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What are all these partitions on my new laptop's HDD?
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 10:42AM
I'm planning to partition the HDD on my new Lenovo Windows 8 laptop, so that I can store all data files in a separate partition.
I've just had a look at the 1TB HDD in Disk Management for the first time, and the disk is already littered with partitions! Can anyone please tell me what they're all for?
- 1000 MB Healthy (Recovery partition) 100% free.
- 260 MB Healthy (EFI System partition) 100% free
- 1000 MB Healthy (OEM partition) 100% free
- Windows 8 OS (C:) 884.18 GB Healthy (Boot, Page file, Crash dump, Primary partition) 96% free
- Lenovo (D:) 25 GB NTFS Healthy (Primary partition) 89% free
- 20 GB Healthy (Recovery partition)
Obviously I know what C: is, and D: contains a folder of drivers. There seem to be two recovery partitions, for some reason - 1 GB and 20 GB, and I have no idea what the EFI system partition or the OEM partitions are - particularly as they are reported 100% free.
Any thoughts on this, please?
- Tags:
- unknown
- partitions
- windows
- 8
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 12:07PM
If the laptop came factory sealed then the documentation you had shoulds expalin all this - if not then I would think the vendor may have some explaining. I would always expect to find a 'Recovery Partition' which should be a hidden partition to allow you to restore to factory settings, but otherwise the HHD is not normally partitioned and I am wondering whether you have a laptop which was returned by an earlier buyer and is therefore NOT new. IMHO you should do nothing until you have asked the vendor or Lenovo for an explanation.
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Posted November 29, 2012 at 12:17PM
Thanks for your response, xania.
The laptop is certainly factory-fresh new. It came in original Lenovo packaging from a reputable supplier - all properly sealed up, with peel-off plastic film on various parts of the keyboard and screen, and everything in mint condition.
I've looked through the manuals that came with it, but they make no mention of the HDD partitions. Maybe I'll have to search online for more information. But I usually ask here first because I find PCA forum advice so trustworthy.
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 12:22PM
I guess the rest is just Lenovos' usual bloatware. I buy from Novatech so that I can be sure of No Bloatware!
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Posted November 29, 2012 at 3:56PM
I also noted this on a Windows 8 Lenovo tower. One of those partitions (Third one in your list I think) might have the Office 2010 starter and full version files on board. Best to just ignore them completely.
Can't understand why Lenovo created a D partition of only 25Gb though. Otherwise the 1TB drive looks to be correct. Word of warning - My first attempt to repartition C & D drives was a disater. Investigate doing it through Windows 8's own tools. I tried to use a third party partition Manager and totally messed it up.
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 4:14PM
Thanks for that warning Taff. Yes, there is MS Office on board for me to unlock by paying a small fortune (which I won't be doing!), Hell of a cheek for them to rob me of 1GB to push-sell this to me! However, I won't delete the partition until I'm 100% certain what it is, and until I need that space - which on a 1TB drive will be a while!.
Does Windows 8's own partitioning tool allow you create a new partition? I was under the impression that it only allowed resizing - but I am very unsure about that.
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 4:51PM
Does it come with the Onekey system?
Make sure you create the back up DVDs in case the hard drive fails and you cannot access recovery partitions.
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 5:39PM
Thanks for your response, Fruit Bat /\0/. Yes, it has the Lenovo Onekey system. I haven't yet fiully investigated how this works.
I looked for a way of creating the backup DVDs but couldn't find it. So I was going to rely on my Acronis True Image. But if you can point me to a way of creating the DVDs I'd like to do both.
However, right now I can't do anything. When I switched on the computer this afternoon it started installing 23 Microsoft updates. It's now been on number 20 for 75 minutes! I don't know whether that's normal - if it's not, is there anything I can do that won't wreck Windows 8?
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 5:51PM
Pressing Onetouch key while first booting puts you to the EFI tools partition
A menu system to start recovery or restore just like Vista / W7.
You can also get to same place from within windows, but one touch is for when windows will not boot and you ned to do something like a startup repair or factory restore.
However if HDD dies the all recovery options lost if you have not mde the disks making the disks allows you to reload the factory restore onto a new drive (similar to acronis) but you can only make the disks once, the option should be somewhere under Lecno tools in the Start (Menu) Button.
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 6:17PM
OK thanks again Fruit Bat /\0/.
What do you think about my update problem? It's now been stuck on update 20 of 23 for nearly 2 hours. Is this OK, or do you think something's wrong? I daren't switch it off for fear of corrupting Windows. Is there any way out of the problem?
Likes # 0
Posted November 29, 2012 at 6:57PM
If you switch it off you can always do a factory restore :0)
or in this cas restore point will have been set before windows started the updates so you should beable to restore to that position.
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