Windows 10: Laptop PC has 7 partitions can I delete them, 2nd owner

2-3 year old Dell laptop I bought used. I upgraded to Win 10 on release day early that day AM eastern time. PC was shipped with 8.0 and than updated to 8.1 prior to me purchasing it. I just saw that I have 7 partitions after I was digging around on the PC. Is this a factory thing or did the prior owner make a bunch of partitions. I've owned the PC a while now again ever since Win 10 first release to the public. It is running amazingly fast for a 2-3 year old PC. I keep it maintenanced and I'm protected from malware and other various threats.

Here are the partitions listed in order

Healthy - EFI System Partition - 500 MB and 500 MB free
Healthy - OEM Partition - 40 MB and 40 MB free
Healthy - 490 MB and 490 MB free
Healthy - 475 MB and 475 MB free
Healthy - 450 MB and 450 MB free
Healthy - 11.69 GB and 11.69 GB free
Healthy (Boot, Dump, Crash, Primary Partition) - OS (C*Smile NTFS 284 GB and 46 GB free

This is kind of a surprise as I haven't done any custom backing up. I'm pretty safe with my PC so I'm only using System Restore and nothing else currently. So I really need help if I can. If I can remove these or keep 1 for whatever I really want this HD space back. Thanks in advance and FYI I have done partitions on SD Cards for android phones. Nothing on PC though. I'm not a PC noob. I consider myself a intermediate enthusiast and I've never had to take a PC to a professional. I am a noob when it comes to partitions on a PC however. So I have no idea what should be there and what shouldn't be there.

:)

 

Deleted Files on a partition does not go to the Recycle Bin

Hi.

I have a laptop with 2 partitions, one for the system and software, and one for music, videos, games, etc.

When I delete stuff from the 1st partition, it goes to the Recycle Bin

When I delete stuff from the 2nd partition, it asks me if I want to delete it permanently.

I have checked the Recycle Bin properties and neither partition has the 'Don't move files to the recycle bin. Remove files immediately when deleted' unchecked.

How can I fix this

 

Windows 10 and deleting the hidden partitions

Does windows 10 need any of the hidden system recovery partitions?

Can I delete it?

I'm thinking about removing some of the hidden partitions on some pc's and laptops.

some of the hidden partitions are from the manufacture to restore back the original OS (win 7 , vista)

removing these partitions can restore about 500mb of space back

this would be great for laptops with limited HD space.

Rob

 

I'd say you could probably merge the middle 4 partitions

Healthy - 490 MB and 490 MB free
Healthy - 475 MB and 475 MB free
Healthy - 450 MB and 450 MB free
Healthy - 11.69 GB and 11.69 GB free

Keep the first 2 and the last one

 

Thanks. Now as far as the process. I have always just created a partition. I've never removed one. For example 60GB drive and than I made a 1 GB partition. So am I correct that just deleting the partitions is all I need? Or do I need to format them anyway and than delete them. I think mini-tool is the last program I used but its been a while. So my current 289 GB hard drive with 46 GB free would show 12-13 more GB's after these partitions are gone

 

Using the factory OS route to format the partitions doesn't allow me to do anything to any of the partitions. The route I tried is through Computer Management > Storage > Disk Management. Right clicking on each partition only gives me the "help" icon. Right clicking on the actual C: Drive gives me all the options. I'm using my main administrator account and also tried running the program as administrator again but still only showing the help button. So now I don't know what to do. All of these drives are free of space so I'm not sure what to do now.

Using diskpart nothing was doable. I just want to add that under disks and all partitions that they are all listed under Disk 0. The C: Drive is in the middle.

 

Try using MiniTool Partition Wizard Free

 

Before you go deleting partitions, if you post a screenshot of disk management with the columns widened so we can see all the info in them we can tell you which partitions are required to keep.

Also, from Command Prompt (Admin) run:
reagentc /info

Post the results and that will tell us the active recovery partition.

 

I'd also like to see your Disk Management.

Step 1: Download this zip file (contains dmDskmgr-vd.mmc)

dmDskmgr-vd.zip
Step 2: Double click dmDskmgr-vd.zip to open the compressed folder
Double click dmDskmgr-vd.mmc to launch the custom Disk Management console

Press Alt+PrtScn to grab a snapshot of just the Disk Management window
Open Paint and Ctrl+V to paste it, then save the image

Attach the image to a new post.
and ...

Command Prompt (Admin)
enter the following commands, grab a screen shot and exit command

diskpart
sel dis 0
lis par
exit

 

Here are the attachments you guys requested in order. Thanks for the time

 

Thanks for the information - perfect!

You can spend time now to gain about 12 GB and maybe have to reconfigure again after July 29 (not sure)

Right now, your system runs Windows Recovery (WinRE) off Partition 6 (475 MB) and points to an image on Partition 8 (11 GB).
Partition 8 looks to be the original Dell recovery partition, which doesn't do you much good since it probably has an image for a previous version of Windows on it. That could be fixed by copying the Win10 .wim file to it or by creating a Recovery Drive and then removing the partition.

Every user faces this upgrade issue where multiple recovery partitions get created.

With the so-called Anniversary update (aka RS1) coming soon, 29 July, I think it might be better to wait until after that update to do anything.

Even better, IMO, is to defer upgrades on July 27 and Clean install RS1 when it's available to download.
Even better still would be to get a new HDD or SSD for the Clean install if your budget allows.
In this process, your old HDD is removed from the machine (new drive replaces it) and serves as your backup in a USB enclosure.

Thinking out loud ...

 

Thanks. If I weren't going to wait 6 more weeks how would I delete that 12GB partition since when I right click on the volume it doesn't give me options but help. This is through the normal OS route in computer management I believe.

Will Redstone be a update like we've been getting or is it like a new OS type update with options to clean install, save files, etc like when Win 10 first hit

 

MiniTool Partition Wizard is much better for doing what you want to with your partitions than built-in Windows disk management:
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free

If you let Windows update install the Redstone update, it will be pretty much like a cumulative update. It will keep all your files and settings, but it will produce a windows.old folder and give the options to rollback in the advanced troubleshooting menu.

If you run the Redstone update from an ISO file (either created from the update install.esd file or with the Media Creation Tool), you will get all the options you have with a normal Windows 10 ISO file - clean install if you create a bootable media from the ISO file - or the usual system upgrade options if you run setup.exe from within your existing Windows.