Dell hidden partitions

Am getting a new 1545 and have been doing mucho research the past couple days regarding some initial setup things that I will be doing (EG: repartitioning existing drive & installing clean VISTA, and installing a new drive with XP Pro).

Discovered this forum last night and have learned even more reading & posting/asking up here. Thanks for this forum! I've learned more here than Dell's own user forum (not to diss that one, but this one is way better IMO).

But here's a topic I am getting confused on, after reading many different things, so I want to ask about this here. I understand that many PC sellers like Dell put hidden partitions on new PCs for various functions. Originally I thought that my new Dell would have something related to a "recovery" partition to reset the PC back to factory installs. But after reading more and more I think that is only part of the puzzle, that there may possibly be at least 3 different types of hidden partitions.

One for something called "Media Direct" that I think is just for booting up quickly without going into the opsys per se to do things like playing DVDs.

Another is for a Dell "diagnostic function" of some kind.

And another is for the "recovery partition" to allow restoring the PC to Dell's original configuration (I assume with all their bloat/crapware).

But I also think that a lot of what I've been reading on the 'net may be outdated & may not even apply to my new 1545.

What I would really like to understand for 100% is what hidden partitions will my new 1545 come with, what their actual functions are, decide which ones I really need vs. can live without, know if I need to do anything tricky to delete them if I want, and what if any consequences there could be if I do delete them (loss of warranty? loss of a useful function that I don't understand?).

Just off the top of my head, assuming that I have it right so far as to what any hidden partitions might be, I have no use for MediaDirect (so I'd like to delete that if it is there), I'm not sure about the diagnostic one (perhaps that might be useful but from what I know of tech support I doubt it), and I don't have much use for the recovery one but maybe I am overlooking something.

Any comments???

 

If the 1545 does have any hidden partitions then they will usually be visible in the disk management console (In administrative tools) and if it is a recovery partition then there should be some dell software for making recovery DVD's from that partition.

I would not delete the recovery partition unless you can make some form of recovery media from it because otherwise you have nothing to fall back on and if you need to send it back for repair they will not try to fix an operating system that they did not deploy themselves, and as for the warranty, check with dell because all companies have different policies

 

I don't think the Inspiron 1545 comes with media direct on a partition. If it did, you would have a Media Direct disc along with your other CD's/DVD's that came with your laptop. You'd also have a dedicated Media Direct button on the computer itself.

The Dell Diagnostics partition is useful, but it's also available from the Dell support site, and is on your "Drivers and Applications" CD

The Dell Recovery partition isn't burnable to disk like other companies, but unlike those computer makers, you have full discs for both Windows and your Drivers. The advantage to that is that you can do a clean install of Windows, without any crapware that you might not have deselected when building your notebook configuration online.

 

To be honest I can't remember if my Inspiron had a hidden partition - I thought it did, but it might not have done. It certainly does not have the media direct partition though.

 

All of the 1545's I've purchased have had hidden restore partitions.

As for backing everything up use Acronis.

 

Agree, Acronis is pretty useful. I'd recommend creating a restore disk once you have your computer setup as you like it; that way you don't have to mess about with all the settings / links / drivers etc if ever you need to restore. Of course any that have happened since the disc image creation will need to be re-done, but it will at least save some time and effort.

Unfortunately Acronis is not free, it is only available for free for a 30 days trial period I believe. I bought a copy though as I found it very useful and I believe in paying for software that I find useful, even donating some money when it's freeware I use a lot.

 

THanks Boo.

My laptop came this morning! There is no MediaDirect CD. (I haven't checked out what partitions are on it yet)

I'm still kind of confused as to whether I should bother keeping the Diagnostic or Recovery partitions. If the diags are available to run/install from CD (I guess that is on the "Drivers and Utilities" disc), why do I need the partition?

And if the recovery partition is an image of the bloatware inflated initial install that I don't even want to use, why keep it? Is the thinking to just have a way to get back to the initial install to please Dell if you have to send it back for them to diagnose a problem?

Cheers!

 

Definitely that is a great idea and something I want to look into. I used to use Norton ghost on my old win98 PC to make a hard drive image but haven't messed with that kind of thing in a long time. I will investigate Acronis....

 

Uggh.

My PC has 2 extra partitions.

The first is a 39mb parition that is "hidden" and has no "file system". It is marked as "EISA Configuration" and not assigned a drive letter. This must be the Dell diagnostic partition (?).

The other is definitely the recover partition and is NTFS, labelled "RECOVERY" and is sized at a whopping 14.65 gb! Of that space it is using "only" 6.84gb.

I will be researching all this further and deciding what I am going to do with this drive (which is going to be my VISTA bootup drive), but right now my preference is to delete both of these. When I buy a PC I just want the PC and a generic opsys to work with. I don't see these as giving me any benefit at all.

Right now am switching gears & going to get a new drive setup with XP PRO then I will come back to the VISTA puzzle later....wish me luck....thanks for the comments guys.

 

Norton Ghost is a good tool to be honest, and if you have a copy already then stick with that. Most people don't have that though, and they suggest Acronis due to the free trial 30 days, which allows you to create your image backup.

 

NP that's what we're here for!

Your correct, the EISA partition is the Dell Diagnostics partition and your right, the average user won't "see" it in vista unless they knew where to look.

Your also correct about the whole "Recovery" partition thing too, They put that there just as another way for users, mostly newbies, to recover their computer without having to fool around with disks.

What I did? I reformatted completely a looong time ago so I no longer have either the Recovery or Diagnostics partition. Since you can do a clean install using the Vista DVD and the Drivers and Software CD-(this disk, despite it's name, contains no bloat, just the drivers and Dell's QuickSet utility, and the Dell Diagnostics)

I think Media Direct is done, caused a few problems for people. I don't think they do it any more. If they did, you'd have the disc, as well as the dedicated "Launch MediaDirect" button on the chassis.

Good luck