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Posted by Timothy Daniels on July 9, 2008, 2:17 pm
Please log in for more thread options "Andrew Wan" wrote:
>I have a Dell Vostro 1400 laptop with Windows Vista. I learnt about
> the F8 "Advanced Recovery Options". Dell has a SPECIAL option called
> "Factory Default Restore Image"... whereas normal Windows Vista
> Advanced Recovery Options don't have this last SPECIAL option.
>
> Since I just bought this new laptop, I decided to TEST the recovery
> features NOW rather than LATER. So I used the "Factory Default
> Restore Image" via F8. It worked really well and is very similar to OEM
> "sealed" out-of-box experience with Windows XP back in the old days.
>
> Partitions are like:
>
> /dev/sda1 fat16 117.63MB (63/240974)
> /dev/sda2 ntfs 10GB (241664/21213183) RECOVERY
> /dev/sda3 ntfs your_size (?/?) OS
> /dev/sda4 extended your_size (?/?)
> /dev/sda5 fat32 2.5GB (307337216/312578047) MEDIADIRECT
>
> The only visible partition is C:\. I want to have C:\ OS & D:\
> PERSONAL_DOCS partitions. Since we are only allowed 4 top-
> level primary partitions I had to resize /dev/sda3 OS partition down
> to 32GB from 110GB. Then I enlarged /dev/sda4 extended partition
> from 2.5GB to 100GB to fill the space created from C:\. I then
> created a logical partition within the extended partition... which is
> now D:\ of 100GB.
>
> I used PartedMagic GParted to resize partitions.
>
> Everything looks good. Now I want to test whether Dell's Factory
> Restore Image will nicely fill in NEW C:\ and keeping my NEW
> D:\ untouched. My F8 option has totally changed. Somehow
> Windows Vista found the MBR corrupted and replaced it with
> generic MBR. My F8 is now generic boot options... with no
> Advanced Recovery Options.
>
> Does anyone know how to get the Dell's special MBR again?
Forget the Dell special MBR. (In fact, Dan Goodell maintains that
the Dell MBR is exactly the standard Microsoft MBR.). And forget
the System Recovery partition. That is only of value in the first few
days or weeks of ownership before you add a few dozen OS updates,
app files, data files, system settings, email and appearance settings,
and you install subscribed software such as anti-virus utilities.
Your first mistake was resizing and adding to a Vista Extended
partition using a pre-Vista partition editor (i.e. Gparted). (See
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/partitions.html .) Vista uses a non-
standard 2,048-sector offset in its partitions, and Dell uses a mix of
standard 1-cylinder offset for its Primary partitions and a Vista offset
for its Extended partition that contains MediaDirect (again according
to Dan Goodell in private communication). The result is that by
futzing with the partitions, the average user is bound to screw things up.
Dell has caught a lot of flak for that, and its MediaDirect contractor
has been busy authoring a version 4.0 of MediaDirect that is not so
fragile. In the meantime, the best thing to do is to clone your Vista
partition to backup media. Utilities like Casper can clone Vista down
to a 20GB partition if you haven't added a lot of app and/or data files
to the basic installation. (Yes, I meant "clone", not "image file".) Then
say goodbye to MediaDirect and delete all the partitions. Then, using
a pre-Vista partition editor such as Gparted - either from live CD
or from live USB stick like I do - create all the partitions you need.
Then re-clone the cloned Vista back to its new partition, letting it take
up all the space in the new partition. Don't re-install MediaDirect - it
will only screw up your disk again, and don't use Vista to do any
partition editing - Vista will be just as happy using a pre-Vista partition
as it would with a Vista partition. Then use the Vista installation CD's
Repair Console's Command Prompt to run "bootrec /fixmbr" to restore
the standard Microsoft MBR. Also run "bootrec /rebuildbcd" to fix
up the BCD store to accomodate Vista's new location. You might
also have to run "bootrec /fixboot", but I didn't. Your hard drive will
then contain standard partitions that can be edited and used by a
universe of utilities and you won't have a mish-mash of hybridized
partitions to deal with.
*TimDaniels*
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