G751J - Delete recovery partition, but keep ASUS windows image?

[andreacos92]

Hi all 🙂

Anyone managed to delete the recovery partition in the new ROGs?
I have done the backup on a pen drive using Backtracker, but the option to delete the partition is missing. Tried all the versions of Backtracker.

I have a G751JY-T7134H, that comes with a 128GB SataIII SSD, partitioned as well by Asus

Partizione ### Tipo Dim. Offset
---------- ----- ---------------- ------- -------
Partizione 1 Sistema 100 Mb 1024 Kb
Partizione 2 Riservato 128 Mb 101 Mb
Partizione 3 Primario 107 Gb 229 Mb
Partizione 4 Ripristino 12 Gb 107 Gb

I tried to delete the recovery partition, the last one of 12 GB, using easeUS Partition Master first and the Windows8 bootable USB pen drive later, but with the same result: if I delete the recovery partition, Windows can't boot anymore and it's not possible to repair it because the repair utility finds no Windows installation... so I was forced to restore all using the Backtracker pen drive.

I read this post by @hmscott http://rog.asus.com/forum/showthread.php?51245-Anyone-knows-how-to-merge-C-amp-D-disk-drive-into-one...
He deleted all the partitions on his SSD (except the Windows partition of course) with no problems, including the System and the Reserved partitions (100Mb and 128Mb)... I want to try the same too but I'm not convinced.
Maybe it's not possible delete this partition on the G751? :eek:

[ciccio80]

Thank you bahnzii for your reply. I used G-parted a lot too in the past (with win7). Always worked like a charm for me, great application.

But in this case I am afraid to use it just to delete the backup partition and expand the d: drive on those 12Gb. That is because other people (including the guy who started this thread) who tried to do this (admittedly not with G-parted, but with other applications nevertheless) found themselfs with a Windows that would not boot afterwards. At the moment I have only an internet Key connection with a monthly Gb plan, so if something goes wrong I would have difficulty to download all the windows updates and programs again.
Do you have a G751JY? Did you try deleting the recovery partition with G-parted yourself without Windows beeing unable to boot afterwards?

[Nomad101]

Hi I just did mine last night on Windows 7 home edition I had the same problem I only had 3gig left on my C drive so needed more space I found http://www.easeus.com/partition-manager/epm-free.html All I did was merge C drive into Recovery click ok, then bios window comes up moving files but then it stopped after the first transfer waited for a few miniutes but nothing was happening couldn`t turn off or reboot so I just took the battery out, put back in rebooted and whaalla! I have an extra 11Gig on my C drive with a separate Recovery drive and you can delete that too if you want, no problems this morning works wonders, I didn't worry too much about the freezing up earlier because I was ready to do a fresh install but now I have extra room I will leave it till i get Windows 10 and looking around that too has the same problem with the recovery drive, good luck.

[andreacos92]

Bad news.. yesterday I did some tests.

First of all, I did an image backup of my whole SSD (all four partitions) with clonezilla, so I can restore my PC as it is now and not with Backtracker.

Then, I tried to remove the partition with diskpart command "delete partition override", but I have no success:
(cmd didn't let me copy the text..)



So, I downloaded gparted, made a bootable usb drive and reboot in gparted live, there I could delete the partition without problems, but when I restarted the PC, Windows failed to start:



Why the recovery partition is "a required device" for Windows to start? How Asus installed Windows in these Pcs? :mad:
However, then I tried to repair the Windows installation with the Windows 8 installation media.
First, I tried with the automatic repair, and then I tried the commands "bootrec /fixmbr", "bootrec /fixboot", "bootrec /scanos" and "bootrec /rebuildbcd".. obviously no success, I had to restore my whole SSD image with clonezilla (it worked fortunately).

Last, I did an other attempt.
I did a backup image of my C: partition only using clonezilla, then I deleted all the four partition in my SSD and I installed a clean copy of Windows8 using all the space on the SSD. All worked until now.
Then, I tried to restore my backup image of C: over the new C: partition that I created with the clean install.
The restore worked well, but Windows failed to boot, this time with the error 0xc000000f.
I tried the automatic and the manual repairs with the Windows8 installation media, but no luck.. and I had to restore my whole SSD image with clonezilla, again.

I don't know what to think anymore.
If anyone have some ideas, I will try, but I'm starting to think that the recovery partition is untouchable.
Only solution is to made a clean install of Windows, but it's not what I want now.

[ciccio80]

Thank you, I think you tried all of the common (and some lessl common) methods.
If this still does not work, I don't know what will. But there must surely be a way. Hope we figure it out sooner or later 🙂
I asked Asus, but they didn't respond.

[bahnzii]

I do have a G751jy and I have not yet deleted the recovery partition. I'll have to do some research and see why it seems to need it.
Perhaps it because we have and OEM install of Windows and not a consumer version??
I will ping back if I find anything...

[hmscott]

ciccio80 wrote:
Thank you, I think you tried all of the common (and some lessl common) methods.
If this still does not work, I don't know what will. But there must surely be a way. Hope we figure it out sooner or later 🙂
I asked Asus, but they didn't respond.

ciccio80, this is interesting, this hasn't been the case with other reports from G751 owners. Before your post everyone that has used a diskpart delete override - or another deletion method - while booted on the same HDD/SSD reported it worked.

I would suggest using your Asus Backtracker recovery flash drive to restore the out of the box install again on a new/different HDD/SSD, and then try the deletion again - perhaps some Windows update or other install caused this situation.

Please come back and let us know what you find 🙂

[andreacos92]

bahnzii wrote:
I do have a G751jy and I have not yet deleted the recovery partition. I'll have to do some research and see why it seems to need it.
Perhaps it because we have and OEM install of Windows and not a consumer version??
I will ping back if I find anything...

Hi bahnzil, I also think that Asus OEM install of Windows requires the recovery partition, for some unknown reasons.
If you find something let us know, I will try other methods

hmscott wrote:
ciccio80, this is interesting, this hasn't been the case with other reports from G751 owners. Before your post everyone that has used a diskpart delete override - or another deletion method - while booted on the same HDD/SSD reported it worked.

I would suggest using your Asus Backtracker recovery flash drive to restore the out of the box install again on a new/different HDD/SSD, and then try the deletion again - perhaps some Windows update or other install caused this situation.

Please come back and let us know what you find 🙂

Hi hmscott, I already tried to delete the recovery partition immediately after restoring with Asus Backtracker flash drive.. Windows didn't boot with the same error 0xc0000225.

[ciccio80]

hmscott wrote:
ciccio80, this is interesting, this hasn't been the case with other reports from G751 owners. Before your post everyone that has used a diskpart delete override - or another deletion method - while booted on the same HDD/SSD reported it worked.

I would suggest using your Asus Backtracker recovery flash drive to restore the out of the box install again on a new/different HDD/SSD, and then try the deletion again - perhaps some Windows update or other install caused this situation.

Please come back and let us know what you find 🙂

Hi hmscott .
I actually didn't even try to delete it mysel since andreacos92 reported many failed attempts to do so. Unfortunatelly for me, at the moment I have only an internet key (no ADSL) with limited download capability, so I can't risk doing "experiments". If the pc doesn't boot, I would find myself in big trouble being able to reinstall the old asus partition but no way of updating all the windows stuff. At the moment I need a 99.9% working solution.

[hmscott]

ciccio80 wrote:
Hi hmscott .
I actually didn't even try to delete it mysel since andreacos92 reported many failed attempts to do so. Unfortunatelly for me, at the moment I have only an internet key (no ADSL) with limited download capability, so I can't risk doing "experiments". If the pc doesn't boot, I would find myself in big trouble being able to reinstall the old asus partition but no way of updating all the windows stuff. At the moment I need a 99.9% working solution.

ciccio80, then at this point, don't delete it 🙂

This used to be the 100% working solution, delete override the partition and absorb the freed up space into the C drive. This problem is new.

I guess you can't try these, but maybe someone else can and determine a procedure for you and others to follow:

Can I fix error 0xc0000225 without reinstalling Windows? - green check answer looks good, note setting partition active for BCD focus
http://superuser.com/questions/815267/can-i-fix-error-0xc0000225-without-reinstalling-windows

Error 0xc0000225 Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit.
https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows8_1-system/error-0xc0000225-windows-81-pro-...

[ciccio80]

Well, I want to delete it since I have only a 128Gb SSD (12Gb can make a difference there 😉
In the future I will probably buy a 512Gb SSD SATA3 and make a clean install (no need to actually spend premium money for M2 SSD since the difference in performance is only on paper fot the things I use my G751 for).
Thx for the links thou. Maybe someone will figure it out soon.

P.S. someone knows how to mantain the asus loading screen at the boot of a newly installed Win8?