Explain the partitions on Lenovo Y500?

Question

I have a Lenovo Y500 laptop, came with Windows 8, I updated it to Windows 8.1. I'm wondering what all the partitions do. Here is an edited screenshot of Disk Management:

^{(Click image to enlarge)}

I assume the partitions are the same for other Lenovo IdeaPads with Windows 8/8.1. I tried to install Ubuntu, but it's having issues. I would like to delete it completely, clean up my drive, and install again. I believe that the first 3 partitions are necessary for Windows, and I don't want to change them. I understand the C: drive.

The 2 after that (as labeled) contain my foobar Linux install. The one after that (350 MB Healthy Recovery Partition) is what I want help with. Does anyone know what this partition does? I've heard rumors that Lenovo's One Key Recovery is in a hidden partition, I'm wondering if it's that? If so, it won't work for me anyway, since I resized the C: drive already which apparently breaks One Key Recovery.

The D: drive is some Lenovo crap that I've backed up (contains device drivers and lots of empty space), and G: is completely empty (formerly a recovery position, but I put it on a USB drive). I want to delete my Ubuntu partitions, the mystery one, D:, and G:, and use it all for a new Linux install.

tl;dr: What's the mystery partition? Can I delete it?

Answer 1

If you want to.

I would however strongly suggest you make a proper backup of the HDD just in case. I deleted the extra partitions on my lenovo, and it boots no problem. You wont be able to do the recovery options though, so you'll have to restore the backup to do a recovery first, probably.

siamesedrummer, Did you ever get the bootloader working? And how was your support for the graphics card?

Answer 2

Lenovo says this is how the hard drive partitioning is broken down for Windows 8 users:

NOTE: The far left small Recovery Partition, EFI System Partition and Windows 8 operating system partition, is required by Windows 8. The larger Recovery Partition is the Lenovo created partition.

So windows makes a small recovery partition, Lenovo makes on, and the EFI system requires space as well. Although you have several recovery partitions, which makes little sense to me.

If you're on the more adventurous side, I also had a Lenovo Y-series with a messy partition scheme, and opted to completely reinstall my OS and wipe all partitions. It seemed to be the cleanest way to solve it.