Red bar for "D' drive

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Guest

When I open up "Computer" in Vista, at the screen where the various drives
are displayed, the "D" drive, or restore drive, I guess, shows a red bar
nearly filling the space. It's a small drive, but it's nearly full. What is
this drive for, and what does the red bar signify?

Thank you

Ron
 
Hi,

It's a volume created by the system manufacturer that contains all the files
needed to restore the system to its original state. They use only as much
space as is absolutely necessary, so it is marked as having insufficient
space for the recommended free space on a drive (usually about 15%).

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
Rick Rogers said:
They use only as much space as is absolutely necessary, so it is marked as
having insufficient space for the recommended free space on a drive
(usually about 15%).
Click to expand...

What I believe Rick meant to say (correct me if I'm wrong, Rick) is that
they make that partition only large enough to hold what needs to go there.
So there will always be a red bar on that drive since that partition is
nearly full.

Which leads to the OP's followup question: No, you don't have to increase
the space. That partition has all it needs.

My question: If you have the install disk for the OS and for all important
programs (such as Office), is there any reason to keep that restore
partition? If you're llike me, you probably deactivated or uninstalled some
of the crap the OEM put on your machine. If you restore using that restore
partition, all that crap will come back.
 
DP said:
What I believe Rick meant to say (correct me if I'm wrong, Rick) is that
they make that partition only large enough to hold what needs to go there.
So there will always be a red bar on that drive since that partition is
nearly full.

Which leads to the OP's followup question: No, you don't have to increase
the space. That partition has all it needs.

My question: If you have the install disk for the OS and for all important
programs (such as Office), is there any reason to keep that restore
partition? If you're llike me, you probably deactivated or uninstalled some
of the crap the OEM put on your machine. If you restore using that restore
partition, all that crap will come back.
Click to expand...

What if you can't find the DVDs? You hid them in a safe place and you
have to explain to support you wiped the partition and lost the DVDs?
Use belt and suspenders insurance against having to make that call.
 
DP said:
What I believe Rick meant to say (correct me if I'm wrong, Rick) is that
they make that partition only large enough to hold what needs to go there.
So there will always be a red bar on that drive since that partition is
nearly full.

Which leads to the OP's followup question: No, you don't have to increase
the space. That partition has all it needs.

My question: If you have the install disk for the OS and for all important
programs (such as Office), is there any reason to keep that restore
partition? If you're llike me, you probably deactivated or uninstalled
some of the crap the OEM put on your machine. If you restore using that
restore partition, all that crap will come back.
Click to expand...

Drivers. They're getable but you'd have to go get them.
 
Hi,

That's correct. As to your question, if you make the backup disk they
recommend and have the install disks for your programs, then yes you can
safely delete that partition and usurp the free space.

--
Best of Luck,

Rick Rogers, aka "Nutcase" - Microsoft MVP

Windows help - www.rickrogers.org
 
When I open up "Computer" in Vista, at the screen where the various drives
are displayed, the "D" drive, or restore drive, I guess, shows a red bar
nearly filling the space. It's a small drive, but it's nearly full. What is
this drive for, and what does the red bar signify?

Thank you

Ron
Click to expand...

The color red is just to show that drive is nearly full, it isn't a
indication anything is wrong. If you bought a prebuild box from Dell,
Gateway, etc.. they typically have things set up to have a small
partition that can "recover" your system. Generally if you aren't that
comfortable working with the internal settings of your computer,
moving files, creating new partitions, resizing and all that fun
stuff, just leave alone...or you may be very sorry you didn't. ;-)
 
I too have the red bar, is there an easy way to increase the size of "D"
recovry drive to 12-15 mb?
 
If you ever used D: to do anything other than just sit there, then Vista's
crabbing about its not having enough extra room would make sense.
Since you never use it for anything other than to just sit there in case
you have to restore your system, Vista's crabbing makes no sense.

Vista's complaint is ignorant. If the red bar really bothers you, then
you could burn recovery DVDs and delete the partition. But you
would have to take care not to misplace the DVDs, which is not
as handy as keeping system recovery on your computer. Your best
option is to tolerate the red bar - not let it bother you - just let D: be.
 
If you ever used D: to do anything other than just sit there, then Vista's
crabbing about its not having enough extra room would make sense.
Since you never use it for anything other than to just sit there in case
you have to restore your system, Vista's crabbing makes no sense.

Vista's complaint is ignorant. If the red bar really bothers you, then
you could burn recovery DVDs and delete the partition. But you
would have to take care not to misplace the DVDs, which is not
as handy as keeping system recovery on your computer. Your best
option is to tolerate the red bar - not let it bother you - just let D: be.
Click to expand...

I don't have the problem since I build my own boxes but was wondering,
anybody that has a Dell or Gateway and has one of these small
partitions have you tried compressing that drive? That should free up
a lot of room since it it only for restore purposes anyway. I can't
try it since I don't have one and don't know what they put in that
partition.

Just right click on the drive, properties, check compress. Since I'm
guessing you don't (shouldn't anyway) use it for anything else what
harm if any would it cause to compress the files, that would restore
the graphic to green I would think for those that don't like see a red
status bar.
 
I have a Gateway. That recovery partition is formatted FAT32, so it can't
be compressed. Mine is 3.86 GB, with 2.37 Free. I'm thinking about
deleting it, since I no longer use XP.
 
Just unassign a drive letter in Computer Management>Drive Manager and you
won't see it any more.
 
I have a Dell with the "D" 10GB partition. I user Paragon Partiton Manager V
8.5 to increase it to 125GB by taking free space from my C drive.
 
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