Deleteing factory image and recovering the space

Hello;
I have a HP desktop running Vista Home Premium 64; it came with a factory restore image (D:/) it is almost 12 gigs with 10.5 used. I would like to delete it and recover the unused space to my c:/ drive. If I delete the D drive in disk management what is the procedure to recover it to the c: drive???

 

If it's physically located at the end of the drive then after deleting it you should be able to right click the C drive in disk management and expand it. If it's located at the beginning of the drive you may need a disk management program such as Partition Wizard to do what you want.

 

Just a further thought before you charge ahead. It's possible the MS server will require you to activate again if it decides you have moved your Vista to another machine.

 

Do you understand the purpose of the factory restore image (D:/)? It's there to provide a way to restore your system if necessary. If you delete that partition, you'll no longer have that capability. You can still delete the partition of have a restore disc if you create your own restore disc(s) from that recovery partition before deleting the partition.

Another option to provide a safety net against hard drive failure or some other situation where you needed to restore your system is to periodically create a drive image on an external hard drive using software such as one of the programs mentioned at http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-imaging-program.htm

 

Thank you both; for your timely info. I guess I will hold off and let D:/ live.