I presume it is still ok to ask a Paragon question here. Paragon Hard Disk Manager 14 Suite says cannot partition boot drive as have four partitions as follows system reserved 100 MB NTFS Boot 1TB NTFS Recover 20GB NTFS Local Disk 1GB NTFS OEM service volume Can I delete the recover partition. I have recovery disks I want to have just the OS on one partition and the photos/videos/files etc on another Also in Paragon HDM 15 which is better premium or pro for home use
That 20gB RECOVERY partition is only there to get you back to your "out of box" configuration. If you image your System you really don't need that as long as you have properly saved images. That said, if you delete that partition, any automatic F-<key> (or menu) function to initiate a System recovery, outside of Windows, will no longer work. I have NO IDEA what a "Local disk 1gB NTFS service volume" is...
Check what is your "active" partition. If it is the "System reserved", don´t delete it. If you do, the system won´t boot. The Recovery partition can be safely deleted if you have image backups of the other partitions. Recovery disks are not reliable, backup to an external USB hard disk. I wouldn´t buy HDM 15 Premium or Pro. They are too expensive. You could consider HDM 15 Suite, if it´s still for sale. But keep in mind that all these programs are based on the same kernel, and haven´t been updated in at least two years. The "new" version is Backup and Recovery 16. But I would try Macrium Free before buying it. As for partition work, you can use MiniTool Partition Wizard, which is free, or the Windows tools.
David, If you want a partition for data the easiest way would be to remove the System Reserved partition (assuming you don't use BitLocker). Then resize the OS partition smaller and create the data partition in the the Free Space just created. http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/kb/article.php?id=409
Thanks all. "System reserved",is the active partition. I got Mini Tool Partition wizard.Could the 20GB RECOVERY partition be back up and if necessary restored to bring back the F-<key> (or menu) function to initiate a System recovery?
Sure! If you save it, it can be restored... but make sure you know the order of the partitions. Some of those Out-of-Box recovery routines use partition names to locate what they need, and some are partition position dependent.
I just noticed that a second hard disk in my computer is also listed as active.Why would this be when there is no OS on it?. It is for movies and back up of photos. "System reserved" is listed as active and boot
David, If it was my computer I'd remove the System Reserved partition as described above. Then image the third and fourth partitions, just in case. Then delete the third and fourth partitions. I'd never use the third and fourth partitions. It's not unusual to have an Active data partition on another HD. Forget it as it's not an issue. You can remove the Active flag if you like but I wouldn't bother.
