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    Will this break the Dell recovery partition?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by vsol, Jul 13, 2011.

  1. vsol

    vsol Notebook Enthusiast

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    Right now I have 450GB (C :) and 14GB (D :) recovery partition. I was thinking of shrinking the C: partition and then adding a new partition there. I'm just wondering if that would break the recovery partition. My thinking is that the recovery process might be looking for the 2nd partition on the drive, and would fail because it would now be the 3rd partition.

    Anyone know?
     
    vsol, Jul 13, 2011
    #1
  2. Nick

    Nick Professor Carnista

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    Just shrinking your main partition shouldn't effect the restore partition at all.
     
    Nick, Jul 13, 2011
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  3. Appelsap

    Appelsap Notebook Geek

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    I've done this on my Packard Bell, and it worked just fine. The recovery partition simply copied all it's files to the next partition, leaving a third one with all my data on it intact. I don't know if the same applies to Dell, but would assume so.
     
    Appelsap, Aug 3, 2011
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  4. hermitmaster

    hermitmaster Notebook Consultant

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    As long as everything is intact on the recovery partition, it's location shouldn't make a difference. I moved my recovery partition to my secondary drive and made it hidden (no drive letter).
     
    hermitmaster, Aug 3, 2011
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  5. vsol

    vsol Notebook Enthusiast

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    I don't understand how that's gonna work, have you tested it? When you do the factory restore on a Dell, does it let you browse to the location of the restore image? I started the recovery process to see but I didn't want to go too far and possibly reformat my drive. I still think it's more likely that it looks for the restore image in the 2nd partition of the 1st drive. The only way it would work after you moved it is if it lets you browse to the location or if it checks every partition on every drive in the computer. I'm just trying to find out how it locates the recovery image and i can't find that info.
     
    vsol, Aug 3, 2011
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  6. JOSEA

    JOSEA NONE

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    I would recommend doing a full hard drive image to an external device before I changed any partition sizes.
     
    JOSEA, Aug 4, 2011
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  7. Risco

    Risco Notebook Deity

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    Risco, Aug 4, 2011
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  8. vsol

    vsol Notebook Enthusiast

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    I'm glad that worked for you but it doesn't really apply to me. Your recovery partition is in front so it's position didn't change, it's still the 2nd partition on 1st drive. My recovery partition is at the end of the drive.
     
    vsol, Aug 4, 2011
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  9. ningduo

    ningduo Notebook Enthusiast

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    if you add anything between C and the recovery partition, you will break the f11 recovery
     
    ningduo, Aug 20, 2011
    #9