Mystery HD partitions...

[PA-WOODCHUCK]

I have partitions that recently became visible in file explorer. They are J: (PBR) about 10GB and K about 400MB and looks like left over from new since they have files from DELL and want to delete and then combine partitions to C: with Acronis Disk doctor. The issue is I can't open the sub folder because of msg Access denied. How can I get into the folders?

thanks

 

[Grizzly]

I think those are the partitions designed for recovery and restore. Dunno why they suddenly have drive letters but they should have been hidden.
The partiton with the letter 'J' should be the restore partition that resets the PC to the state right out of the box. The partition "K" I think is your recovery partition which Windows always creates. This is an important partition that should not be deleted.
I would not delete the "J" partition as well, just remove the drive letters in the disk management and they will be hidden in File explorer.

Maybe others have more information about that issue...

 

[PA-WOODCHUCK]

The folder I can get into is from 2012 and had win 8.x when purchased. Since I'm NEVER going to do a factory restore I would like to regain the lost 10GB+

 

[Bastet]

Click your Start Button, type cmd, then right click Command Prompt and choose 'Run as Administrator'

Run this command and hit Enter

diskpart

Run this command and hit Enter

select volume X (where X is the drive letter of the recovery drive)

Run this command and hit Enter

remove letter=X (where X is the drive letter of the recovery drive)

Close Command Promp

 

[PA-WOODCHUCK]

Bastet

What happens to the partitions after finishing the commands, are they then merged back as C:\

 

[Saltgrass]

Supplying a snipping tool picture with it expanded so you can see the partitions descriptions is usually helpful.

The 400 MB partition, of which you may have more than one, could be part of your current install, as Grizzly mentions.

 

[Bastet]

Bastet

What happens to the partitions after finishing the commands, are they then merged back as C:\

No, you would still have those partitions but they wouldn’t have a drive letter.
The recovery partition which is first on the drive cannot be combined with C as it cannot be moved but a recovery partition at the end can be combined.

 

[Saltgrass]

but a recovery partition at the end can be combined.

It should be noted, the Recovery Partition in use will more than likely be the one at the end of the C: partition, if a new partition was created due to available space situations.

 

[Bastet]

It should be noted, the Recovery Partition in use will more than likely be the one at the end of the C: partition, if a new partition was created due to available space situations.

Yes, thank you Saltgrass for the reminder. Tbh I would recommend to the OP to leave the partitions & just removing the drive letters.

 

[Wolfie]

Yes, thank you Saltgrass for the reminder. Tbh I would recommend to the OP to leave the partitions & just removing the drive letters.

I personally would leave all partitions alone, even though they are showing as long as it isn't hurting the current installed OS!. There is no harm done by doing so, if you need disk space, then a whole new questions arises?. This is not directed at you Bastet, just a general observation!.

 

[PA-WOODCHUCK]

Does this helpView attachment 11316View attachment 11316

 

[PA-WOODCHUCK]

If I could recover PBR (J) and combine that back to C: and leave the other alone I would be happy.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi,

you cannot use PBR partition as it is too far away from the C: drive wall, if it were right next door to it, you could delete it and resize C: but sadly that is not the case!.

 

[BigFeet]

Pretty sure you can do it with a 3rd party partition manager.

 

[Wolfie]

Pretty sure you can do it with a 3rd party partition manager.

Hi Bigfeet,

yes you can delete the partition and use the free space but you cannot merge it with C: drive, sure you will gain a few GB's of space but that is all and you will still have an extra partition!.

GParted is a good free tool for anyone that wants to use a partitioning tool:

https://gparted.org/

 

[Bastet]

View attachment 11317

If I could recover PBR (J) and combine that back to C: and leave the other alone I would be happy.

You should be able to do that with Easeus partition manager.
It can move partitions (apart from those before the C partition) & then you can recover the space.

EaseUS Partition Master - Free Partition Manager to Manage Disk Partitions in Windows

EaseUS Partition Master Free is a free partition software that can partition hard drive and reoragnize the disk space for better performance. You can resize，move, merge and create partitions for Windows 11/10/8/7/Vista/XP.

www.easeus.com

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Bastet,

here is a quote from the following link:

"When merging multiple range partitions, the partitions must be adjacent and specified in the ascending order of their partition bound values. The new partition inherits the partition upper bound of the highest of the original partitions."

Merging Multiple Partitions

docs.oracle.com

If there is another partition between them (afaik) it won't work because of the barrier of the other partition you want to leave alone and still use. Maybe someone has other info but you can only merge adjacent partitions ttbomk!.

Has anyone ever done it??. If they have I would love some pointers on the matter!.

 

[Bastet]

Hi Bastet,

here is a quote from the following link:

"When merging multiple range partitions, the partitions must be adjacent and specified in the ascending order of their partition bound values. The new partition inherits the partition upper bound of the highest of the original partitions."

Merging Multiple Partitions

docs.oracle.com

If there is another partition between them (afaik) it won't work because of the barrier of the other partition you want to leave alone and still use. Maybe someone has other info but you can only merge adjacent partitions ttbomk!.

Has anyone ever done it??. If they have I would love some pointers on the matter!.

It’s been a while since I did it but I seem to recall just choosing the partition then grabbing it to move it then allowing Easeus to complete the move, I then merged that partition With C.

 

[Wolfie]

Hi Bastet,

looking at the options from the following link:

Why and How to Merge Partitions to Solve Disk Space Issues?

EaseUS Partition Master can free merge partitions into a bigger one to get more space with merge partition manager software in Windows 7/8/Vista/XP/2003/2008/2012 in a safe way.

www.easeus.com

They only show merging partitions that are next to each other???.

 

[Bastet]

Hi Wolfie, yes that is the case. My post mentioned moving the partitions first before merging.