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Resolved Question

Unknown drives on my computer

Jan 21, 2015 2:18PM PST

When I go to defragment my hard drives, the menu shows a lot of unknown drives 3-8 (as shown in the images). Under the "Current status" column, some of these drives are stuck at 36%. How can I remove these allocated drives that are unused? I have a feeling these are allocated memory that is being unused. I'm guessing that drives 3 and 4 were from a virtual machine I've made in the past and drives 5-8 are from every time I've factory reset my computer (again, just a hunch).

Im running Windows 8 on a Lenovo Z585 (with AMD graphics)

Image 1:
http://postimg.org/image/qghaxiovl/

Image 2:
http://postimg.org/image/jpss8yqkx/

Discussion is locked

hobbes62 has chosen the best answer to their question. View answer

Best Answer

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Partitions
Jan 22, 2015 12:22PM PST

Those other partitions are labeled "recovery" and they really aren't that big. I can only fathom that some apps/pgms. are there to return in case of a crash. Either provided by Lenevo and/or your current system recovery pgm., possibly OneKey on a time stamp basis. It will load the main recovery when you start and then refer to latest recovery file to e to your last saved current status. I just won't fiddle with them, but you can contact or visit your Lenevo support website and check the FAQ or support responses. Since you mentioned "factory reset" count the times you did this. if you want to remove the smaller recovery partitions then use the date it was created, the oldest being the clue to remove. You can boot into some Linux "live disc" , I like Ubuntu and check what the contents are in the recovery partitions. You can even use Ubuntu to delete it. Up to you, backup is recommended.

tada -----Willy Happy

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Answer
Disk Manager and "My Computer"
Jan 21, 2015 3:14PM PST

Only you can tell us about the setup of your machine. Amazon(UK) shows this laptop/Ideapad has a 1TB hard drive, not SSD. So maybe you have partitioned and formatted the drive into smaller partitions for some reason.

The system's "My Computer", now commonly known just as "Computer", (Windows Explorer), should show all these drives if they are in use and if so, what data they have stored on them.

The system's Disk Manager will show any unallocated partitions which have not yet been prepared for storing data.

What more can you tell us?

Mark

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Disk Manager and My Computer Information
Jan 22, 2015 6:30AM PST
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That's the ticket.
Jan 22, 2015 6:36AM PST

The unknowns look to be recovery partitions. These are best never touched. Some folk can't leave them alone so for those folk you cringe as they delete them!
Bob

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Re: ticket
Jan 22, 2015 12:18PM PST

Yes, but shouldn't I only need one recovery drive? Looking at my first picture ( http://postimg.org/image/qghaxiovl/ ) drive number 4 should be my "windows recovery drive". And I think it adds a new partition every time I've reset my computer back to factory settings.

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In a perfect world.
Jan 23, 2015 12:24AM PST

In parting, I'm sure you have recovery media if the HDD ever needs replacement or some pest wipes it out.

Some folk forget that.
Bob

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I agree with Bob
Jan 24, 2015 5:47PM PST

While we can't really say why Lenovo create multiple recovery partitions on your particular system, they will have their own good reasons for doing so.

But Bob raises a good point. Besides those recovery partitions, have you made your own Recovery Disks yet?

Those recovery partitions on your existing hard drive are fine, (hopefully), as long as the hard drive is working. But hard drives do fail, and if you ever have to replace yours how will you install your OS onto it?

Mark

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Re: disk
Jan 22, 2015 6:46AM PST

I see 880 GB for you, and 50 GB for recovery things or such. With a 1 TB drive being some $50, that some $3 worth of hard disk space not directly usable by you. That's really peanuts. Why care?

A little bit strange: the d:drive being visible. See what happens if you use some partition manager to hide it, like those other small partitions. I recommend to use GPARTED on a bootable disk, so - if it would be fatal and Windows wouldn't work any more - you can just undo it from outside Windows and have a functional PC again.

Kees

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Re: re: disk
Jan 22, 2015 12:21PM PST

Thank you! I will give this a shot if I cant find another way as it seems like it could be fatal