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    What's this 86mb partition doing?

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by srr, Jun 19, 2008.

  1. srr

    srr Notebook Geek

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    Hey guys
    When I got my Inspiron 1720 I immediately clean-installed over all the partitions I could see in the set up (including media direct). So I thought I had made myself a 10 gig partition and a Vista partition, but whn I checked Disk Management, I found this tiny 86mb partition that didn't show up in Window's setup and can't be opened, deleted, or examined in any way. Do you guys know what's up with this? My main question is:
    Does this little partition activate windows when you clean-install on a Dell? Basically I want to DBAN the drive. If I do, obviously I'd lose the little 86mb guy. Will windows still automatically activate when I install it?
    Thanks
    [​IMG]
     
    srr, Jun 19, 2008
    #1
  2. Anomaly10

    Anomaly10 Notebook Evangelist

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    Pretty sure that's the recovery partition. Not sure about the automatic windows activation if you get rid of it.
     
    Anomaly10, Jun 19, 2008
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  3. srr

    srr Notebook Geek

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    The "empty 10gig partition" was the recovery partition until I formatted it, so the 86mb partition couldn't be the recovery...
     
    srr, Jun 19, 2008
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  4. namaiki

    namaiki "basically rocks" Super Moderator

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    It's might be the Dell Diagnostics, I wouldn't know because I erased the whole hard drive before I even looked...
     
    namaiki, Jun 19, 2008
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  5. Thomas

    Thomas McLovin

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    No, I deleted Dell diagnostics, it was a few gigs.
    So his 86MB partition wont be that.
     
    Thomas, Jun 19, 2008
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  6. ScifiMike12

    ScifiMike12 Drinking the good stuff

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    Are you sure you deleted the Dell Diagnosis as that is usually less than 100MB.

    You most likely deleted the MediaDirect partition.
     
    ScifiMike12, Jun 19, 2008
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  7. srr

    srr Notebook Geek

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    When I got the laptop, like, right out of the box, there were the following partitions
    -Vista's large system partition
    -Media Direct partition
    -Recovery partition
    -The mystery 86mb partition

    When I did a clean install, the 86mb one did not show up in setup. As a result, I chose to:
    -Keep the recovery partition (which I later formatted into an empty 10gb partition)
    -Merge the media direct and system partitions into one system partition

    Obviously Dell doesn't want you to delete the 86mb one. You can't touch it through Disk Management in Windows and it didn't show up in the Windows partition setup during installation. Does anyone know what purpose this partition serves, and if I can safely delete it and still activate windows automatically? If so, I plan to use DBAN on the drive and do another clean install. I want to have control over ALL the space on the drive.
     
    srr, Jun 19, 2008
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  8. paper_wastage

    paper_wastage Beat this 7x7x7 Cube

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    well, its 100% free...... empty partition... kinda weird
     
    paper_wastage, Jun 19, 2008
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  9. srr

    srr Notebook Geek

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    Can anyone confim the existance of this mystery OEM partition on their Dells?
     
    srr, Jun 19, 2008
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  10. chelet

    chelet Notebook Deity

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    I have the 86MB partition on my M1330.
    It is the Dell Diagnostics partition.
    You can't read what's on it using Windows (the way you can look at what's on the recovery partition). But you can boot to and run the diagnostic utilities (though I'm not sure what happens if you reformat).
     
    chelet, Jun 19, 2008
    #10