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Resolved Dell Recovery Partition Accidentally Deleted

Discussion in 'Windows XP' started by virginia, 2010/12/27.

  1. 2010/12/27
    virginia Lifetime Subscription

    virginia Geek Member Thread Starter

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    I have a new external HD and I was experimenting with some free Backup/Imaging programs and apparently deleted the Dell Recovery partition from my laptop (I now have Acronis 2011 installed). That partition does show up on the external hard. I would like to move the Recovery partition from the external hard drive back to my laptop but am fearful I might do something even worse if I start tinkering. I have attached screenshots to show what My Computer looks like with and without the external HD attached.

    The left one is without the HD attached.

    Any suggestions?
     

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    virginia,
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  2. 2010/12/27
    Christer

    Christer Geek Member Staff

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    Yes, sit on your hands until you get advice from someone who has first hand experience with Acronis ... ;) ... !

    I'm not one of those guys but I think a screenshot of what the disk looks like in Disk Manager will help. What happened to the space previously occupied by the restore partition? Unallocated? Did it have a drive letter?
     
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  4. 2010/12/27
    virginia Lifetime Subscription

    virginia Geek Member Thread Starter

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    Christer,

    Your questions prompted me to look more closely at what is on the external hard drive. When I plug it in, the computer assigns drives E (OS), F (Local Disc), and G (Dell Restore). When I look at drives F and G, they are empty. So it appears that the Dell Restore partition is completely gone. Although it has a drive designated, nothing is there.

    So I guess that takes care of this thread except for the following question:

    I do have the Reinstallation Disc so is the Restore partition really necessary. If so, is there some way to recover the Restore partition. I do plan to periodically image the hard drive and back up the files using Acronis.
     
    virginia,
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  5. 2010/12/27
    TopFarmer

    TopFarmer Well-Known Member

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    Look in 'diskmanagment' , does the main hdd show unalloted space where the restore partition was ? If yes, you might be able to use 'testdisk' to get it back. On my restore partition XP will refuse to show any thing, except to say it is a resore partition.

    I can not say a thing on the restore partition needed or not.
     
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  6. 2010/12/27
    virginia Lifetime Subscription

    virginia Geek Member Thread Starter

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    TopFarmer,

    Below is a thumbnail of what Disk Manager shows. I have also put a thumbnail of how it appears in Windows Explorer. It appears that the Dell Recovery partition is still there - it just doesn't show up as a separate partition as it did before. Looks like it got incorporated into the OS C partition. Thanks for directing me to Disk Management. I had never seen it before.

    I feel some better now and think I will mark this thread "Resolved ".
     

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  7. 2010/12/27
    lj50 Lifetime Subscription

    lj50 SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    Does the Dell Disk have a label on it that reads "Recovery Disk ". If it does you can use it to reinstall the OS and it should create a new recovery partition.
     
    lj50,
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  8. 2010/12/27
    virginia Lifetime Subscription

    virginia Geek Member Thread Starter

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    lj50,

    It is a Reinstallation Disk, not a Recovery Disk. So I assume that means starting all over. The computer in question is my laptop and doesn't have much current, critical data on it so I don't think I will spend any more time pursuing this. Thanks for your input.
     
    virginia,
    #7
  9. 2010/12/27
    TopFarmer

    TopFarmer Well-Known Member

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    Disk Management shows all as it should be. If you want to assign a drive letter to it, right click on the partition- add drive letter. But you should not assign a drive letter to it. You do not want to mess with it's contents unless you know what you are doing.
     
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  10. 2010/12/27
    lj50 Lifetime Subscription

    lj50 SuperGeek WindowsBBS Team Member

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    You're welcome.
     
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