What is HP RECOVERY (D partition?

1) It is basically your dedicated system restore location in case you have to use Windows system restore back to a later date.

2) Is it needed is up to you. If you backup your data often & don't come across many errors than it is probably not need. If you find yourself doing a lot of "restores" than it is probably worth it.

It's where the HP factory image is stored. If you ever want to roll the system back to "original", you will need it. It's nothing to do with Windows' restore feature.

keep it, do not delete this partition. Also burn the recovery DVD and put them in safe place. You will need these DVDs if hard drive fails and cannot access the recovery partition.

As said it is a partition with the imaged files (and perhaps the backup software as well).

Certainly you can delete it but we suggest that you leave it alone.

What is a backup partition? Say you totally screwed up your windows with a ton of virus' spyware and who knows what else. In that case you can start the restore option and re-install your windows to brand new.

Is that useful? To the average user yes.

I know this is an old thread but my situation is slightly different. I upgraded from Windows Vista to 7 on my laptop a few months ago and it retained the partition, which I did not want ($30 upgrade with a verifiable student e-mail account, well worth it). I did a clean install, so there is no HP software on my drive (thank goodness). Is it okay if I wipe it and use the space? Under properties it shows that I am using 10.4G of 11.9G, but there are no files in this partition. Even if I unhide my files it has nothing. I have a system restore disk and I manually backup (image and data) on a regular basis. Regular for me is about once every 1-2 weeks depending on what programs I have installed or uninstalled. I could really use the space on this laptop since it only has a 160G HDD. Furthermore, if it really does contain the original HP image and/or Vista then I can honestly say that I do not want it.