How to Remove a Recovery Drive Partition on a Dell Computer

Many computer manufacturers, such as Dell, sell computer systems that have a recovery drive partition in lieu of providing a recovery CD. For many users, this partition serves a useful purpose in that it allows them to restore their computer to the original "from-the-factory" settings should severe data loss occur.

However, for some advanced users, the recovery drive partition may simply be unused (and unusable) hard disk space that they could put to good use. Or, for a hard drive requiring a complete reformat (due to installation of a new or different operating system from scratch, for instance), users can remove the data contained in the recovery drive partition.

Instructions

1. From the Start menu, go to "Settings" and select "Control Panel." Double-click "Computer Management" and select "Disk Management." Find the recovery drive partition (usually the smaller of the two partitions on the "Disk 0" indicator).

2. Right-click the recovery drive partition, and select "Delete Logical Drive." Click "Yes" to delete the logical drive.

   Skip this step if Disk Management only gives the "Delete Partition" option.

3. Right-click the recovery drive partition, and click "Delete Partition." Click "Yes" to delete the partition. Reboot the computer system to complete the process.

Tips & Warnings

• Although these instructions apply to Windows XP, the Disk Management feature in Windows Vista and Windows 7 function similarly.

• Some recovery drive partitions are not set up as logical drives in the Windows operating system. If this is the case, you only need to delete the partition.

• Upon deletion, you cannot recover the recovery drive partition.

References

• Microsoft Support website: How to use Disk Management to configure basic disks in Windows XP