Vista - Recovery Drive D:

My new laptop (running Vista Home Basic) came with a HD partition - 40GB for
"OS C:/" and 10GB for "Recovery D:/". I am looking to make the best use of
this space, but cannot seem to find any way to give myself equivalent
permissions on D: as I have on C:. It seems hardwired into Vista to have
Windows Defender protect D: from alteration w/o that extra step of
confirmation. I can move files there if I make that extra click, but anything
that is ongoing in the background, such as downloading to that folder, is
blocked.

I have tried altering the security permissions, and got an "Access Denied"
error message. I am the only "user" on this computer, so it's not a matter of
someone else granting me admin privileges. It's ridiculous that Windows
should tell me what I can and can't do with my own computer... any
suggestions? Thanks.

Hi, a recovery drive is something that is set up by your computer
manufacturer. It contains the files necessary to restore your computer to
its original configuration if you ever were to have a problem. This includes
specific drivers for your hardware. This drive is not intended to be used as
"regular" storage space and it is not recommended that you alter this drive.
It is possible to reformat it and re-use the space for storage but you will
lose the recovery files that are currently on it.

Charlene

--
Charlene Shepard
Windows User Assistance Team
Microsoft Corporation

"LordAmeth" <LordAmeth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:4099BB2B-8B8D-4F25-ACFF-339CAFAE0AFD@microsoft.com...
> My new laptop (running Vista Home Basic) came with a HD partition - 40GB
> for
> "OS C:/" and 10GB for "Recovery D:/". I am looking to make the best use
> of
> this space, but cannot seem to find any way to give myself equivalent
> permissions on D: as I have on C:. It seems hardwired into Vista to have
> Windows Defender protect D: from alteration w/o that extra step of
> confirmation. I can move files there if I make that extra click, but
> anything
> that is ongoing in the background, such as downloading to that folder, is
> blocked.
>
> I have tried altering the security permissions, and got an "Access Denied"
> error message. I am the only "user" on this computer, so it's not a matter
> of
> someone else granting me admin privileges. It's ridiculous that Windows
> should tell me what I can and can't do with my own computer... any
> suggestions? Thanks.

Hm. Somehow I'm not surprised at that response. It seems that, especially
with Vista, there's quite a lot included here for recovery and security
purposes, which get in the way of my easy, simple, use of my own computer.

It took the IT staff hours and hours futzing with McAfee and Windows
Firewall and all sorts of other Vista settings just to get the computer to
trust the school network enough to actually connect. I appreciate that it's
intended for my benefit, in terms of safety and recovery, but it's also a
royal pain in the ass.

I have no intentions of removing the recovery files, overwriting them, or
removing my computer's ability to make use of them. But as long as there's a
good 5Gb or so on that drive partition free, I figure I might as well make
use of it.

So, no quick and easy way to simply turn off that security block and tell it
to automatically accept file transfer and access? Thanks.

-t

"Charlene Shepard [MSFT]" wrote:

> Hi, a recovery drive is something that is set up by your computer
> manufacturer. It contains the files necessary to restore your computer to
> its original configuration if you ever were to have a problem. This includes
> specific drivers for your hardware. This drive is not intended to be used as
> "regular" storage space and it is not recommended that you alter this drive.
> It is possible to reformat it and re-use the space for storage but you will
> lose the recovery files that are currently on it.
>
> Charlene
>
> --
> Charlene Shepard
> Windows User Assistance Team
> Microsoft Corporation
>
> "LordAmeth" <LordAmeth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:4099BB2B-8B8D-4F25-ACFF-339CAFAE0AFD@microsoft.com...
> > My new laptop (running Vista Home Basic) came with a HD partition - 40GB
> > for
> > "OS C:/" and 10GB for "Recovery D:/". I am looking to make the best use
> > of
> > this space, but cannot seem to find any way to give myself equivalent
> > permissions on D: as I have on C:. It seems hardwired into Vista to have
> > Windows Defender protect D: from alteration w/o that extra step of
> > confirmation. I can move files there if I make that extra click, but
> > anything
> > that is ongoing in the background, such as downloading to that folder, is
> > blocked.
> >
> > I have tried altering the security permissions, and got an "Access Denied"
> > error message. I am the only "user" on this computer, so it's not a matter
> > of
> > someone else granting me admin privileges. It's ridiculous that Windows
> > should tell me what I can and can't do with my own computer... any
> > suggestions? Thanks.
>

Unfortunately, as far as I know the only want to access that space is to
reformat the drive. I don't think you can "unlock" it and use just part of
the space.

Charlene
--
Charlene Shepard
Windows User Assistance Team
Microsoft Corporation

"LordAmeth" <LordAmeth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:AFE778FD-113E-4F14-8564-6ADB037695D7@microsoft.com...
> Hm. Somehow I'm not surprised at that response. It seems that, especially
> with Vista, there's quite a lot included here for recovery and security
> purposes, which get in the way of my easy, simple, use of my own computer.
>
> It took the IT staff hours and hours futzing with McAfee and Windows
> Firewall and all sorts of other Vista settings just to get the computer to
> trust the school network enough to actually connect. I appreciate that
> it's
> intended for my benefit, in terms of safety and recovery, but it's also a
> royal pain in the ass.
>
> I have no intentions of removing the recovery files, overwriting them, or
> removing my computer's ability to make use of them. But as long as there's
> a
> good 5Gb or so on that drive partition free, I figure I might as well make
> use of it.
>
> So, no quick and easy way to simply turn off that security block and tell
> it
> to automatically accept file transfer and access? Thanks.
>
> -t
>
> "Charlene Shepard [MSFT]" wrote:
>
>> Hi, a recovery drive is something that is set up by your computer
>> manufacturer. It contains the files necessary to restore your computer to
>> its original configuration if you ever were to have a problem. This
>> includes
>> specific drivers for your hardware. This drive is not intended to be used
>> as
>> "regular" storage space and it is not recommended that you alter this
>> drive.
>> It is possible to reformat it and re-use the space for storage but you
>> will
>> lose the recovery files that are currently on it.
>>
>> Charlene
>>
>> --
>> Charlene Shepard
>> Windows User Assistance Team
>> Microsoft Corporation
>>
>> "LordAmeth" <LordAmeth@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
>> news:4099BB2B-8B8D-4F25-ACFF-339CAFAE0AFD@microsoft.com...
>> > My new laptop (running Vista Home Basic) came with a HD partition -
>> > 40GB
>> > for
>> > "OS C:/" and 10GB for "Recovery D:/". I am looking to make the best
>> > use
>> > of
>> > this space, but cannot seem to find any way to give myself equivalent
>> > permissions on D: as I have on C:. It seems hardwired into Vista to
>> > have
>> > Windows Defender protect D: from alteration w/o that extra step of
>> > confirmation. I can move files there if I make that extra click, but
>> > anything
>> > that is ongoing in the background, such as downloading to that folder,
>> > is
>> > blocked.
>> >
>> > I have tried altering the security permissions, and got an "Access
>> > Denied"
>> > error message. I am the only "user" on this computer, so it's not a
>> > matter
>> > of
>> > someone else granting me admin privileges. It's ridiculous that Windows
>> > should tell me what I can and can't do with my own computer... any
>> > suggestions? Thanks.
>>

You can shrink certain partition using "Computer Management".

"LordAmeth" wrote:

> My new laptop (running Vista Home Basic) came with a HD partition - 40GB for
> "OS C:/" and 10GB for "Recovery D:/". I am looking to make the best use of
> this space, but cannot seem to find any way to give myself equivalent
> permissions on D: as I have on C:. It seems hardwired into Vista to have
> Windows Defender protect D: from alteration w/o that extra step of
> confirmation. I can move files there if I make that extra click, but anything
> that is ongoing in the background, such as downloading to that folder, is
> blocked.
>
> I have tried altering the security permissions, and got an "Access Denied"
> error message. I am the only "user" on this computer, so it's not a matter of
> someone else granting me admin privileges. It's ridiculous that Windows
> should tell me what I can and can't do with my own computer... any
> suggestions? Thanks.