Hello everybody!
In this video, you’ll see how to restore or create again a hidden recovery partition
for a laptop or a desktop computer, and restore your operating system from such partition.
We’ll also have a look at how to delete a manually created recovery partition, or
a recovery partition reserved by the laptop manufacturer - and do it without reinstalling
Windows.
Here we go.
In one of the previous videos, I showed you how to factory reset a laptop, using the recovery
partition created by the laptop manufacturer.
You will find the link in the description: \What to do if there is no such recovery partition
in your computer?
Or what if you deleted it, but you need it now?
This partition is very useful when you want to restore your system to the previous condition
it had when you created its image.
It can help you restore the system with all of its software, drivers and settings - without
using an installation disk or a USB drive.
Before you start creating the recovery partition: • make sure your hard disk has enough free
space.
• Try to free the current operating system from as much unnecessary data as possible.
All this data will have to be included into the system image which will make the recovery
partition bigger.
• Uninstall the programs you don’t need, move documents, music or films from the Documents
folder to another local or external drive.
• In other words, bring the system to the condition which you would like to have when
you recover it.
Now let’s go on to the actual process of creating the recovery partition:
• Check the properties for system drive C to find out how much space is taken up by
the operating system.
• In my case, it’s about 16 or 17 Gb.
You may have more or less than that.
Everything depends on the operating system type, the programs you have installed and
the how much personal data it contains.
• Now let’s go to Disk Management.
To do it in Windows 8/10, right-click on the Start button and select Disk Management.
In Windows 7, go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management / Disk Management.
• Now you can see all disks in your computer.
To create a recovery partition, you have to shrink one of the disks.
• I have enough space in disk D. I right-click on it and select “Shrink volume.”
• The system has estimated automatically how much it can be shrunk.
But that’s too much for me.
My operating system takes up about 17 Gb.
So I will shrink the volume with some reserve for the future - to 18 GB.
So I specify “the amount of space to shrink” as 18 00 Mb.
• Shrink.
• As you can see, now there’s the free space I needed.
It is shown as unallocated.
• Right-click on it and select “New simple volume.”
I don’t change anything in the wizard, just click Next.
• A New Volume / Local disk is created.
I’ll rename it into Recovery at once.
• That’s all with Disk Management by now.
After that: • Go to Control Panel / Backup and Restore
/Create a system image.
• For the system image, I choose the Recovery disk I’ve just created.
• Next.
• The system has automatically selected all system partitions for backup.
• Next / Start backup.
• Wait until the backup and system image creation are over.
This way, we will create a recovery image for this system.
It can take some time.
Everything depends on how powerful the computer is.
Wait until it is over.
• The image is ready.
I’m not going to create a system repair disk.
No.
Close.
Go to This PC and open Recovery local disk.
As you can see, now there’s a folder with the name “WindowsImageBackup” - this is
the recovery image of this system.
Let’s go back to Disk Management: • Right-click on the Recovery partition
/ Change drive letter.
• Click “Delete.”
• This way, we make this Recovery partition a hidden one.
• To make sure, go to This PC to find out the partition is not shown there.
That’s all, we have created a hidden system recovery partition.
In fact, this is a hidden recovery partition for factory reset, like the one that all manufacturers
create in their laptops.
You will be able to create a system image for such partition, containing all kinds of
installed programs, settings and applications, and use it for recovery at any time.
To restore your system with the hidden recovery partition, you should start the Recovery Environment.
You can visit our channel and watch a detailed video about starting it.
You will find the link in the description:
Briefly speaking: • to start the recovery environment from
the running operating system: - Go to Settings / Update and Security / Recovery
/ Advanced startup / Restart now.
- Or click Restart while holding down the Shift key.
• If the operating system doesn’t boot for some reason:
- Often, Windows 8/10 may load the recovery environment automatically when the system
can’t boot.
- If it doesn’t happen, you may need a boot disk or USB drive to load it.
Follow the link in the description to see how to create a bootable USB drive:
• Talking of laptops, every manufacturer has their own key shortcut to load the recovery
environment or factory reset the system.
Just press or hold it down while the computer is booting.
You can find the full list of such shortcuts in the video on factory resetting a laptop.
You will find the link in the description as usual.
After you’ve entered the recovery environment: • Choose Troubleshoot / Advanced options
/ System image recovery • Select an account to continue.
• Enter the user password.
If there is no password, just click Next.
• The tool for system recovery from an image is booting.
• As you can see, the system has detected the hidden recovery partition.
• Then click Next / Next / Finish / Yes • The recovery process begins.
Wait until it is complete.
• The system recovery is over.
• Restart now.
That’s all.
We have recovered the system from the hidden partition we created before.
And this Recovery partition is still there.
You can use it to recover the system again if necessary.
It is very convenient.
What we have just done is, in fact, factory resetting the computer.
There is one more thing I’d like to show in this video - how to delete the recovery
partition.
Basically, if we are talking about a recovery partition you have created manually, there
shouldn’t be any problems.
To delete it: • Go to Disk Management
• Right-click on the recovery partition you have created
• and select “Delete Volume...”
• After it’s deleted, there will be some unallocated space instead.
• Right-click on the adjoining volume and select “Extend Volume.”
As a result, it will be extended for the size of the unallocated space.
The recovery partition will be gone.
However, if we are talking about the recovery partition created by the laptop manufacturer,
or with one of the firmware utilities like: - Toshiba HDD RECOVERY
- Sony Vaio Recovery Center - HP Recovery Manager
- Acer Recovery Management - Samsung Recovery Solution
- Lenovo OneKey Recovery and so on,
you can’t delete it that way.
Going to Disk Management and right-clicking on such a partition, you will only see the
Help line in the menu.
That is, there is no way to delete such volume.
In this case, there are two methods to remove it from there:
• The first is removing it during the installation of Windows.
• Or do it with the Command Prompt using “diskpart” command, which is very convenient
if you’re not going to reinstall the operating system.
To do it: • Launch the Command prompt as Administrator.
• Enter “diskpart” • “List disk” - have a look at the list
of your disks and remember the number of the disk you need.
• “select disk” and add the number of the disk.
• After that, enter the command “list partition”
It shows you the list of partitions in a selected disk.
Make sure you’ve chosen the right disk and remember the number which is assigned to the
recovery partition.
• Enter the command “select partition” and the number assigned to the recovery partition.
• Delete it with the command “delete partition override”
This command removes any partition ignoring all kinds of errors or restrictions.
• That’s all - your partition is deleted.
• Now let’s go to Disk Management to make sure.
• Now you can create a new simple volume in the unallocated space which remains instead
of the recovery partition, • or use this space to extend an adjoining
volume.
That is all for now.
I hope this video will be useful for you.
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Leave comments to ask questions.
Thank you for watching.
Good luck.