The Recovery Disk Partition can be seen from the disk management screen. You can remove the partition from the disk management and check if you’re able to add the partition to the existing C partition.
Thanks for your advice. Could you maybe give me some further instructions? When I open the disk management screen I get the one shown in the screenshot attached. How do I go about deleting the C: Recovery partition from there? And what would happen if I did delete it? Wouldn't this also delete Windows and all the drivers I have installed such that the computer would not boot up any longer?
Hi Ravi, the computer will not allow me to delete or change the Recovery Partition because it says that the Operating System is running on it, i.e. the version of Windows which has booted the machine up. Could you advise me on how I could get the machine to boot up from the other partition, in other words how can I move the OS and so be freed up to delete the recovery partition?
The! C:/ partition is not the Recovery partition, but the operating system. Do not delete it. The Recovery partition is often labeled D:/, and is usually 10 GB in size.
Thanks for this advice. Unfortunately in my case the Recovery partition is the C: drive, and has very limited space (only 20GB). The vast majority of the disk space (about 900GB) is sitting in the D: drive, but I don't know how to move the OS into the D: drive and so return the computer to its previously working state.
Any further thoughts you had would be greatly appreciated.
The recovery partition should contain ONLY the image used to reset the Operating System, and NOTHING ELSE. You should never put anything on the Recovery Drive. You must have installed the OS in D:/; however, the partition should be 10GB not 20GB, so somehow it has been resized. You will need to reinstall or clone the OS to drive C:/, which might give you a dual boot system with the same OS on both drives. You then could erase the OS on D:/ and then be setup normally.
The Recovery Partition seems to be OK, as you were able to Reset the Win 7.
You say that Win 10 is incompatible. Is this because you have had problems or because Dell says it isn't compatible? Others have tried the upgrade with some success. Seems like you need to upgrade the BIOS to A05 to get it done. Search the web for others experiences. Be wary of downloading Win drivers or BIOS from third party sources. Many have what they indicate are Win 10 driver updates, which will probably get you in trouble. Only get drivers from Dell or the site of the hardware equipment manufacturers, such as video and printer deivers.
Hi, thanks very much for the advice. In terms of the recovery partition and the OS, would you recommend I go back to the factory reset disks and start the process again from the beginning? Perhaps something went wrong when I tried it before as the OS definitely seems to be installed on the C: Recovery Partition drive.
As for Windows 10, I'm not familiar with the BIOS or how to upgrade it, and am quite happy to stick with Windows 7. I was told by the Microsoft Helpline that my Inspiron N5050 laptop has not been tested for Windows 10 and so they don't recommend upgrading.
Any further thoughts you had would be much appreciated! Thanks.
Thanks for this advice. I have the recovery discs and have completed a factory state restore. However this has resulted in a disk partition which is greatly hampering the performance of the computer. The Operating System is in a partition of just a few MB which means I can't download any programmes or upgrade Internet Explorer, for example, while I don't know how to access the other partition which has 99% of the computer's memory. Could you advise me on what to do about this? Should I use the recovery disk to perform another factory reset in the hope that it will work better this time?
DELL-Ravi Ch
7 Technologist
•
7.1K Posts
0
October 7th, 2015 23:00
Hi douglasleckie,
The Recovery Disk Partition can be seen from the disk management screen. You can remove the partition from the disk management and check if you’re able to add the partition to the existing C partition.
douglasleckie
6 Posts
0
October 8th, 2015 23:00
Hi Ravi,
Thanks for your advice. Could you maybe give me some further instructions? When I open the disk management screen I get the one shown in the screenshot attached. How do I go about deleting the C: Recovery partition from there? And what would happen if I did delete it? Wouldn't this also delete Windows and all the drivers I have installed such that the computer would not boot up any longer?
Thanks,
Douglas
1 Attachment
Storage Manager.jpg
DELL-Ravi Ch
7 Technologist
•
7.1K Posts
0
October 12th, 2015 09:00
Hi Douglas,
Please follow the steps mentioned below to delete the recovery partition.
Note: Please backup your data from the C drive and then try performing the above steps.
douglasleckie
6 Posts
0
October 12th, 2015 15:00
Hi Ravi, the computer will not allow me to delete or change the Recovery Partition because it says that the Operating System is running on it, i.e. the version of Windows which has booted the machine up. Could you advise me on how I could get the machine to boot up from the other partition, in other words how can I move the OS and so be freed up to delete the recovery partition?
Thanks,
Douglas
kirkd
4 Operator
•
5.2K Posts
0
October 12th, 2015 18:00
The! C:/ partition is not the Recovery partition, but the operating system. Do not delete it. The Recovery partition is often labeled D:/, and is usually 10 GB in size.
douglasleckie
6 Posts
0
October 13th, 2015 03:00
Hi there,
Thanks for this advice. Unfortunately in my case the Recovery partition is the C: drive, and has very limited space (only 20GB). The vast majority of the disk space (about 900GB) is sitting in the D: drive, but I don't know how to move the OS into the D: drive and so return the computer to its previously working state.
Any further thoughts you had would be greatly appreciated.
kirkd
4 Operator
•
5.2K Posts
0
October 13th, 2015 11:00
The recovery partition should contain ONLY the image used to reset the Operating System, and NOTHING ELSE. You should never put anything on the Recovery Drive. You must have installed the OS in D:/; however, the partition should be 10GB not 20GB, so somehow it has been resized. You will need to reinstall or clone the OS to drive C:/, which might give you a dual boot system with the same OS on both drives. You then could erase the OS on D:/ and then be setup normally.
The Recovery Partition seems to be OK, as you were able to Reset the Win 7.
You say that Win 10 is incompatible. Is this because you have had problems or because Dell says it isn't compatible? Others have tried the upgrade with some success. Seems like you need to upgrade the BIOS to A05 to get it done. Search the web for others experiences. Be wary of downloading Win drivers or BIOS from third party sources. Many have what they indicate are Win 10 driver updates, which will probably get you in trouble. Only get drivers from Dell or the site of the hardware equipment manufacturers, such as video and printer deivers.
douglasleckie
6 Posts
0
October 14th, 2015 15:00
Hi, thanks very much for the advice. In terms of the recovery partition and the OS, would you recommend I go back to the factory reset disks and start the process again from the beginning? Perhaps something went wrong when I tried it before as the OS definitely seems to be installed on the C: Recovery Partition drive.
As for Windows 10, I'm not familiar with the BIOS or how to upgrade it, and am quite happy to stick with Windows 7. I was told by the Microsoft Helpline that my Inspiron N5050 laptop has not been tested for Windows 10 and so they don't recommend upgrading.
Any further thoughts you had would be much appreciated! Thanks.
DELL-Ravi Ch
7 Technologist
•
7.1K Posts
0
October 16th, 2015 01:00
Hi,
Dell Inspiron 15 N5050 has not been tested by Dell for Windows 10 operating system you will not find drivers for it.
You would need recovery discs to restore the system to factory state. Please backup your personal data from the system.
douglasleckie
6 Posts
0
November 4th, 2015 13:00
Hi Ravi,
Thanks for this advice. I have the recovery discs and have completed a factory state restore. However this has resulted in a disk partition which is greatly hampering the performance of the computer. The Operating System is in a partition of just a few MB which means I can't download any programmes or upgrade Internet Explorer, for example, while I don't know how to access the other partition which has 99% of the computer's memory. Could you advise me on what to do about this? Should I use the recovery disk to perform another factory reset in the hope that it will work better this time?
Thanks,
Douglas