I'm trying to help out a friend set up a backup procedure for his Lenovo A730. It's an All In One computer running Windows 8.1 64 bit OS. I've never worked on this type of PC so I'm just having to rely on my knowledge of other setups. I want to shrink the C: partition and create a D:\Backup on what space I can recover from the 900GB Boot Volume. I've had problems with HP's and others with the Windows System Partition, the Boot Partition, and a Recovery Partition. If you shrink the Boot Partition and create another one, it converts the entire disk to a Dynamic Disk, and although the PC works fine there are problems accessing the Dynamic Disk. I didn't want that to happen again, so I asked him to send me a copy of the partition layout. When I took a look at it, I was lost. I had never seen so many partitions on one drive. I'm assuming that the drive is formatted UEFI and I also have no experience with that type of drive either. What I'd like to do is to shrink the C:\ Boot drive from 900GB to maybe 450GB and use the new partition to store Weekly/MOnthly Acronis Images. Usually when I do this for the first time, I create an image of the entire drive, all partitions, and then subsequent Images, are just of the Boot Drive and the System Partition. Acronis usually defaults to those two. Then the various Images can be copied off to an external drive for safe keeping should the internal drive fail for some reason. But this setup is way different than any I have seen. My questions are: 1.) Can I shrink the C:\Boot drive and create a D:\Backup partition without creating any Dynamic Disk or other problems? 2.) What are all of those other Partitions for, and do they need to be Imaged along with the System Partition and the Boot Partition for an Image Backup? 3.) Why do they all show 100% free space except the Boot Partition? 4.) If they are all empty, are they needed? 5.) If they are not needed, can they be deleted? The guy lives in another state, so everything is going to be done over the phone or TeamViewer. Appreciate any help. Thanks,
1000 MB (Recovery Partition) – This partition contains Windows Recovery Environment tools and utilities. 260 MB (EFI System Partition) - UEFI firmware loads files stored on the EFI System Partition to start installed operating systems. 500 MB (OEM Partition) – Boot loaders to launch OEM manufacturer-specific recovery tools. 904 GB - Windows 8.1 OS 350/450 MB (Recovery Partition) - The 350 and 450 MB partitions were added during the update to Windows 8.1. The 350 MB was added during one update, and the more recent 450 MB was added after a Reset during the second update. 24 GB (Recovery Partition) - This partition contains the recovery image that would be restored to the system drive if the Refresh or Reset option in Windows is used. edit: Here is info about the 350/450 MB recovery partition: eightforums.com/installation-setup/39197-unable-use-built-asus-recovery-partition-2.html#post330641