Partitioning V570 hard drive?

Hi. I just purchased a Lenovo V570, and I have a question. For at least the past 8 years or more, whenever I've gotten a computer the first thing I do is shrink the "C" drive to the point that it has either only the OS, or the OS and the programs, and at least 50% free space. It makes managing things much easier. (i.e. system image backups, defragging, etc.) I mainly use and have purchased desktops, but I've also successfully partitioned an old IBM Thinkpad T30, and a Toshiba laptop as well. (It's much easier with a desktop, obviously, because of the ability to have multiple HDDs and more flexibility.)

When I got the V570, I discovered that it not only has the 14GB hidden primary partition with the backup system image, like the Toshiba and apparently all current laptops, but there's also a 200MB hidden primary partition with something on it, AND it has a 29GB "Lenovo" extended partition with what appears to be two volumes, but each volume shows up as 29GB, so I'm pretty sure it's only one 29GB volume. Those extra proprietary partitions have made it almost impossible, at least using the Windows 7 disk management utility, to partition the hard drive the way I want. (Windows is telling me I can't create a new partition with the free space I created after having shrunk the "C" drive (even a logical partition) because there are already the maximum amount of allowable partitions on the HDD.) Has anyone else run into this problem and/or does anyone have a solution? What I'd like to be able to do is have the following set up:

1. The 200MB hidden partition
2. A "C" drive around 85GB
3. The "Lenovo" extended partition with around 100GB (to be used to store the Lenovo OneKey Rescue current system image backup, and some IFW system image backups). (NOTE: Along with not being able to create #4 below when I shrunk the "C" drive and got 570GB of free space, Windows would not allow me to increase the size of the "Lenovo" partition.)
4. A data-only partition with around 500GB
5. The hidden 14GB OneKey Rescue restore partition with the original factory image

 

It's been "discussed" in the Lenovo forums pretty extensively. See these threads: Burn the OKR restore discs, before doing anything thing else. You'll never know when they will come in handy. :yes:

How to Create Factory Disc with One Key Recovery ... - Lenovo Community

V570 - Has too many partitions - Can I nuke one? I... - Lenovo Community

Re: new disk partioning and one key recover featur... - Page 31 - Lenovo Community

DragonRider

 

Thanks. I'm pretty sure I did a forum search for "partition" and I didn't find anything. Sorry for the redundancy.

 

No, no, it's not redundant. I'm sorry if I gave you the wrong impression.

I just wanted to point you in the right direction. I thought you should know about the Lenovo links. There are other links in these NBR threads that have to do with partitioning, but I don't remember where.

By the way, welcome to the forum!

DragonRider

 

Thanks. I just wanted to let you know that I wasn't some newbie who didn't know how to search a forum for topics of interest. It's all good.



The one thing I would like to say is this...after spending most of the past 48 hours researching this topic, I have come to some rather strong opinions on the matter. The thing I liked about the V570 was that it offers the most bang for the buck of any laptop out there. The CPU, the storage capacity, the metal case, the nice touchpad, the eSATA/USB combo port to allow high speed transfers between an external HDD, along with Lenovo's reputation for building and supporting top notch products, should have put this laptop at the top of the heap. What I didn't expect was to find such a superb product crippled by the decision to occupy three partitions in a way that is totally counterproductive to the way I, and apparently others, have been setting up our systems for almost a decade now. My idea of how a computer should be set up is pretty straight forward:

1. The C drive that is shrunken down to its ideal size, to accommodate the OS and the programs. (On other systems, I've shrunken down the size even further by putting most optional programs on their own drive. But that can cause issues if the programs on that partition get out of sync with the C drive registry.) So for this system, I expected to keep all programs and the OS on the C drive. It makes the backups bigger, but it keeps everything together.

2. A totally dedicated system image backup partition (along with DVD off site copies of backups as well), since you do not want to defrag system image files. I usually make that drive around 15-20% larger than the C drive, and keep between 4-5 full image backups, to span several months in the event that something causes the C drive to go south. That way, I have a number of restore/recovery options, unlike the way the V570 is set up. On my desktop, which has 7TB from 4 separate HDDs plus a SSD for the C drive, I haven't had to do a fresh install ever. And I've had it for over 2 years now. I knew I'd have to make some concessions with a laptop with 1 installed drive, but I did not expect to have run into a HDD with no available partitions, simply because the manufacturer decided to dumb down the machine.

3. A data-only drive, for music, videos, etc., that can be readily defragged without causing any issues with system image files.

4. The option to further partition the data drive if desired for whatever reason.

To me, that layout of the 3+ slice pie makes so much more sense than the 4 slice pie offered up from Lenovo it's got my head spinning. I don't need to have the convenience of pushing one button to get my system restored to its out-of-the-box state -- I insert either an IFD disk, or a Paragon rescue disk, point to any one of 5 backed up images, and in less than an hour, I'm back to almost full operation. The hassle of going back to day one, then having to go back to MS and get the 100 updates, and then put in all my personal settings, programs, etc...is not something that's particularly appealing to me, so losing the OneKey option is no great loss. Losing the multiple options, the way the V570 comes out of the box, IS a great loss to me.

So what I did was delete everything using a DOS-based program, take an unused Win 7 Pro disk that I had lying around, and start from scratch. I used my desktop to d/l every necessary driver from the Lenovo site, Windows filled in a few gaps, and now everything works (i.e. no "yellow alerts" in device manager), I don't have anything installed that I don't want, my startup list is 1/3 of the size of what it was when I turned the laptop on out of the box, and the "pie" is now set up exactly the way I want. I'm honestly not interested in the fingerprint reader, the Boot Optimizer, the camera software, or a number of other items included in the Lenovo package -- that's not why I purchased this laptop. So to lose those options in favor of having the machine set up the way I want it to be set up far outweighs anything lost in the transition.

And I understand, to some extent, that systems are no longer shipped with the actual OS disks, but frankly...I don't care very much for it. But hey...that's just my 2 cents. However, after reading through a lot of these posts, it appears that folks who know a thing or two about computers are not thrilled about the way the V570 ships. It's like taking a Ferrari and turning it into a school bus.