Comments for Is it safe to perform maintenance on a recovery partition?

Comment from Dave Markley on 2009-08-11

2009-08-11T16:14:45Z

I just wanted to add a little note about adding Windows 7. On my desktop, my main hard drive has 2 partitions - 1 with XP (F:)and 1 with Windows 7 RC (C:), and I added a 2nd, larger hard drive (drive G:) where I store all of my videos, pictures, flight simulators, etc. I can access drive G from either OS. When installing Windows 7, it MUST be installed last! If you need to re-install XP for whatever reason you'll most likely need to install Windows 7 again as well. The reason for this is that when your computer boots up, you're given a choice of 'starting Windows 7' or 'start using an earlier version of Windows'. If Windows 7 is installed before XP, XP doesn't 'know' to give you a choice and will automatically boot into Windows XP. You'll still be able to access anything stored by Windows 7 on the hard drive, but the OS itself won't run and you're stuck in XP (unless you know how to change these settings in the BIOS, but the average user probably doesn't).

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Comment from griffg on 2009-08-07

2009-08-07T16:28:52Z

My HP laptop has Windows XP and a recovery partition.

I'm wondering what happens when I install Windows 7.

Does the recovery partition now recognise Windows 7 or does it default back to Windows XP?

I believe recovery partitions are unaffected by any installs, and thus are left with whatever they had before. In a case like this I believe it renders the recovery partition with XP useless once the machine has been upgraded to a different version of Windows like 7.

08-Aug-2009

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A comment on: Is it safe to perform maintenance on a recovery partition?

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Comment from Tsane Dose on 2009-01-23

2009-01-24T07:46:40Z

I have an HP pavillion 521n desktop pre service pack XP Home 55277OEM edition, is there a way to update the recovery partition w/ M$ SP2 and SP3
so that I dont have to languise with the blasted post install of these Packs??? I am fairly computer literate, have found info for Windows XPe, BartPE, liveCD. I am able to access the hidden partition at will? I severly need help with this conumdrum!!!

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Comment from Barry on 2008-06-19

2008-06-19T23:39:52Z

it has xp on the pc

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A comment on: Is it safe to perform maintenance on a recovery partition?

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Comment from Barry on 2008-06-19

2008-06-19T23:31:17Z

how do i open a Recovery Partition this partition on my HP pc it has seemed to fill up and i cant to see what is in there . i can not defrag because it has onley 14% free space left.. please help
Barry

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A comment on: Is it safe to perform maintenance on a recovery partition?

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Comment from Bill Nelson on 2008-05-28

2008-05-28T07:40:25Z

This article has me wondering if it's overkill to backup the backup partition on a regular basis? After reading some of your commentary, I purchased Acronis True Image 10 and have it set up to make an incremental backup of the C: drive every evening to an external USB hard drive. About once I month, I switch to another partition on that external drive and make a new full image, followed by nightly incremental images. Every month, I also make a full image of the backup partition, D: on our laptop. The PC doesn't show a backup partition, but does show a FAT16 and a FAT32 partition, so I back those up once a amonth, too. I'm not doing incremental backups on them, but am I wasting my time on these additonal partitions?

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A comment on: Is it safe to perform maintenance on a recovery partition?

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Comment from benjamin merkur on 2008-05-22

2008-05-22T19:25:16Z

I submitted the question and was very pleased you selected it for an answer ..HP Support has kept my ticket open and just replied that the "fixed image recovery partition" cannot become fragmented, its size is fixed so no room to become fragmented..also informed that any attempt to defrag will just receive an error message..they would not comment on why or how Security program sees it as 15% fragmented if it cannot become fragmented...also would not comment on why HP installed Vista OS has defrag default set to defrag C:\ and D:\ since D cannot get fragmented and will just generate an error messsage. Which I guess all HP/Compaq owners are receiving even though I have yet to get the error message. If I had Vista OEM OS installed I could understand why C and D on defrag schedule. To Vista OEM C and D are real (not virtual) seperate drives. The HP installed version of Vista OS should know D is an image (a virtual drive) not a real second drive. So, your comment "I'm amazed at how little information manufacturers give you sometimes about how they deceided to set up your machine" is why I have persued this with HP and also with Microsoft. Your clear and concise response to my question is allot more than HP and Microsoft have done. Many thanks and much respect for ask-leo.com

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A comment on: Is it safe to perform maintenance on a recovery partition?

Tech Questions? Get Answers! - Ask Leo! ... by Leo Notenboom
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