Lenovo Disk Partitions

Question

My disk is partitioned as so:

(Full sized image)

...And I'm a little confused, and have some questions:

• Would the recovery/EFI/OEM partitions not exist unless they are being used? If not, safe to remove these partitions?
• The only thing in D:\ is D:\Lenovo\OneKey App\OneKey Recovery\default.okd. If I can get OneKey to move its files somewhere else, safe to remove this partition?
• What is an OEM/EFI partition?

I have a Lenovo Ideapad z510 with Windows 8.1 (soon to be 10).

Solution

A quick summary of this answer: don't get rid of any partitions other than the Lenovo (D:) partition. You'll regret it sooner or later.

As pat2015 said in the comments, don't touch the EFI System Partition. That would be... pretty bad.

As for the OEM partition, you could probably safely remove it, as it should be a customized recovery partition, but it's only 1GB in size and it's better to keep it than get rid of it and need it later.

Recovery partitions, again, you could get rid of safely, but it's not worth it. If you ever need it, you'll seriously regret getting rid of it.

The Lenovo partition, on the other hand, you can definitely get rid of. If you get rid of OneKey or get it to move its files, then there's nothing left on it and you can get rid of it.

Comments

[patkim]

EFI is required for UEFI booting. This holds the EFI boot loader files.If you delete this partition system will not boot. if you want to create new partitions don't touch EFI and recovery/OEM partitions, use Partition shrink function from within the Disk Administration in windows and shrink C: to desired size. You will have ample free space to create new partitions..just in case.

[Moab]

Make an image of the entire hard drive before you tamper with partitions.

[Quelklef]

@pat2015 OK, what about D:?

[0xF]

It is unclear why you want to remove the partitions. For a fresh install of Windows, it's completely safe to delete all the partitions.