Thread: Hard Drive help needed

I have a hard drive on my PC marked, D: recovery. I'm getting an error note that says it's full. It gives me a pair of selection for clean up 1) this one looks like the normal "Disc Cleanup" on the system tools menu, but it only present two selection as well as both of those show no bytes. 2) This looks like the "Add/Remove Programs" feature on the Control Panel.

My trouble is what do I remove? Is this all merely back up as well as can I eliminate it all? Or do I have to pick among programs? All the programs listed in the menu look to be programs I use in my everyday work. I've never had a PC or even seen one that had this D: Recovery drive. Thanks in advance for any help.

Browse through your hard drive and delete files you don’t need you may not even have any programs installed on it.

Thanks for the reply. But how do I know which ones to delete the same message comes up when I clicked on one that comes up from the add/delete menu...you know, "if you delete this program some things may not work properly". I'm scared I'm going to mess the whole thing up. I hate being so illiterate, but I'm old give me a break, OK? I was around when all we had was Am Radio and Black and white TV.

I can relate to AM Radio and black & white TV. The good days Anyway, more to the point, it would be helpful if you could provide some information about your computer. Make, model, Operating System, hard drive size(s), amount and type of RAM and any other information you think may be relevant. If you do not know how to obtain any of that information, post back and I or someone else will provide instructions. Be patient and we will get there.

Do you know how to get a screenshot and include it in a post here?

A recovery drive is usually where a computer manufacturer places the software require to restore your computer and its software to the state it was when you purchased the computer. Sometimes this partition is hidden sometimes not. If you have not got the factory OS installed anymore then this partition is probably not useful as such anymore. However if your computer is still using the OEM OS and other software then it is likely by deleting anything from this drive will also delete your ability to do a factory restore.

Here is a paste of the sequence from my Dell Inspiron 1501 manual.

1 Turn on the computer.
During the boot process, a blue bar with Dell Laptops, Desktop Computers, Monitors, Printers & PC Accessories appears at the top of the screen.
2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>.
If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the computer again.

Just for future reference, do you know of one that is not hidden?

Here is a paste of the sequence from my Dell Inspiron 1501 manual.

1 Turn on the computer.
During the boot process, a blue bar with Dell Laptops, Desktop Computers, Monitors, Printers & PC Accessories appears at the top of the screen.

2 Immediately upon seeing the blue bar, press <Ctrl><F11>. If you do not press <Ctrl><F11> in time, let the computer finish starting, and then restart the computer again.

Just for future reference, do you know of one that is not hidden?

The Recovery and Dell Tools partitions also show up on my system in Disk management, but there is no drive letter assigned nor do they appear in Windows Explorer or My Computer. Therefore, there is no way to access them except as outlined in my previous post. He has accessed the D:\ Recovery drive and doesn't know what to do with it. What we need to find out is just what that is all about.

I would leave it alone unless you have the Recovery disc set from HP. Did you put Vista on it? Seems to me that a 20 GB Hard drive is awful small for a newer computer.

I recommend and use a free utility called Screen Print and Capture. I have it set to capture the active window.

Attached is an example of what I would like for you take a shot of and post it. The windows Print screen key is still what you use to take the shot of an active window, but it’s a little different from there. Just read the Help section after you install it and it's pretty clear. I give all my screen shots a .gif extension, store them in a folder I created in My Documents folder and then click the paper clip symbol at the top of the post window and upload them from there as attachments to a post on TSG. I know it sounds complicated, but once you understand the steps, it's pretty simple.

If you prefer to use the windows print screen built into the OS, click here for instructions on how to use it. Never had much luck with it myself.