Strange Dell Partitions?

I have two volumes, status is Healthy on both, one is a Primary Partition and the other EISA Configuration, one is 2.5GB and the other 78MB.

1 They have no name or letter assigned to them. Could I delete them?

2 The recovery partition is 3GB too big, would it be possible to just shrink it down?

Cheers

 

Yes, you can delete them. One is the Media Direct partition, only useful if you use the Media Direct button (Be wary though, if you do use that button, it can apparently mess up your system to an extent if the partition isn't present). The other one is just diagnostic apps.

It should be possible to shrink the recovery partition. I don't believe any new files are added to that partition after it's been setup. Though feel free to correct me if I'm wrong on that point

 

Mess it up? Where is the button and if I push it, will it permanently mess up the system?

Also, it is weird because I can only shrink my OS drive to only 110GB or something of the like. No idea why it won't go lower :S Will it be better booting Vista from the start? EG. changing primary boot device to DVD drive? If so, how do I go about doing so?

 

The MD button, on my Inspiron, is to the left of the button, with an icon of a house on it.

From having read around, I think what it does is rewrites some part of the partition information (Only if the MD partition isn't present though) and stops the OS from booting. Not sure if a repair fixes it or not, someone with experience would have to shed light on that.

Vista is a fussy OS when using it's own partition manager. It likes to take up half the available space, I think due to system restore. But you can alter this, using GParted etc to shrink it beyond the inbuilt constraints.

Changing the primary boot device will only really add a couple of extra seconds to your boot time at most.
First it'll check what's in the drive (A few moments). Then, if it's bootable media, it'll put up the message "Press any key to boot off the disc". If you don't press a key in the time limit (A couple of seconds), it'll continue to booting off the HDD.
You'd set this option in the BIOS. Do a restart, and on the first screen with DELL written across it, hit F2 to access the BIOS. I prefer to leave it booting off the HDD, and using F12 for a "one-time" boot menu (Very very hand IMO).

 

Be wary about deleting the MediaDirect partition. Dell uses modified boot code which instructs the hard disk to report less space than it actually has so as always leave space for the MediaDirect partition, even if you delete it from the partition table. You need first to delete the partition, and then modify the boot code using a disk editor to disable Dell's specific code, and after that use something like http://hdd-tools.com/products/cr/download/ to recover the space on the hard disk. Look at this thread http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=115907 for more information.

 

There is a few things, for anyone new reading this thread or "newely" discovering that their new dell's HD's are somehow "smaller" than they expected. There are at LEAST two, usually THREE hidden partitions (not visible normally to the operating system- meaning you won't see them unless you do certain things).

These are the
DE partition (around 47-49mb at the front of the drive)
Then C:\ (the one you CAN see)
The DSR partition (usually 4-8gb) and
the hidden partition in the HPA (around 2gb)

Sometimes there is another partition you can find, but for now...
MOST PEOPLE are missing around 5-9gb on their AS SHIPPED dells.

OK.
Here's the scoop...

1) First, do you use or EVER WILL use Media Direct? IF you like the IDEA of it, just LEAVE your hard drive alone. Especially if you're just going to eventually upgrade the HD- is those -2gb really THAT important to you>?

2) your dell ships with a hidden HPA partition- if you don't know what that is even more reason to leave it alone. Just make SURE YOU NEVER EVER EVER do a "disk-to-disk" copy from your old hard drive (current that is) to an upgraded BIGGER one, or it will truncate the size essentially FOREVER (for all intents and purposes except for hard core geeks like me) to the smaller hard drive size (the one you currently have) negating the upgrade to the bigger disk. IF you don't know or understand this don't bother learning- trust me on that. If you don't know it, skip it and just NEVER GhOST YOUR OLD DISK TO A NEW ONE. NEVER DO IT. Got it?
Again- trust me on that one.
(it is more than a pain, you might spend weeks learning how to do this- or to fix the problem after you mess up. Even computer experts don't know how to do this, so don't think you can turn it over to someone- you can't).

3) do you want or think you'll ever do a FAST complete restore (did you know about this?) using a two-key combination at boot, to return your system to an "AS SHIPPED" state (like how it first showed up when you first turned it on, if you got a new system- or not)??? If so, there is a GHOST image built into a middle "hidden" partition called the "DSR" -this can be up to, on a stock install image, something like 5-7gb (probably not more). IF you use one of the above links to read more, you can BURN THIS IMAGE to DVD's and then delete this DSR partition, or shrink it to almost nothing (4m?) but you'll for CERTAIN loose the "ctrl+f11" complete restore option at boot... however, with a HD failure you'll not be able to use this, and even though DVD's go bad sometimes, usually that takes a bit, so store them in a "cool dry place" eh? Problem solved.
It's kinda nice to be able to hit two keys at boot, confirm at a dialog that indeed you want to restore then go make some coffee and be back to your brand new laptop setup... especially if you store all your files off the main HD and don't mind reinstalling your favorite apps (or learn from the above links how to UPDATE THE GHOST2003 IMAGES IN THE DSR...*wink*)...!!!
---note---REMOVING THE DSR partition will usually "break" the Media Direct functions, at least for CERTAIN on laptops with the HPA OR running MD2+ (with Media Direct 3+ they changed where it was stored on the HD, so you can mess with the partition tables and not loose the media direct button function)!!!!---------




The DE partition is just the Dell Utilities thing for diagnostics- do you REALLY MISS the extra 48mb? Just leave it unless you know what you're doing or will NEVER EVER loose the CD's... it's handy in an emergency!

So

That's why your HD is smaller than shipped.
...

Using something like PArtition Magic you CAN make a new partition to store data on, or whatever, but this will be WIPED in a complete system "Ctrl+f11" restore function, should you choose this, AND the Media Direct version2 won't work- so you'll need to upgrade your CYBERLINK POWERCINEMA player to at least version 4.7 to use MEdia Direct 3 or higher...

It gets complicated fast.

Do you USE media Direct?
do you WANT the ctrl+f11 complete system restore to original factory specs (or your updated images you put in the DSR)?
Do you think or will you EVER use the Dell Diagnostics (or if you have the CD/DVD and won't loose it...)???

If no to all, then low-level wipe and format the drive.
MANY TOOLS WILL NOT recover the HPA to a formattable section.
There are some that will, so read the above links- otherwise you'll do all this work and still be missing 2gb at least!

*chuckle*
(p.s. I just bought a new HD, and put the old one after some changes, into a USB carrier... in a pinch I can restore the image to it after swapping it out back into my XPS... but I'm a geek and spent a WEEK learning and another WEEK doing this stuff, updating the DSR images and setting up the MBR in the bigger drive to replicate the HPA on the smaller in the ghost... ahh forget it.)

*Grin*
Welcome to Dell!

p.s. they don't do this anymore with Media Direct 3+ -it installs normal!

If no to the above,

 

What is the media Direct button and how do I know not to start it?

 

One thing I should've thought of asking last night... What laptop do you have?
Then we should be able to point out where (If there is one) the media direct button is

tangograndma - Another reason to mention why HDDs are smaller than quoted is because of the difference between GB and GiB. That particular marketing loophole really annoys me. To think that on a 500GB HDD we're losing over 30GiB of space

 

Crap! I thought I stated M1530 somewhere

Anyway it's the M1530.

 

I found that when I wanted to dual boot (Vista/XP), I had to remove one of the existing partitions (I got a message that said I could only have 4 and that is what I have). So I imaged the Restore partition and saved it as an image file. Then deleted the partition (but kept the 10G unpartitioned space). I then shrunk my C: partition and created a new partition (which became D: ) that I put XP on.

Don't know if I can reimage the Restore partition later, but it is there just in case.

 

Visionz: The MediaDirect button is on the newer dell laptops, up near the wireless/caps locks LED's- (to the left). Can't miss it if you have the thing. Can't screw anything up if you hit it, unless you already are geekin' out with partition table editing and got a bit over your head (translated, you're safe unless you're having fun at 4am typing weird digits in some hex code. don't know what I'm talking about? =SAFE!). The 1530's are sweet little machines (don't you love dell?) and I think one of the absolute nicest out there for what they were designed for- so it if fits your needs and you like it, you got a great little machine there!

-oh if you WANT MediaDirect, you can still DL it as I recall (p2p froma friend or something? Technically it's free to dell customers/users from what I understand... OR just buy "CyberLink POWERCINEMA 5 or something (same application essentially) or NERO 8 full...

LordBug: Yeah; the bits/bytes/bugs bit is a bit of a bugger for most bungs. Sorry I'm tired. too manyMBR edits tonight. In the CASE OF THESE DELLS, there is STILL some exporbandly (huh?) exorbant amount of MISSING HARD DRIVE SPACE. Arggghhhh!!! Most users come on here (it's how I re-discovered the forums myself) wondering WTHeck is going on... well Dell tucked some stuff away from prying eyes and forgot to mention that to ya in the ads. it's one thing to be off 3-4gb ever 100gb, it's another to be missing something like that 3-4 AND another 10-!!!
*chuckle*

but great point- yeah kiddies, DOUBLE CHECK your math. But if you got a "dell, dude" you got a HPA probably too, and NO pennacillin won't fix it. You'll need two days and call me in the morning.

Mikla...
Actually if you got the image files on DVD you can run them from Ghost2003 boot disk and wipe your drive back to the shipped state. Try it! (I did for some of my tests...talk about sweating... but it all worked fine! 20 minutes later after a complete low level format I was back in business with 2 weeks of software cleanly installed and chirping along. YAY!!!

If you want to get rid of that HPA on a Dell, and not ever worry about all the bizniss with the MD stuff (which changed with vista, but not for the better quite yet, considering) there are two things I've used that are simple and I recommend so far

Roadkil's tool/apps "Sector Editor" and "Disk Image"... (I'll edit this or drop me a note and I'll send ya the free file if I can't find his site..nope can't find it)
=
and
http://www.hdd-tools.com/products/cr/download/ -grab the "crsetup.exe" it's a HDD editor for killing that HPA as I recall.