Recovery Partition Deletion

I have a T61 with Window Vista.

Vista Basic came preinstalled because I have a free copy of Vista Ultimate Upgrade. I would like to do a clean install but I don't really care to go through the hassle of reinstalling all the Thinkvantage stuff. But, I would really like to use the recovery partition.

Can I reformat the recovery partition to serve as my "My Documents" folder after I burn the recovery DVD or will it never be recognized unless I delete the partition during a clean install? Also, I can't seem to get the recovery DVD to work, can someone send me a link that has the best instructions on how to burn the recovery DVD?

Last thing that is somewhat unrelated. Is it possible to turn off the Nvidia shared memory on the NVS140 and just use the discrete memory? If so, how would one do this?

Thanks.

 

Yes, it's quite simple actually to delete and reformat the recovery partition. Type in Diskpart into the search box to bring up the application. Then use the following command lines to delete the partition. If you do not do a clean install, you will not be able to delete partition entirely without the aid of a 3rd party software, but you can use the ~6 or so GB's for other purposes as you have stated above.

 

Command line? Heck with that.

Admin tools -> Computer Management -> Disc Management.

Right click partition, delete partition, now you have free space.

I personally would just do a clean install and partition from there. I see absolutely zero benefit in keeping the install partition if you weren't going to dual boot. If you want to use it for windows, wipe it out and use all of it for windows. If you like the limited 7GB partition they give you, then leave it and use it for something useful like linux. But I'd never keep it as is for windows, you just have a small drive with limitations for no good reason.

 

I have tried both of these methods before but neither of them will allow me to delete the partition. It is listed as a EISA partition and it I can not even "delete partition [override]" in disk part. I've decided to probably fresh install but even when I did that, the recovery partition was not found.

Has anyone else had this problem?

 

You wont be able to delete the partition through Disk Manage because it is protected. The only way is through Diskpart.

After opening diskpart, type "detail volume" without the quotations.

Then type in "select disk 0"

Then type in "list partition"

Then type in "select partition x" x=the recovery partition you wish to delete (i believe it's 1, i dont recall) replace x with the recovery partition number

Then finally type in "delete partition override"

That should do the trick.

 

i can't seem to find Diskpart on vista. is this only for XP?

 

Here's a quick guide to getting to diskpart:

Click Start

Type 'cmd' in the search bar

Press Enter.

You should have a command prompt, from there type 'diskpart'.

It should load and from there on you can follow hypertrophy's instructions.

 

Hmm.. maybe the partition was created differently for me. But I bought a new HDD and used the recovery discs to load up my machine.. It made the 2 partitions (1 7 gig, then the rest was for windows) so maybe that's why I could delete it.

 

It worked for me this morning. Maybe I was typing something wrong last night in my late night attempt to finish without sleep.

Thanks for you help.

Anyone know about the 140M question?