Recovery (D:)--Storage and Backup problem

Hi,

Thank you for replying.

As we have already informed you that only the System Files will be backed up in the Recovery Drive and neither the Program Files nor your Personal Files will be backed up in the Recovery Drive. Also, the Recovery Partitions are hidden from the operating system and are not shown in This PC.

If the Recovery Drive is shown in This PC, then you need to hide the Recovery Drive from This PC so that you do not get any Low Disk Space notifications. If you hide the Recovery Drive from This PC, then also the System Files will be backed up as usual in the Recovery Drive (It is just that we are hiding it from This PC).

Also, you can see if the System Restore is set in the D: drive by following the below steps.

Step 1: Click on the Start Menu and search for Create a restore point and hit Enter.

Step 2: Now, under Protection Settings, see which drive is set for System Restore and if it is set to D: drive, then click on the D: drive and click on Configure.

Step 3: Then, under Delete all restore points for this drive, click on Delete click on Continue.

Step 4: Once you have deleted all the System Restore Points from the D: drive, then go back to System Protection and change the drive for System Restore from D: to C: drive.

Step 5: Once you have changed the System Restore Drive, then immediately create a System Restore Point, so that a System Restore Point will be saved in C: partition.

Your PC might have come with a recovery image that’s used to refresh or reset your PC. The recovery image is stored on a dedicated recovery partition on your PC, and is typically 3 to 6 GB in size. To save space on your PC, you can delete the recovery image from your PC and use a recovery drive instead. You can Create a Recovery Drive using a USB Drive, so that you don't have any recovery drives on your computer.

You may also refer to Create a USB recovery drive.

Hope it helps.

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Thank you for responding but that is not the answer to my problem. I am aware that system files and program files are supposed to be backed up onto Recovery (D:) and I have not made any changes to any drives. I know that my C: drive is where all other files (non-stystem and non-program files) are supposed to be backed up. That is not what is happening nor was it set up that way when I purchased this laptop. Everything is backed up to both drives. I have taken my laptop back to where it was purchased, then to Best Buy's Geek Squad, then contacted HP and then Microsoft. No one can figure it out. And no, I do not want to delete the Recovery partition simply to avoid low disk notifications, I simply want to have it set up the way it is supposed to be set up; to only back up system and program files. I don't need both my Recovery (D:) and C: drives backing up everything. If anyone can help with that, I'd appreciate it.

Thank you.

Hi,

Thank you for writing to Microsoft Community Forums.

Generally, recovery partitions are hidden from the operating system and they don't display in This PC, although they will display in Disk Management.

I think that you might have changed the backups to be stored in the D: drive that is the part of the single drive, i.e., C: and D:. You cannot store any files in the Recovery Drive as it contains only system files, so check your Backup settings and see if the files are being backed up in D: drive and change it to some external drive for your files to be backed up.

If you just want to remove the D: drive from This PC and don't want the Low Disk pop ups, then you can follow the below steps and remove the Drive Letter.

Step 1: Press the Windows key and the R key and type Diskmgmt.msc and hit Enter.

Step 2: Right click on the drive that you want to remove from This PC, i.e., the Recovery Partition drive and then click on Change Drive Letter and Paths>click on Remove and click on Yes to confirm.

Step 3: When finishes, you can close Disk Management and see in This PC if you are seeing the Recovery drive (D:).

If you want to completely delete the Recovery (D:) partition from your computer, then you can refer Remove Recovery Drive.

Hope it helps.

Let us know if you got the help you needed by clicking Yes or No.