Merging OEM Recovery with Windows 10 free Upgrade

[Guest WickedAdrenaline]

I recently did the free upgraded from Win 7 Pro/SP1 to Win 10.

I have an OEM Q:/ that is a recovery of Win 7. This Q:/ recovery drive is using almost 17Gigs.

I already did a USB recovery of it prior to upgrading to Win 10. I also have a windows.old that is 21.9Gigs.

I want to remove both of them. I plan on creating another USB recovery of Win 10 so I'll have a recovery of both.

So, my question is this... Since I'll have 2 USB recoveries of Win 7 & 10, would it be safe to use AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard to delete those partitions and not lose data or have problems after running the AOMEI program? I know its always best to back-up your files, but I can always download them from the cloud. I just don't want to run into a no startup or blue screen and have to re-install and re-download all the files!

I have found info on how to use AOMEI to remove the OEM Q:/ recovery drive but I'm not to sure how to remove the windows.old.

I also read that after 30 days Microsoft will delete the windows.old... Is this true? If so, what exactly will it remove and/or delete? Will it give back the 21.9Gigs that the *.old took?

I really don't plan on going back to Win 7 but will the USB recovery of Windows 7 work on its own without the OEM Q:/ Recovery drive?

Any feedback would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

W.A.

Hardware:

Thinkpad 11e 20D9 (Not a Yoga)

500 Gig HD

[Guest WickedAdrenaline]

Update: I went into Disk Management and found 2 smaller hidden partitions. I used to work on computers but that was many many years ago. I do know that they are NOT to be touched for any reason! I might regret it, if I do. Here is a screenshot of my drives.

[Guest WickedAdrenaline]

If anyone can just answer one simple question I have.. If I remove and merge the OEM Recovery Drive to C:/ will the USB recovery still work? Does the USB Recovery drive rely on the OEM's recovery?

[Brian Burgess]

nope.