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Reuse scavenged system hard drive as a general purpose drive -- how to remove recovery partition? RRS feed

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    Hello People,

    A computer of mine failed and I want to reuse its single hard drive as a general purpose drive in another computer. That drive was created with three partitions: Recovery, System, and Windows. The drive is now mounted inside the second computer. (To repeat, the second computer is configured perfectly normally with its own three-partition drive to boot from.)

    The environment is:
    Windows 10 Professional Version 1601 (Build 14393) 64-bit
    User is an administrator
    Hard drive is WDC 320 GB 2.5" attached to an add-in SCSI/SATA adapter card.

    Using DiskPart I trivially deleted the System and Windows partitions from the drive I want to reuse.

    However, the Recovery partition cannot be deleted. DiskPart (run from an elevated command prompt window) reports that the partition is "Hidden" and does not have a drive letter assigned. After selecting the disk and the partition to establish focus, when I type "delete partition" I get the following error message:
       Virtual Disk Service error:
       Cannot delete a protected partition without the force protected parameter set.

    I do not know what that message means. 

    How can I eliminate this 13 GB partition so I can use all of the available space on the hard drive?

    Thanks in advance.

    • Moved by Just Karl Tuesday, April 18, 2017 2:51 PM Looking for the correct forum.
    Monday, February 13, 2017 8:54 PM

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    I have found the answer to this question on my own. I'm posting the solution as information that may be useful to others.

    To remove a Recovery (Type 0x27) partition from a disk, the critical task is to change the partition type to 0x07. Once that is done, you can do whatever you like to the partition, including delete it.

    THE FOLLOWING STEPS ARE A LOADED GUN.
    USING DISKPART INCORRECTLY CAN DISABLE A SYSTEM.
    DO NOT PERFORM THEM UNLESS YOU ARE COMPETENT TO USE DISKPART.

    1. Run Command Prompt at an elevated level (i.e., as an administrator)

    2. Run DISKPART

    3. Select the disk that contains the partition you wish to manipulate

    4. Select the partition you wish to manipulate

    5. Issue the following command:
        SET ID=07 OVERRIDE

    6. After the type has been changed, do whatever it is you want to do with the partition. You can delete it now, if that was the aim.

    7. EXIT from DISKPART

    8. EXIT from Command Prompt

    • Proposed as answer by Just Karl Tuesday, April 18, 2017 2:51 PM
    • Marked as answer by Just Karl Wednesday, April 26, 2017 2:10 PM
    Wednesday, March 22, 2017 4:00 PM

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    Not a performance tools question.

    Try to run Linux from a CD or USB drive, it should let you to reformat the whole disk. Perhaps even install Linux on it :) 

    Then re-run Windows setup.

    -- pa

    Monday, February 13, 2017 10:36 PM
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    I have found the answer to this question on my own. I'm posting the solution as information that may be useful to others.

    To remove a Recovery (Type 0x27) partition from a disk, the critical task is to change the partition type to 0x07. Once that is done, you can do whatever you like to the partition, including delete it.

    THE FOLLOWING STEPS ARE A LOADED GUN.
    USING DISKPART INCORRECTLY CAN DISABLE A SYSTEM.
    DO NOT PERFORM THEM UNLESS YOU ARE COMPETENT TO USE DISKPART.

    1. Run Command Prompt at an elevated level (i.e., as an administrator)

    2. Run DISKPART

    3. Select the disk that contains the partition you wish to manipulate

    4. Select the partition you wish to manipulate

    5. Issue the following command:
        SET ID=07 OVERRIDE

    6. After the type has been changed, do whatever it is you want to do with the partition. You can delete it now, if that was the aim.

    7. EXIT from DISKPART

    8. EXIT from Command Prompt

    • Proposed as answer by Just Karl Tuesday, April 18, 2017 2:51 PM
    • Marked as answer by Just Karl Wednesday, April 26, 2017 2:10 PM
    Wednesday, March 22, 2017 4:00 PM
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    Hello,

    The Windows Desktop Perfmon and Diagnostic tools forum is to discuss performance monitor (perfmon), resource monitor (resmon), and task manager, focusing on HOW-TO, Errors/Problems, and usage scenarios.

    As the question is off topic here, I am moving it to the Where is the Forum... forum.

    Karl

    Tuesday, April 18, 2017 2:46 PM
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    Hello,

    For what it's worth, this should have been asked in one of the Windows 10 IT Pro forums, or in the  Windows 10 forum on Microsoft Community.

    Karl

    • Edited by Just Karl Tuesday, April 18, 2017 2:50 PM
    Tuesday, April 18, 2017 2:49 PM