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I have a problem with a recovery folder called HDDRecovery on my D: drive, which is an NTFS primary partition (start partition is C:). The OS is Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit, German. The logged-in user, the only one, is of type administrator.

I want to delete this approx. 7 GB large folder due to various reasons irrelevant to topic. It appears it won't go down without a fight. Here's what hasn't worked so far:

  • Changing ownership and trying to delete
  • Trying to modify file/folder access rights - it reverts back to write-protected.
  • Fiddling with group policy settings.
  • Turning off UAC completely, rebooting and then trying to delete.

Here's what Windows tells me when I do try to delete it:

no-go

It means something like "Folder access denied", "You must acquire the necessary permissions from the Administrator, to make changes on this folder".

I am an administrator, what rights else is it talking about?

I cannot see a service running in the background, watching over this directory, and not a single registry entry related to the folder.

How do I delete this folder, preferably without having to delete the whole partition?

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  • Err, can the downvoter please also tell what is improper with the question?
    – Bora
    Apr 12, 2012 at 0:18

4 Answers 4

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If the process still have same error message then I'll recommend you to Unlocker which is much powerful tool to delete the stuff like that. After installing it you can find it by right click on the folder.

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Use a linux live CD like Ubuntu or Backtrack 5 - once booted it should be straightforward to delete the folder. I normally find though that deleting the partition (in Windows) to get rid of recovery partitions is the easiest way to do this - Use Computer Management - Disk Management to delete the partition - you can then create a new partition or add the space to your existing partition.

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  • As I said, I prefer not to nuke the whole partition. My Steam folder and some other heavyweight stuff is on it, too. Can't move them because C: is almost full.
    – Bora
    Apr 12, 2012 at 0:09
  • Upvoting nevertheless, because of the Linux solution, which I would go with, if the Unlocker didn't work.
    – Bora
    Apr 12, 2012 at 0:48
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Considering the fact that if you were able to delete this folder, you would lose the ability to recover your operating system should you need to reinstall... it is understandably difficult to delete.

So, unless you have the ability to reinstall Windows without the hard drive recovery, you should find OTHER things to delete to make up that space.

If you do have the ability to install Windows without needing that recovery partition, then one way to delete that partition is to boot to your Windows installation disc, delete all the existing partitions, and install Windows fresh. Zing! No Recovery partition.

I'm not sure why you don't want to delete the whole partition, considering that the partition shouldn't really contain anything other than recovery information. But, if you do want the space, it would be much better to remove the partition completely, and then adjust the space of your primary partition to absorb that left over space.

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  • I explicitly mentioned, that my reasons to delete it are irrelevant.. I have already made a backup of the whole thing with the official Toshiba Recovery Media Creator.
    – Bora
    Apr 12, 2012 at 0:07
  • My apologies, but even if you believe your reasons are irrelevant, they may, in point of fact, be very relevant. Using the Toshiba Recovery discs that you made is a very responsible step... and one you failed to detail initially. At any rate, whatever information you have already saved to that partition can be moved off the partition temporarily, so you can delete the partition. If you insist on having that small partition, you can just create a new one and format that.
    – Bon Gart
    Apr 12, 2012 at 0:11
  • The partition is not small. It is actually 60 GB, half the size of the whole SSD. I suggest not beating around the bush and ANSWER THE QUESTION, PLEASE?!
    – Bora
    Apr 12, 2012 at 0:16
  • I am not beating around the bush. I have stated more than once how you can get rid of the partition. Again, you are including more relevant information after the fact and expecting any answers to have taken this information into account... when that was impossible since you incorrectly said it was irrelevant. Remove the information that you want to keep from the partition. Delete the partition. Create a new partition. Format it. Put that information back.
    – Bon Gart
    Apr 12, 2012 at 0:23
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Open a command prompt as Administrator.

Run Diskpart application by typing "diskpart" in the command prompt.

In the “Diskpart” prompt, type rescan and press Enter to re-scan all partitions, volumes and drives available.

Then type list disk and press Enter to show all hard disk drive available.

Select the disk that contains the partition you want to remove. Normally, with just one hard disk, it will be disk 0. So the command will be: select disk 0

Finish with Enter.

Type list partition and press Enter to show all available and created partition in the disk selected.

Select the partition that wanted to be deleted by typing select partition x, followed by Enter (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 delete partition override and press Enter.

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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    This may work, but the OP did ask for advice with NOT wiping the partition. I'd suggest to leave this answer though, for others running into this problem who can pass that restriction Dec 10, 2013 at 17:04

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