Factory Partition Questions... What is this partition for? Can i combine some? more..

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009098

New Member
Ok so i have my laptop and i havent cared much untill now because i am running out of internal HDD space... When i look at my partitions in Computer Management i see 4 partitions. Two of which i can access...

C: 79.13 GB NTFS (System)
D: 26.52 GB NTFS

questionalbe partition 1:
78 MB FAT (EISA Configuration)

Now if i understand correctly that is the boot partition for Extended Industry Standard Architecture to configure devices... am i right? Why do i need it? im sure i dont have any EISA parts, but i may be wrong...

Questionalbe partition 2:
4.64 GB FAT 32 (Unknown Partition) 742 MB free space

If i had to guess i would say this is where windows boots from... I read somewhere that windows can't boot from NTFS... So my question for this is what is it mostlikely for and what would happen if i deleted it...

Now for combining drives C: and D:... Can i use the Computer Management? All i do is delete D: and drag over C:? I dont want to buy partition Magic (or whatever it is called) soo what can i do now to combine?

Thanks for any help :)
 
questionalbe partition 1:
78 MB FAT (EISA Configuration)

Now if i understand correctly that is the boot partition for Extended Industry Standard Architecture to configure devices... am i right? Why do i need it? im sure i dont have any EISA parts, but i may be wrong...
Click to expand...

Don't fret over 78 MB - it's fine, I'd just leave it.

Questionalbe partition 2:
4.64 GB FAT 32 (Unknown Partition) 742 MB free space

If i had to guess i would say this is where windows boots from... I read somewhere that windows can't boot from NTFS... So my question for this is what is it mostlikely for and what would happen if i deleted it...
Click to expand...

That is most likely your Recovery sector of the Drive. So, if you ever need to reinstall Windows, that is the partition you would boot to in order to do so (refer to your laptop's manual for instructions).

If space is an issue and you have a combined 100+ GB of Drive space, freeing up 4.5 more is only a band-aid fix. Have you looked into an external drive you can hook up?
 
Yeah, don't go around deleting those partitions, you need them. Like Imsati said, if you need more space buy a bigger hard drive or an external.
 
009098 said:
I read somewhere that windows can't boot from NTFS...
Click to expand...

Windows can boot from an ntfs file system.

As others have said, those partitions are most likely recovery, this becomes all the more likely since it is a pre-built computer.
 
*Windows NT

And yeah, its a hidden FAT partition in fact, it just shows up as EISA for some reason. The hidden diagnostic partitions on compaq servers do the same thing.
 
ok, thanks guys... i have ohhh two or three external harddrives, but they are either slow, are ok speed but need external psu, and i dont like having them... but when i get a desk that i can put my laptop on so i can keep my stuff there. Its jsut annoying having the external drives on the outside... Last question... If i get a new harddrive to replace my curent one do i have to buy windows again or can i just get a backup copy from dell and use it to install windows?
 
Also im not sure if i have sata 1.5 or 3.0... Is there a way for me to find out? Cuz im not gonna buy a sata 3.0 HDD when i can only get half of that...
 
If you want to change the hdd that window's is installed on (if this is a prebuilt by dell) then you would have to purchase the OS itself. Either that, or you can borrow a buddie's windows disk and use the serial number on the side of your prebuilt system.
 
Vizy93 said:
If you want to change the hdd that window's is installed on (if this is a prebuilt by dell) then you would have to purchase the OS itself. Either that, or you can borrow a buddie's windows disk and use the serial number on the side of your prebuilt system.
Click to expand...

:( but i dont know anybody who would have xp media center and i like it lots... i may know someone with xp sp2...

So i guess what you are saying is that i will have to pay twice as much for a new OS... well i'll just have to wait longer, but thats ok... i guess i may as well get Vista while i'm at it....

Thanks
 
009098 said:
:( but i dont know anybody who would have xp media center and i like it lots... i may know someone with xp sp2...

So i guess what you are saying is that i will have to pay twice as much for a new OS... well i'll just have to wait longer, but thats ok... i guess i may as well get Vista while i'm at it....

Thanks
Click to expand...

NP dude. I know...it sucks a big one. The dell windows cd's are all coded to work with the hardware inside your computer at the time it was in the factory. That is why, when your mobo is fried, you must get a mobo from the manufacturer of your computer. The mobo is already 'tatooed' with the right stuff to get your OS CD working. I spent 30$ to find that out the hardway.
 
Vizy93 said:
NP dude. I know...it sucks a big one. The dell windows cd's are all coded to work with the hardware inside your computer at the time it was in the factory. That is why, when your mobo is fried, you must get a mobo from the manufacturer of your computer. The mobo is already 'tatooed' with the right stuff to get your OS CD working. I spent 30$ to find that out the hardway.
Click to expand...

yea, ive learned to hate dell and laptops the hard way... im never getting an expensive laptop again... I would get sony or something else snall and portable... and if i got another spensive one i would get one like voodoo or aliean ware... but next computer is homemade tower!... after i get a job... but yea, they are all like that. Even my dad's hp backup disk only works on his specific model. One would think that the hd's dell sells for mine ahould work... but they are only like 60 and 80 gb Thanks for your help
 
Vizy93 said:
NP dude. I know...it sucks a big one. The dell windows cd's are all coded to work with the hardware inside your computer at the time it was in the factory. That is why, when your mobo is fried, you must get a mobo from the manufacturer of your computer. The mobo is already 'tatooed' with the right stuff to get your OS CD working. I spent 30$ to find that out the hardway.
Click to expand...

You're thinking of a disk Image, which is completely different than a recovery CD. As for Big Brand CD's only working on their specific systems, that is true across the industry, not just Dell, and has been for well over 10 years; welcome to pre Y2K folks. I'm not certain what you meant by 'tatooed', but the only thing the MoBo has to do with it is BIOS. The Recovery CD, however, has *everything* to do with it. It will be specially branded and have extra code that tells it to look for the type of BIOS present; if it sees a familiar BIOS 'signature', it will proceed with the install, if not, nada.
 
actually, you can do it

the dell cds DONT use the key on the side of your machine, they use the dell volume licencing key (tied to bios). They are normally pre-activated and will say they need to activate (which will fail) if the BIOS is not dell.

if your motherboard dies, run nlite on the dell cd, and in the unnatended section, change the dell VLK to the one on the sticker

The sticker key isnt even an OEM key, its a full windows retail key!

I found that out on a dimension e510.

You will need to ring up when you activate (dell had issues whereby people would steal the keys off the stickers from public machines in libaries and stuff) but if you answer them correctly, you will have a legal, activated copy of window.
 
jdbennet said:
actually, you can do it

the dell cds DONT use the key on the side of your machine, they use the dell volume licencing key (tied to bios). They are normally pre-activated and will say they need to activate (which will fail) if the BIOS is not dell.

if your motherboard dies, run nlite on the dell cd, and in the unnatended section, change the dell VLK to the one on the sticker

The sticker key isnt even an OEM key, its a full windows retail key!

I found that out on a dimension e510.

You will need to ring up when you activate (dell had issues whereby people would steal the keys off the stickers from public machines in libaries and stuff) but if you answer them correctly, you will have a legal, activated copy of window.
Click to expand...

So what you are saying is that a dell backup disc would be all i need to install windows on a new HDD on my laptop?
 
Cuz im not gonna buy a sata 3.0 HDD when i can only get half of that...
Click to expand...
Even during bursts SATA HDDs can't use the full bandwidth of 1.5 Interface, you will lose absolutely no performance by plugging a 3.0 HDD in a 1.5 port.
 
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