Delete and Remove to Unlock EISA Hidden Recovery or Diagnostic Partition in Vista
All OEM computers, desktop or notebook PCs from Dell, HP, Lenovo, IBM, Acer, ASUS, Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba and many more probably comes with special EISA partition either in FAT or NTFS file system that contains system recovery utility to rollback to factory settings and/or diagnostic tools. The special partition, normally hidden, can have a size of from few gigabytes to 10 GB or more. In some OEM system, such as those from IBM/Lenovo, is impossible to delete from within Windows.
Some EISA hidden special partition doesn’t even have drive letter assigned, nor can be deleted by using Disk Management snap-in of computer Management in Control Panel Administrator Tool. The partition cannot be merged into any other existing partition either. Some users reported that even advanced third-party disk management tool such as Acronis Disk Director Suite and Partition Magic cannot manipulate, change, remove and delete the partition either under Windows desktop.
The special recovery partition is protected and locked to secure and avoid accidental deletion of the recovery partition, which is important when to recover and reinstall operating with needed drivers and software application when system corrupts or fails. Some recovery procedure which installed in the EISA partition can be activated with just one key press, or access during boot up.
Some users may not want this special recovery partition, which can possibly free up a few GBs of hard disk storage space. As mentioned, it’s possibly almost impossible to delete this special recovery or diagnostic partition under Windows operating system. Some tips provided on the net recommend users to do removal process under DOS environment, or from another operating system on dual boot or multiple boot system.
However, it’s recommended that users check with manufacturer first if the OEM provides any removal and deletion procedure or guide, such as those provided by Lenovo/IBM and HP. If none is found, it’s possible to remove the recovery partition from Windows Vista, by using advanced Diskpart, a text-mode command line interpreter based on scripts that manages hard disk, partition and volume in Vista (also available for free download for XP, 2000, and 2003).
Here’s the trick to delete and remove the EISA recovery or diagnostic partition in Vista. Before proceeding with the deletion action, make sure that at least a set of Recovery Disc Media has been created. Else, you won’t be able to restore your computer to working and factory default condition when any problem on PC requires reinstallation.
- Open a command prompt as administrator.
- Run Diskpart application by typing Diskpart in the command prompt.
- In the “Diskpart” prompt, enter rescan command and press Enter key to re-scan all partitions, volumes and drives available.
- Then type in list disk and press Enter key to show all hard disk drive available.
- Select the disk that contains the partition you want to remove. Normally, with just 1 hard disk, it will be disk 0. So the command will be:
select disk 0
Finish by Enter key.
- Type list partition and press Enter key to show all available and created partition in the disk selected.
- Select the partition that wanted to be deleted by using the following command, followed by Enter key:
select partition x
where x is the number of the EISA based recovery partition to be removed and unlocked its space. Be careful with the number of this partition, as wrong number may get data wipes off.
- Finally, type in delete partition override and press Enter key.
Once the partition has been deleted, exit from Diskpart, and now users can use the much familiar and much easier Disk Management tool in Windows (diskmgmt.msc) to manipulate the freed unallocated partition. Users can create a new volume (partition) with this space, or simply merge it to existing partition by extending the size of the existing partition.
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December 7th, 2009 13:41
Thank you so much!
It works flawlessly…
Best part is it was very easy to execute.
God Bless!!!
November 21st, 2009 01:40
Thank you so much.. My new acer laptop made my new partition to a eisa without asking me..
November 15th, 2009 04:25
My long search for instructions was bountiful, thanks to you. Your instructions worked beautifully. I was then able to use Disk Management and Partition Magic.
Thanks a whole bunch!
November 8th, 2009 02:13
Tip top tip, needed to remove eisa partition from sony vaio for a custom ghost image… this worked a treat. (The diskpart util will work with hdd’s attached via a usb enclosure aswell!)
October 23rd, 2009 15:52
It’s really works on my Sony Vaio SZ56G !
Thanks a lot …
October 23rd, 2009 04:12
Excelent step by step help.
Thanks!
October 15th, 2009 01:11
NICEEEEE!!!! EASY !!!! THANKS MAN !!!!
October 14th, 2009 09:16
Thanks it worked for me as well.
Lenovo s10-2 WindowsXP (SvcPack 2)
October 5th, 2009 17:50
This is exactly how i love help.
Thank you
September 12th, 2009 04:52
I found it out yay…
You just go to the partition where that shitty oem is placed, then instead of using the delete partition 1 override command, you use clean and press enter.. Voila, partition OEM deleted
Then you can do whatever you want. And never need to see that shitty oem shit again..lol
September 1st, 2009 14:34
I have exactly the same problem as Ricardo (56), also with an ACER laptop, win VISTA home.
Does anyone have a solution for this ?
After rebooting, the new partition I make, changes in EISA partition. What a waste of 400 gig…
Please help me out !?
August 27th, 2009 21:11
This was much simpler than other instruction sets. I will never forget this advice, thank you very much.
August 22nd, 2009 07:51
I have an ACER notebook. I partitioned the HD, it worked on the first day, but for no apparent reason it turned the new partition into an EISA partition, and I could not get rid of it.
I tried several different software, but everytime after rebooting the computer the wrong EISA partition was back there…
I followed the instructions above, everything just looked fine, I even created a new partition… but after rebooting the computer it was the same again, i.e. the wrong-EISA partition was back there :-O
August 11th, 2009 18:50
ok PLEASE i know the instructions but what is the number of X because i have no idea im stuck there thanks for a reply.
August 9th, 2009 10:21
Thanks, this is one of the most valuable how to’s on the net
August 4th, 2009 00:39
Thx a lot for this article. Helped me get rid of the EISA partition on my Acer Laptop Hdd.
God bless you.
July 14th, 2009 12:38
Some day I hope to be able to repay the good people like yourself that have taken the time to offer their expertize to others on the internet.
Thank you
July 9th, 2009 08:54
Thank you so much for this tip, as it saved my life with an old Dell disk I had upgraded and used with a 2.5″ external USB case. I kept getting errors when hooked up to my WDTV, due to unallocated space and the device’s inability to load the EISA partition, but now it works perfectly.