Alienware partition (8.92GB) - m15X

Hello,

Is there a particular reason why I wouldn't want to delete the pre-installed alienware 'EISA Configuration' partition? It's almost 9GB. I'm planning to set up a dual-boot system with linux and I can really use all the GBs I can find.

Whats the point of the partition if I already have a system recovery DVD?

Kind regards,

KAding

 

Well I personally kept the partition just because you never know. Your right it is a lot of space and really. Just in case I lowered that partition down to 4 gigs since it was only using 3.5 . I have a 4 OS on mine I still have a good bit of space I just save all my big files on a separate usb hard drive

 

as your asking about partitions i hope you dont mind if i ask one as well.

as a dj i have about 10gb of songs stored on my computer as a back up. my fujitsu siemens came with a 11.7gb data D drive that was empty so i put the music in there. in total i have over 85gb of music so when i get my m15x with its 200gb hard drive i would like to add another genre to the music file.
now if like KAding mentioned above about the pre configured 8.92gb partition would it cause problems if i also added another 20gb partition.
i also have 3 backup external Hard Drives just in case of any **** ups.

 

no it won't I have already partitioned my m15x with 4 partitions

 

So it won't break anything if I delete the partition? On my Dell deleting the partition broke the 'Media Direct' feature for example. AlienFX and whatnot is not being stored there? This is really just for recovery purposes? A recovery that can just as well be achieved by using the recovery DVD?

Sorry for all the questions. I'm just unsure what that 8.92GB is. Is it simply a mirror file or actually something useful?

 

It will restore your computer I have not tried it but I have booted into it. No it does not store the AlienFX. Also to be honest I don't own the recovery DVD so I can't tell you whats on it. It might be use to you one day. My advice just keep it until you really need the space.

 

Talking about partitions, I can only make one 60 gb partition on the m15x and the remaining 110 gb is C drive. Stupid Vista wont let me make any more. Is there another way to do so? A reliable free software maybe?

 

gparted live cd

 

Ive hear of it but it seems to need to make a Linux boot disc or something ? A bit too much effort but I am willing to try if its reliable?

 

Very reliable but you have to be very very careful. Its not to hard you download the iso. Burn the image to a cd then boot from that cd.

 

I had a similar problem. You need to defragment your drive with something like
- PerfectDisk 2008
http://www.raxco.com/products/downloadit/pd_download_home.cfm

It is not free, but the evaluation version does all that you need. None of the freeware defrag utilities worked for me.

Do a normal 'SmartSize' defrag first. Then defragment the system files. That will require a reboot so that PerfectDisk can run a defrag during boot time. I actually had to do both several times before I had my Vista partition down to about 30GB using the 'shrink volume' tool in Vista.

 

The GParted Live CD failed to work on my m15X though, I just got a black screen.

I also read that GParted Live might break the Vista boot (which would require you to use to do a repair using the Vista installation CD).

 

ive been told partition magic is the best to use. i think its on a 30 day free trial.

 

Unfortunately Partition Magic is incompatible with Vista, so that's not an option. It's too bad, I always used Partition Magic on my old XP machine whenever I wanted to experiment dual-booting with various OSes and it was very straightforward.

 

gparted live works 100% on my m15x and it doesn't mess up my vista boot I just have to make sure that it has the boot flag. Anyway something else you may want to try is Paragon Partition Manager. Partition magic kinda stinks IMO