Dell's partition... necessary? if not, how do i delete it?

the title says it all! for the 1520

 

Start > Computer > Right-Click > Manage > Disk Management

There will be one that's like 4-6GB depending on system, this is the recovery partition. That can be deleted no problem. Then there's a smaller like 25MB one that's for diagnostics, and is recommended by me to keep it there. You never know when you may need to perform diagnostics, and it's only 25MB

 

Does that 4-6GB partition become combined with the partition the OS is on? or does it stay its own partition?

 

it stays as its own partition on mjy computer, how do you integrate the two?

 

First you delete it, because it's a seperate partition. Then you expand your primary partition to absorb the free space

 

Does the disk management utility in Vista offer the ability to expand the primary partition into it?

 

i can't extend it it's grayed out

 

i also have a 2.5 gig partition, what's up with that

 

okay so i learned why you can't merge them, it's because the recovery partition, as dell cleverly puts it, is at the end of the disc, you can't merge partitions that arne't next to each other on the disc. and as to the 2.5 gig partition, i still don't know what that is.

 

Wouldnt one of the partitions be for the Media Centre?

 

Hello,

I just received my 1520 and its a beauty

Anyhow I will help as far as the partitions go.

The largest is obviously where your OS is installed, programs, etc.

The 10GB one (may vary) which is labeled RECOVERY is there to recover your system. To me it is a waste of space because I never want my system back to how Dell sent it with all this trash on it.

The 102 MB one is diagnostics. Might as well leave it because that is barely any space.

The 2.5GB one is Dell's Media Direct. This is the partition that contains Ubuntu and allows you to play MP3's and possibly video without booting Windows. Neat feature and I have the 160GB drive so I am keeping it.

I am going to boot from the CD-ROM and delete the RECOVERY parition and OS partion to make one out of both of those to reinstall Vista without the Dell junk on it.

Jared

 

I'm not 100% on this but you will want to make sure that those two partitions you plan on deleting are in deed next to each other in the HD. Thats one major caveat when joining partitions.

 

Well it worked fine for me. One thing I did have to do was install media direct within Windows because it gave some error when I tried booting media direct. It took like 10 seconds to install and media direct works just fine now. Either way my C: shows as 146GB and media direct works. So that seems fine to me for a 160GB drive.

Jared

 

Hmm can you tell me what filesytems are being used for the 10GB (recovery partition), 102 MB (Diagnostics partition) and the 2.5 GB (Dell Media Direct partition) ??

 

Actually you can merge them if the deleted parition comes after the windows installation partition.
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/tutorials/tutorial133.html

With the command line tutorial.
I was able to do this in Vista with my G1S, I had the recovery parition, windows, then a data one. I deleted my data parition via vista's GUI disk management. Then, I went to the command line and extended my windows parition to take up the free space... easy as that.

If you need to move it to the "left" or earlier on the disk I would suggest the live cd of GParted, it worked like a charm for me as well ^^


edit: baaah sorry, didn't see there was 2 pages to this thread.. but there is some more info on how to do it ^^;

 

Is there anyway I can merge F: with C: as seen in this screenshot:

http://img161.imageshack.us/img161/7220/captureyf4.jpg

I hope I'm not out of luck.

 

I don't think you can merge the partitions; you'll have to delete one and extend the other.

 

I'm not sure if the "recovery" partition is also the one used by Windows system restore, but if it is, I'd keep it, because System Restore has saved my butt before when installing a piece of software broke Windows. I used System Restore to quickly back out the installation, and everything was good again.

 

boot into vista with the f8 key this give you command prompt.. use diskpart built into vista works perfect.. here more info for everyone.. i use it all the time...

the dell partition is "hidden" and cant be done through admin tools.. it needs to be done via command line before vista actually starts and then it can be told to not be "hidden" using the switches in diskpart.. i can help if anyone needs it

http://searchwincomputing.techtarget.com/tip/0,289483,sid68_gci1241594,00.html

 

EDIT: zefactor got there before me.

 

Is Lojack one of the hidden partitions?

 

Actually Dell has provided a utility in the CDROM and I think in one of Dell's directory on your O/S drive to delete & merge the recovery partition automatically. I've read it here, and followed the instruction, and it works like a charm. Search it