I think Windows resizes/recreates the partition when it does this recovery file set-up (I’ve had it on a USB stick before).
Getting the disc space back is not too tricky (use something like Partition Wizard or a similar partitioning program), however getting the data back that was originally on the partition is a much more tricky proposition and something that I’m personally not sure of offhand (try a google search or something like that). But certainly don’t resize your partition back again until you’ve done such a check, as you could end up damaging any files that may remain on the now unused area of your disc.
