My friend has emachine running Vista. She is getting a popup saying low disk space on recovery. It is the D partition. My question is -can she burn these files to disk and then delete them from D? Or is there a better solution? I can not find a clear answer anywhere on this.
Thanks so much

The Recovery Partition (D:\) is configured to run from settings already established on that machine.
It is not a complete or traditional "Installation disk media".
Generally the files are "protected" and you won't be able to access or copy them, except in manners already established in the machine's configuration.

One huge problem with D:\ partition recovery options comes into play if the Hard Drive fails or for some reason you cannot access the hard drive. Gosh, that's were my recovery files are located.... and I can't get to them when I need them.
This comes up less often than you might expect, but "just once" is too many.

Vista has a "one-time" function available that allows the owner/user to make a CD recovery disk set, or a single recovery disk on DVD. Check the options in Control Panel.

If your friend has not yet taken advantage of the function, that's the first next thing they should do.
Note: Doing so does not make it a good idea to delete the D:\ drive, it's just one additional recovery option.
Note: It's probably also the case that eMachine manufacturer has an option to send for a factory recovery CD/DVD.
Usually the CD will cost about $30 US plus postage and it is worth every penny of the cost.
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Manufacturers are relatively stingy when it comes to space allocated to D:\ , often just leaving a few hundred MB free space.

If anything else has been "saved" to D:\. that's what your friend should move to gain more free space.

Generally, nothing should touch D:\, thereby keeping it pristine in case of later need.

Let us know if there are other special circumstances involved in this situation.

Best Regards