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.
Related posts:
- How to Delete and Remove Recovery Partition in HP Computer
- Disable and Remove ThinkPad Hidden Service Partition
- Change or Resize Partition (NTFS, FAT or FAT32) Size in Windows Vista
- IBM (Lenovo) ThinkPad Recovery CD
- How to Delete and Remove hiberfil.sys Hibernation File in Windows XP and Vista
THANK-YOU SO MUCH!!!
thank you so very much
it worked
PLEASE HELP !!!
I FORMATED this 200 MB partition as NTFS with Gparted Live CD and now My Windows Vista Ultimate 64 Bits doesn´t load. The complete disk is not visible. I can see the data is there with GetDataBack. I need to recover this 200 MB partition so I can boot my Win Vista Ultimate 64 bits. Please somebody help !!! Thanks !!
Thanks
You're a god send!
thank you so much. with your directions i was able to free up 42gb on my hd.
I have written a document to help those who want to copy, modify, or delete the OEM recovery partions…
http://www.4shared.com/file/96008112/1e06bed1/OEM…
simply awesome
thx
AUTHOR AND ALL OTHER READERS: SEE THIS SITE. SIMPLE, 30 SECONDS, NO SOFTWARE NEEDED: (works on Vista and XP, using the disk partition manager in DOS)
http://norsetech.net/kb/how-to-delete-eisa-partit…
I'm using the HDD from a defunct Sony Viao as an external drive and the now useless EISA partition is still there taking up valuable real estate. Does this work on external drives?
Worked like a charm on an old Lenovo laptop hard drive. Thank you so much!
Thanks for the guide, it was really helpful. And diskpart saved a lot of time that i would boot into a linux and do this in a VERY longer way.
Thank you so much, it saved me 102MB only. But nothing on it was used.
Worked perfectly for me on a VAIO AW21. Thanks a lot! This freed up 15Go
Diskpart may refuse to delete an EISA partition, as it did in my case.
I was able to get rid of the partition by using the CLEAN command in diskpart. This removes all configuration information from the disk, which may not be acceptable when only needing to delete the EISA partition. It was what I needed, though, since I wanted a clean disk in order to start from scratch.
Anyone know how to delete an EISA partition when all one needs is to delete that partition?
Regardless of the high quality of the hard drive parts,it may fail at any point of time without any reason.there may be some logical error in our hard drive the reason could be virus attack or some system malfunction.It may occur during normal operations due to external or internal factors.For a common user it may difficult to recover data by your self as i case of mine when i lost my data i could not retrieve or recover it then luckily i find a recovery tool called Stellar Phoenix Partition Recovery Software which helps me and recovery my lost partition.This software can recover lost partition,recover lost, missing, formatted,inaccessible or deleted data from hard drive, floppy disk, CD, DVD,USB storage media.you may try this software may be it will help you as well.
IF YOUR HARD DRIVE IS ACIDENTLY CONVERTED TO EISA PARTITION AND YOU STILL HAVE VALUABLE FILES ON IT THEN USE "GET DATA BACK" PROG, IT CAN COPY YOUR FILES FROM EISA PARTITION TO YOUR NTFS or FAT HARD DRIVE…. IF YOU USE VISTA THEN TURN USER ACOUNT CONTROL BEFORE (known as UAC)
Thanks!!!
Just perfect! 10x alot!
[...] type in delete partition override and press Enter key. Meer info hier: Delete and Remove to Unlock EISA Hidden Recovery or Diagnostic Partition in Vista My Digital Life __________________ Sony VAIO VGN-FW11M Core2 Duo P8400 :.: Intel Centrino 2 :.: 2×2048 DDR2 [...]
Very nice and easy.
thank you very much
Excellent.. exactly what I needed to get rid of my Sony Vaio recovery partition, close to 7 gigs of wasted space
great, so simple and easy
thanks
super instructions easy to follow and works without any problems….you have just freed up 7GB for me…thank you…would recommend to everyone who is looking at doing this…
super instructions easy to full and works without any problems….you have just freed up 7GB for me…thank you…would recommend to everyone who is looking at doing this…
wow simply awesome
congrats on discovering this great tool…:D
This is a great article, I would have used Partition Magic but that software won;t run in Vista. Thank You very much for posting this articlre it was very useful to me and saved me the time of mounting this drive in an older aka XP box.
thank you man that is easy steps like water drink ^^
thank you very much
I add this article at my bookmarks
Thanks worked first time, great result
Jeremy
I think you have the same problem that I have my Si2636, that I gave up not to spend 40 usd for one time use of USB floppy.
try load "Intel Storage Matrix Drivers " while starting up with XP installation, for Vista u dont need it. Find below the explanation
Description:
The MS Windows® XP Professional installation does not work. On the AMILO there is no option in the BIOS to change the AHCI mode. So we tried to use a USB floppy disk drive to install the S-ATA driver at the beginning of the installation but Windows still cannot detect the hard disk.
Solution:
For the installation of MS Windows® XP Professional you need the Intel Matrix Storage Manager Ver.5.5 or higher, which you can download from the following webpage:
* http://support.intel.com/support/chipsets/imsm/
worked like a charm
follow-up:
Well i went out and bought a new hard drive, thinking maybe the one in my laptop is just crappy. No luck, windows still cannot locate the harddrive to install on. bios can still see it. Any ideas would be helpful.thanks.
-jeremy
Solution:
* Use DiskKill (doesn't need registeration) and Kill the one with the EISA Configuration. If that is the one you're working on, you will get the BSD (Blue Screen of Death) and your computer will keep restarting. Open the disc drive and plop in your OS installation disc. If you don't have it, DON'T do this. Turn it off and back on. Follow through those steps on the installation, and choose a clean installation. Pick the unallocated space. After the installation, go through and have fun.
* If you have an unregistered Vista of like Ultimate, (not genuine) get an upgrade package of it. Do the main steps. (delete EISA Configuration) Get like Home Premium. It'll work.
Hey, i bought a toshiba satellite A205 with vista pre install and multiple partitions on the harddrive as well. I backed up all of my data I wanted to keep on dvds. Then tryed to completely wipe the drive using "Darik's boot-nuke". Dariks prompted an error message ive never seen before, so i removed the drive from the laptop and placed it into my desktop pc and successfully ran dariks to wipe the drive. Now my problem arises as i try to install XP onto the laptop, bios detects the hard drive but windows wont install because it can't locate a drive to write to?! Ive tryed two copies of windows, tried adjusting significant bios settings to no avail. I can write to the drive on my desktop pc. just not the laptop. Any advice? and i don't have recovery cds
thanks,
jeremy
Mine keeps saying:
"DiskPart failed to delete the selected partition. Please make sure the selected partition is vaild to delete." Just wondering if you can delete it on a dynamic disk. And wondering if it is the OEM partition.
Thanks a lot. After searching a lot i got this article and it really worked.
In response to Joe: It is indeed not possible to extend a boot partition, only to reduce it. The only thing you can do is to create a new volume with the unallocated partition.
This is wonderful and worked well! However, diskmgmt won't allow me to extend my primary partition with the recovery one. The recovery partition is unallocated in the 'front' of the disk. Diskmgmt only allows me to create a new volume using the recovery partition.
[...] this partition. if this is not possible all is not lost if you have a look at the instructions Here hope the explanation is clear but if you have any questions please post back and ask them before [...]
This was exactly what I needed. My Eisa partition got stuck right in the middle of a new hard drive splitting the drive in half. This fixed it.
Thanks!
I’ve read this entire article and understood that this partition is useful for system restore or recovery…But , the EISA config partition is completely empty in my sony vaio….Can u help me understand this???
For the record, I was able to follow these instructions and successfully deleted my EISA partition in XP SP2, without downloading anything.
Bump! (if there's such a thing)
Great advice. Now I can finally install ubuntu with more disk space.
Dude! Freakin' sweet! Concise, useful, couldn't be better!
kudos from one tech to another
I got so far as using the diskpart tool but I didn't know about the override switch. I pulled the drive from my laptop to use in an external chassis and wanted to clear that junk off.
Thanks a lot. I was all over the web searching for this, but this was the only valid resource I could find. I too will recommend this to anyone who's having trouble with recovery partitions.
Thanks a lot, finally after searching for a way to do this this has worked.
Will recommend this to anyone else who wants to erase that OEM partition. (recovery partition)
Your procedure works great! thanks.
But I would remove the comment from Andy since using CLEAN will remove partition information on the selected hard drive!!!
thanks this worked great
I followed these instructions but it wouldn't delete the partition. However, once the disk and partition is selected if you type 'clean' it gets rid of it.
Yo lo que quiero es reinstalar esa EISA utility de dell, que borré accidentalmente y que en mi dell xps usa 47 mb en una partición que tiene al principio.
Como podría reinstalarlo?