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    massive restore partition ?????????

    Discussion in 'Dell' started by Tinderbox (UK), Nov 29, 2006.

  1. Tinderbox (UK)

    Tinderbox (UK) BAKED BEAN KING

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    Hi.

    my uncle has just bought an Dell Inspiron 1300, with an 60GB HD.

    the thing is he only has access to approx 38gb on his C drive.

    the D drive is i think a restore partition and it`s approx 14gb.

    that can`t be right can it, i must be mistaken. :eek:

    I have an 80gb HDD in my laptop and my restore partition is only 2gb.

    is their any way to format the format the D restore partion and then merge it with the C drive.

    another problem is that dell did not give him an XP home disk.

    thanks for any help.

    John.
     
    Tinderbox (UK), Nov 29, 2006
    #1
  2. Greg

    Greg Notebook Nobel Laureate

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    Sounds like they might have installed a lot more bloatware...

    1) Ask for the XP disc, it shouldn't cost more that $10-20.
    2) Ask for the MediaDirect installation disc
    3) Blow away the recovery partition using the XP disc you get in #1.
    4) Format everything and start over using the guide.
     
    Greg, Nov 29, 2006
    #2
  3. schnikies79

    schnikies79 Notebook Enthusiast

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    when i got my e1405, there were 4 partition. the tiny diagnostic partition, drive C:, drive D:, and the recovery partition.

    drive D: was just an empty backup partition. I used partition magic 8 to get rid of it. i kept the recovery partition because it seems like it might be handy at some point. dunno.
     
    schnikies79, Nov 29, 2006
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  4. jim6172

    jim6172 Notebook Evangelist

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    I did a total acronis backup to my external drive, formated and deleted all partitions then reinstalled pro leaving 1.39gb unpartitioned for media direct runs much faster no bloatware (except your own)
     
    jim6172, Nov 29, 2006
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  5. Amber

    Amber Notebook Prophet NBR Reviewer

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    The 14gb is a backup partition, not restore. Laptops that were ordered between June and October of this year included a backup partition with Norton. Before June or after October did not have this partition.

    If you want to merge the two without formatting, you can uninstall Norton Ghost. It will ask you if you want to merge the two partitions together, select yes.
     
    Amber, Nov 29, 2006
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  6. Stephen M. Smith

    Stephen M. Smith Notebook Enthusiast

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    How come they stopped putting it on after October?
     
    Stephen M. Smith, Dec 5, 2006
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  7. Phillip

    Phillip Phillip J. Fry

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    lets say you didn't select yes but uninstaled ghost anyway...is there a way to merge the two partitions without reformating?
     
    Phillip, Dec 6, 2006
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  8. trade67

    trade67 Notebook Enthusiast

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    I am interested in merging my restore partition with the system partition as well. I know some high end tools do it (Partition Magic, Partition Manager), but I don't want to pay $$ for something I'll likely only use once. Are there freeware tools that merge partitions without reformatting?
     
    trade67, Dec 6, 2006
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  9. Phillip

    Phillip Phillip J. Fry

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    I'll echo that question.
     
    Phillip, Dec 6, 2006
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  10. dg1261

    dg1261 Notebook Geek

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    You should have an option in the Dell/Symantec Recovery Environment (Ctrl+F11 at bootup) to remove unused backup partition and merge its space with preceding partition.

    Another alternative is to use gparted ( sourceforge.gparted.net). It's very much like Partition Magic, but free.
     
    dg1261, Dec 6, 2006
    #10