Is it wise to shrink the dell recovery partition to sqeeze an extra 6gb?

As title. Windows disk management. The dell recovery partition is 10gb, only 4 of which is used.

 

knock yourself out!

 

You can shrink it without a problem, but you may have difficulty expanding the OS partition to use that space.

I couldn't do it in Windows or with gparted. They will expand/shrink partitions by moving the right boundary, but they won't move the left boundary. Moving the left boundary will screw things up anyway because the boot tracks have to be moved.

You'll have to
(a) image the C: partition (only the C: partition) to a network or usb drive, using suitable imaging software (such as Windows' built-in imagex.exe);
(b) delete the partition;
(c) make a new partition to use all the space, and set it as a boot partition;
(d) restore C: from the image;
(e) discover that it doesn't work after all of that, because the boot tracks are not in the right place, but after booting from the Vista DVD you can repair it.

 

I believe the program partition magic does this with no problems and without harming your files.

 

Partition Magic doesn't work in Vista.

There are other programs, such as Acronis, but I didn't know if they would be able to do what gparted could not. Plus I didn't want to pay $40 for one-time-use software. In practice I ended up spending much more than $40 of my time figuring out what didn't work.

PS I tried the freeware competitor to Partition Magic, called Partition Logic, and it would not do this either.

 

Well, it's easy to make use of the space without combining the partitions, of course.
Just format the partition as NTFS.

 

The latest version of Acronis Disk Director Suite ought to be able to do it. Yes, I did say ought to there have been some problems with it and Vista, but it ought to work. Do some research.

 

There's no point, because you'll modify the MBR by doing so, and will destroy the recovery functionality in the process. You may as well delete all the partitions and start from scratch with the Dell MediaDirect CD, and then install you favorite OS(es).

Personally, I leave it as is and will use the space as a dumping ground for data when I next wipe the laptop and start from scratch. This way, you have the benefit of the restore partition, and you don't lose any space. Alternatively, use that partition as your Photoshop scratch disk, or some other temporary storage area.

 

By shrinking the Recovery Partition? I don't use the recovery functionality, but this is news to me.

 

It is easily possible without affecting the MBR using tools like partition magic and Acronis.... There is a DOS bootable version of partition magic available which you can make use of if it has problems running in Vista.... The MBR wont be modified but only the partition table will be.... MBR and partition table are independent of each other as far as this operation is concerned...

 

Well if you're machine came with a crap load of bloat ware or useless crap installed, and you're cool with just using your install disk, delete the whole damn partition..Now you got 10GB of extra space

 

First, if you want to keep the recovery system backup and restore partition, download Acronis Disk Image trialware. It is only valid for 15 days (of which you only need one) and it allows you to make a complete system backup that has no time limitation.

Next, regarding the partition, I believe it is a matter of personal choice more than space requirements. okok, my 32Gb SSD can be tight but, for the most part its being able to get rid of your Dell (or other) set system and building something of your own. I have never met anyone yet who has done this and wished they hadn't in the end. Its a personal pride issue, for the most part, just as my running 64 Bit is right now. I haven't got not one 64 Bit program that I use, but I wouldn't go back for the world because I have it running so seamlessly which is a rarity.

I use Vista Ultimate but I would recommend Acronis or any disk image backup program so you can make a complete backup then play with your system. If something goes wrong go back and start again. I have honestly re-installed my system no less than 7 times in the last month, each time making a new system backup and coming closer to perfection.

Hope this helps and by all means, draw from what you can use below. There is a wealth of knowledge here from so many on this site.

 

I don't see what vista ultimate's pc restore does that's so good? Business has "Complete PC Backup". Just do it, it saves it as a file, then as soon as you get vista running again just double click the file and you have your old pc.

 

When you restore from a Complete PC Backup, it wipes out everything you have on the drive (the whole drive, not just the data on one partition) and it puts back the old partitions as well as the old data.