Topic: D: Recovry Partition

[John R]

I'm about to wipe C: but need to know how to get into D:  When I click on it, it says it's protected by PC Angel.

[Gutbucket]

Is D: a special recovery partition, placed there by the manufacturer?

Maybe you need to login with administrator rights if you haven't. Or you might check the bios options and boot to that drive. Hold a F key while starting (not sure which).
You could also try to access it though DOS or a command prompt.  I can't see mine that way, but if I click on the drive in Windows Explorer I get this message:

Compaq

Recovery Partition
Warning!
 
This area of your hard disk
(or partition) contains files used
for your system recovery.
 
Do not delete or alter these files.
 
Any change to this partition could
prevent any recovery later.

[Gutbucket]

http://www.pcangelsolutions.com/index.htm

After installing PC Angel LE, boot into the Recovery Partition by pressing F10

[Chilly Brioschi]

aaaaarrrrgh!   recover it, save it to a Black Cherry drive or similar product, and delete it the D: partition

Why a software company would write a program that would put a back-up on the same physical drive is astounding to me. 



These new external drives are cheap, self-sufficient in their own back-up software, and easy.

...just remember to use them!!!   

[Sebastian]

Why a software company would write a program that would put a back-up on the same physical drive is astounding to me. 

Exactly. This is total nonsense. The first thing I always do when I get a new PC is to delete all partitions and install a clean version of the operating system from my own CD. That's just the easiest way to get rid of the manufacturer's adjustments and all the bundled crap I don't ever need.

[Chilly Brioschi]

Why a software company would write a program that would put a back-up on the same physical drive is astounding to me. 

Exactly. This is total nonsense. The first thing I always do when I get a new PC is to delete all partitions and install a clean version of the operating system from my own CD. That's just the easiest way to get rid of the manufacturer's adjustments and all the bundled crap I don't ever need.

I make one fairly large partition for the OS, allowing for it to double in size and then about 20% more.
I then make a data partition or two for music, my files, etc.

That way, if I have to recover, I usually find my data untouched by a system reload.

I was never a big fan of the manufacturer's image, but sometimes they include good stuff, like MB management (fans, power, etc) and keyboard controls, like an external volume control and mute button.
Windows updates will bring some of that back if you remove it, but not everything.

A good backup is always on a separate physical hard drive in case the actual drive decides to take a dirt nap.