Hi All,
For my new Sony Vaio laptop I see the following partitions:
1. Healthy-recovery Partition (11.61Gb)
2. System Reserved (100Mb)
3. C: - OS (454.05Gb)
pic-attached.
Laptop is just opened so nothing is changed.
As this is my first time for a new laptop & for Windows-7 I'm not able to understand what is this Healthy-recovery Partition (11.61Gb) for? Is it required or not? How is it useful?
I googled and read couple of posts but nothing is clear to me.
Appreciate your help.
Thanks,
Grr
Hey Sam - That partition contains a copy of the system as it was when you first got the computer.The "Recovery Partition" can be used for disaster recovery. If ever your system gets so bad that it cannot be repaired you can use the Recovery option to restore everything back to factory settings....the same condition it was in when you first got it. That option can usually be accessed by pressing an allocated key, in much the same way as you would access Safe Mode (F8) or BIOS settings.
You should get an on screen message which will tell you what keys to press. Or that information should be in the manual.
NOTE: Invoking the Recovery option (restore to factory settings) will wipe all existing data from the drive.
Cheers....Jim
[quote="ozbloke":b69bn14b]Hey Sam - That partition contains a copy of the system as it was when you first got the computer.The "Recovery Partition" can be used for disaster recovery. If ever your system gets so bad that it cannot be repaired you can use the Recovery option to restore everything back to factory settings....the same condition it was in when you first got it. That option can usually be accessed by pressing an allocated key, in much the same way as you would access Safe Mode (F8) or BIOS settings.
You should get an on screen message which will tell you what keys to press. Or that information should be in the manual.
NOTE: Invoking the Recovery option (restore to factory settings) will wipe all existing data from the drive.
Cheers....Jim[/quote:b69bn14b]
Thanks Jim.
Yes, I have a Assist Button on the laptop.
I agree that this is for disaster recovery, but why is it showing as 100% free? Should it not contain the recovery data?
Oh yes, I didn't even notice that....sorry mate.
I have absolutely no idea...that is totally weird, like someone set it up but then forgot to actually follow through.
It would normally have a drive letter associated with it too, doesn't even look like it's been formatted. Have you tried accessing the partition to see if it is truly empty or not?
Cheers....Jim
[quote="ozbloke":y5uj1nfw]Oh yes, I didn't even notice that....sorry mate.
I have absolutely no idea...that is totally weird, like someone set it up but then forgot to actually follow through.
It would normally have a drive letter associated with it too, doesn't even look like it's been formatted. Have you tried accessing the partition to see if it is truly empty or not?
Cheers....Jim[/quote:y5uj1nfw]
How 2 access it. I don't c it in My Computer?
You will need to allocate a drive letter. Right click on the entry for that partition (in Disk Management) and select that option but do[b:2g45lses] not[/b:2g45lses] format at the moment.
[quote="ozbloke":3q8ypu49]You will need to allocate a drive letter. Right click on the entry for that partition (in Disk Management) and select that option but do[b:3q8ypu49] not[/b:3q8ypu49] format at the moment.[/quote:3q8ypu49]
Jim I couldn't assign the letter as all the options are grayed out.
OK Grr....I haven't had anything to do with Sony laptops but it would appear they have made the Recovery Partition pretty much inaccessible in order to protect it from the loose nuts which sit just behind the keyboard....LOL
Don't know why it would be showing up as empty in Disk Management. It is supposed to be a 'hidden" partition so maybe the actual partition isn't hidden but the contents are??
Apparently, the Recovery Partition can be accessed by pressing F10 at the logo display. You could try pressing F10 to see if the Recovery Partition is working OK...[u:31q51zue][b:31q51zue]BUT PLEASE BE CAREFUL[/b:31q51zue][/u:31q51zue].
You should get warning messages before it actually proceeds with the recovery but you never know!!
Only other suggestion I could make would be to contact Sony support and ask them.
Cheers mate.....Jim
Once again a big thanks Jim.
I will ask Sony support to confirm.
Thanks,
Grr
A lot of times those Recovery partitions are in ext2 or another linux file system. This is because the recovery system is actually a linux shell designed to reinstall Windows without user intervention (I find this ironic that Microsoft offers no such lightweight installation platform).
Typically though, Windows can't recognize the Linux formats. Although, for the most part they'll say "Other File System". I checked mine (a Dell) and it shows as NTFS.
A quick google search shows lots of people having this issue (appears empty) but recovery works just fine.
Sony support will be your best option overall (as Jim led you to, of course).
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