If you reformatted properly all the old junk would be gone no matter if there is a recovery partition or not. On most machines the OS never sees this partition anyways...
patio, I believe he's means using the Recovery partition for format and reinstall all the original software. That's how it would work, right? So, indeed, if the computer came with Norton Internet Security Suite, HP Games, Vongo, RealPlayer, etc., etc., all that would get reinstalled by using the Recovery partition, unless it's gives him the option to only install Windows, and apparently he did not see such an option when he previously used the procedure.
iamasupermidget, doesn't the computer have an item on the Programs menu called Recovery Manager or something similar? I bought a Compaq Notebook PC about a month ago and it has that, and the purpose of it is to initiate the recovery/restore procedure.
You do want the ability to format and reinstall your OS if necessary, right? So, you either need to keep that Recovery partition as it is, or create, i.e. burn, recovery disks from it, or call HP and request they send a disk. I believe a small fee is normally required for this.
If you create recovery disks or get them from HP, then you can safely format D and use it for other purposes.
With my Compaq Notebook, Recovery Manager has an option to remove the Recovery partition. It's under Advanced options of the Recovery Manager.
