Windows 7 Can Recovery partition be backed up onto external media and then used later?

BudoBaka

Extraordinary Member
I don't think this is a support question per-se so am posting here. If incorrect, mods feel free to move it.

I want to do some partitioning of my hard drive and ideally would like to reclaim the space used by the recovery partition. If I copy my recovery partition (20GB) to an external HD or other media and restore it later if necessary will that work? Is there some hidden something I should know about that will come bite me in the a** if I do that?
 
I've done it before with no problem on my HP. I needed another primary, so I backed up the recovery, deleted it & used the space. When I was finished with what I was trying out, I restored the partition. Some users backups the partition, some copies it. The end result should be the same.

Note that this doesn't always turn out quite that well with all computers. Some brands uses the BIOS to hide the partition to protect it from being overwritten. In those cases, one must enter the BIOS and disable the protection to do anything with it. My IBM ThinkPad is that way, I can't even defrag that partition, nor does it show on the "Computer" page. It shows up when I run my backup program (Macrium Reflect), and Mini Tool Partition Wizard, but there is no drive letter associated with the partition. The same with my MSI FX603, but that partition isn't locked with the BIOS.

But on my HP desktop, it shows as (D), it's not hidden.

What you may want to do is to make an image of your entire HDD, that way the partition should function properly should you need to restore it. BTW, have you burned your recovery discs? If your computer is fairly new, and you have an optical drive, these discs can be made, and when you use them to restore your computer, it usually restores the recovery partition as well. That's the way it works on my HP & ThinkPad. I haven't used the ones that I made for my MSI yet, so I don't know if it restores it or not. But it's better to have them & not need them, than not have them at all.

If in doubt, contact the OEM of your computer.

Best of Luck,
Cat
 
Though this is a late post, seen it when researching a similar issue, so thought to post.

One can restore that partition to the original or replacement HDD/SSD (even if smaller) & use Mini Tool Partition Wizard to make it Active. Then reboot, and Recovery will load, restore the proper OS partitions, and make the proper one Active again.

That's how I perform a reinstall on SSD's that's much smaller than the original drive. Of course the partition alone can be restored, then moved to the end, if SSD leave about 10GB free at the end (unformatted), this helps the controllers do their job. If HDD, it doesn't matter, just move to the end with a partition tool, or if the backup/restore app allows, place it at the end.

Hope this will help those restore their OS when the desktop shortcut or 'hook' has been broken & their Recovery partition is intact.;)

Cat
 
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