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    How to remove Alien Respawn partition...

    Discussion in 'Alienware' started by RandomHajile, Feb 9, 2010.

  1. RandomHajile

    RandomHajile Notebook Guru

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    No use even having it because I'm using Win 7 now...

    any ideas how to kick it to the curb and get my 14.85 gigs back?!
     
  2. debaucher

    debaucher Notebook Deity

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    Any partition software can do that for you.
    I use acronis, but there are other free software out there that will do the job nicely as well.
    I would recommend backing up that partition to an external drive or something so that if in the future you need it you can put it back.

    Hopes this helps.

    D.
     
  3. Cyborg95

    Cyborg95 Notebook Enthusiast

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    Back up the data, pop in the hard drive in other computer, or use a ubuntu live cd and format the whole disk. I got a ssd which i use as a primary disk, so it was easy for me to format it.
     
  4. RandomHajile

    RandomHajile Notebook Guru

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    Is there anyway to format it through Win 7?
     
  5. MikeDaSpike

    MikeDaSpike Notebook Enthusiast

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    press the windows key, type in CMD and press shift-ctrl-enter
    This should open up a command prompt with administrator rights.

    In the command prompt type diskpart
    It's a command line partition editor.
    type list disk
    See which disk is the one you want to edit
    type select disk X, where X is the number of the disk you want to edit
    type list partition and see which one is the one you want to delete (it should say type OEM or something)
    type select partition X where X is the number of the partition you want to edit
    type delete partition override, this will delete the current select partition, the override parameter is to bypass the OEM protection.

    Be careful so you don't delete the wrong partition.
    You can run diskmgmt.msc after deleting it and extend your current partition.


    For reference:
    list disk
    select disk X
    list partition
    select partition X
    delete partition override
     
  6. RandomHajile

    RandomHajile Notebook Guru

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    Thanks daddy, i got the lame partition cleared but how do you extend it with diskmgmt.msc?
     
  7. RandomHajile

    RandomHajile Notebook Guru

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    nevermind.
     
  8. aznguyen316

    aznguyen316 Rock Chalk Jayhawk

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    awesome, I'll need to do this once my M11x comes in since I'll be using the 256GB SSD they gave me and will want every bit of GB for my self rather than a recovery partition I can back up =)

    just to confirm, I won't have to reinstall Win7 right, it'll just take care of the 2nd partition and it can be extended?

    So thanks Mike
     
  9. Serephucus

    Serephucus Notebook Deity

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    For future reference:

    Right click Computer
    Click Manage
    Click Disk Management

    Do what you like in there.
     
  10. aznguyen316

    aznguyen316 Rock Chalk Jayhawk

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    My problem with this before on a previous dell machine was it would not let me extend the recovery partition after deleting it etc. I think maybe b/c the recovery was the "primary" one? Ideas?
     
  11. MikeDaSpike

    MikeDaSpike Notebook Enthusiast

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    The recovery partition is flagged as oem. The disk management utility does not allow you to delete/change it because of that. This is to prevent "regular" users from deleting it without knowing what they are doing. Enabling it through a command line tool makes sure that you at least know what you're about to do.
     
  12. aznguyen316

    aznguyen316 Rock Chalk Jayhawk

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    so using this "You can run diskmgmt.msc after deleting it and extend your current partition."

    I can extend it?
     
  13. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    Regarding the diskmanagement tool, you can only extend to the "right" if you look at the hard disk partitions in the graphical representation. You can't move partitions either.
     
  14. MikeDaSpike

    MikeDaSpike Notebook Enthusiast

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    As htwingnut as said, you can only extend to the "right", if the recovery partition was at the start of the disk then it would require a 3rd party tool.

    I would recommend using GParted live cd. But beware, this task takes alot of time to complete, and you risk losing your data if something goes wrongs along the way.

    The best way to do it is to backup your data and reinstall windows using the whole disk.
     
  15. HTWingNut

    HTWingNut Potato

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    Right, thanks MikeDaSpike (lol @ name) -

    You finished my thought. One of my kids was doing something they shouldn't have so had to cut it short.

    GParted is good, except I've had it screw up the bootable partition many times before. Thankfully Vista and Seven auto repair feature from the DVD seemed to fix it no problem. So yeah, be careful. But best thing to do is use GParted Live DVD to delete all partitions, and create your new ones, or just leave it blank if you only want one partition, and Windows 7 will just use all the open space.
     
  16. aznguyen316

    aznguyen316 Rock Chalk Jayhawk

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    gotcha, I'll make sure to check that out =)
     
  17. cookout

    cookout Newbie

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    Partition Wizard worked well for me: http://www.partitionwizard.com/free-partition-manager.html
     
  18. Marcham93

    Marcham93 Notebook Evangelist

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    Awesome shortcut for running as admin. :D