Using Toshiba recovery disk_changing partition size

phkhgh

Posts: 70   +0
The Vista hm prem I have is on a Toshiba (new) laptop recovery disk. I guess that's an image of the factory installation of Vista installation & ALL apps they loaded (not a Vista installation disk)? Lots of other (bloat) software was installed.

I want to:
1) decrease size of C: w/ only Vista (to extent possible) on C:
2) create other partitions for apps, etc.

I can use the windows disk mgmt tool to shrink partition Vista's on, but least amt is 58 GB, even w/o paging file. Like to get it to 35 or 40GB for Vista. Maybe if I turned off System Restore? There's a partition shown BEFORE C:, that's called Healthy(EISA Config.) of 1.46GB size.

Anyone w/ experience using recent computer mfg (like Toshiba) recovery disks for Vista, and what I can expect as far as having ANY control over process & sizing the partition? There's plenty of free space on the HDD w/ the factory installation. Haven't (yet) gone through the re-install / restore process, but the initial setup screen (Toshiba branded) only gives 2 choices:

INSTALL APPLICATIONS & DRIVERS - this is to select one or more apps or drivers to install.

Restore the Original Default System Install - descrip says: "Restores all default software, drivers & settings. The hard disk is partitioned & formatted & the orig default preinstall is restored. ALL FILES WILL BE DELETED!"
[NOTE: it says, "disk IS partitioned", not that you'll be ABLE to partition it. As in, the setup / restore controls the partition size???]

The 2nd option sounds like I won't have control over the partition size Vista or other "default" apps are on. Toshiba's support couldn't tell me much. Finally asked (nicely) to speak to Level II tech. Got transferred, put on hold ~ 15 min, then disconnected. Hellooo, Bombay!

Thanks!
 
Basically, the system restore tools are for just that and are not intended to do any more than take the thing back to ex factory status. My advice is to run the factory restore if the system needs it, then google for partition managers and download one of the free ones. This will let you change the partitions on the fly.
 
OEM restore disks are not very friendly! They typically repartition and reformat
the HD and blast the original image onto the new partition -- ie you loose all user
data and installed programs. The only thing positive (imo) is they will get a downed
system running again.
 
Back