post you use McAfee.  I use Norton 360, and it has a backup feature itself.  I had to go into the user setting and change where I want my backups to be sent.  I JUST FIGURED THAT OUT TODAY!!!!!  Set your back ups to go to a DVD or an external hard drive if possible.  I don't know how McAfee works, but if you look  on the bottom right hand part of your tool bar, there should be an icon for McAfee...like a big red M or something.  Click on it and see if it has an automatic backup feature, and then see where it's going.  More than likely, it's sending it to your D: drive, thus taking up all the space.  Just a suggestion.  Hope it helps!