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partitioning dell harddrive rkwlam 03-16-2005
Posted by rkwlam on March 16, 2005, 1:35 am
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 I had to get a Inspiron 6000 after killing my 5150 (poured tea on the
keyboard). The problem is that tech support is totally unable(or
unwilling) to help me with partitioning this drive whereas they had no
reservations whatsoever in helping me with the 5150. Because of old
legacy programs, I need to keep my drive configuration the same: C, D,
E, F and G. The computer comes with three partitions, a basic FAT
partition of 55MB, then a basic NTFS partition of 33.64GB which
contains the C drive and finally a 3.55GB partition at the end.

What I would like to do is combine the last two partitions and
repartition them into my C, D, E, F and G drives.

1: Can I delete what Dell has on the 3.55GB third partition and recover
the space?

2: Can I then repartition it and the NTFS partition into what I need?

I'd hate to have to FDISK and reload WinXP and all the drivers since I
had a devil of a time when doing that with the 5150. However, if all
else fails, can I do that and just leave the 55MB of FAT at the
beginning of the drive and have my own partitions after that?

Thanks for any help

Ron



Posted by Joe Davis on March 19, 2005, 6:52 pm
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 Partition Magic will do what you want. The Dell FAT partition has some
utilities that might come in handy if you have a problem--there is really
not enough space there to worry about--I'd leave it alone.


>I had to get a Inspiron 6000 after killing my 5150 (poured tea on the
> keyboard). The problem is that tech support is totally unable(or
> unwilling) to help me with partitioning this drive whereas they had no
> reservations whatsoever in helping me with the 5150. Because of old
> legacy programs, I need to keep my drive configuration the same: C, D,
> E, F and G. The computer comes with three partitions, a basic FAT
> partition of 55MB, then a basic NTFS partition of 33.64GB which
> contains the C drive and finally a 3.55GB partition at the end.
>
> What I would like to do is combine the last two partitions and
> repartition them into my C, D, E, F and G drives.
>
> 1: Can I delete what Dell has on the 3.55GB third partition and recover
> the space?
>
> 2: Can I then repartition it and the NTFS partition into what I need?
>
> I'd hate to have to FDISK and reload WinXP and all the drivers since I
> had a devil of a time when doing that with the 5150. However, if all
> else fails, can I do that and just leave the 55MB of FAT at the
> beginning of the drive and have my own partitions after that?
>
> Thanks for any help
>
> Ron
>




Posted by ron on March 19, 2005, 11:27 am
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Thanks for the reply, Joe.

Unfortunately, I've started to do a clean install. I've got XP back up
and running but there are definitely tweaks and adjustments still
needed to get things running right...but at least it wasn't quite as
painful as the clean install I did on the 5150.

By the way, I assume you are talking about the 55MB FAT partition
before the C drive. Just out of curiosity, anything crucial in the
3.55GB FAT32 partition after the C drive?



Posted by Joe Davis on March 20, 2005, 4:35 am
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I've never seen Dell use the 2nd partition--the 55MB FAT partition is
standard Dell--my guess is the other partition had some other purpose.

By the way, I'd still recommend getting a copy of PartitionMagic or
something similar and creating a drive structure similar to what you had on
your old machine. I keep all my software on C: and all data and other
files on the D: or E: drive. Then I back up the data drive frequently, but
only have to make an image of the C: drive when I install new software.


> Thanks for the reply, Joe.
>
> Unfortunately, I've started to do a clean install. I've got XP back up
> and running but there are definitely tweaks and adjustments still
> needed to get things running right...but at least it wasn't quite as
> painful as the clean install I did on the 5150.
>
> By the way, I assume you are talking about the 55MB FAT partition
> before the C drive. Just out of curiosity, anything crucial in the
> 3.55GB FAT32 partition after the C drive?
>






Posted by Mike on March 20, 2005, 4:52 pm
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Hi Fellas,

The 55MB FAT partition contains Dell utilities for checking your Dell
laptop.

The 3.55 GB partition contains a backup image for restoring your computer,
it's akin to a Norton Ghost image.

My advice is to delete the 3.55 GB (and subsequently keep a backup copy
using your DVD burner), retain the 55MB (which is pretty small) for the
nifty Dell utilities which may come in handy when your laptop is not
operating well (e.g. overheating, blue screen) etc.

I have managed to do a clean XP installation with no problems.

When you boot up with the XP operating CD, you can choose to delete the C:
partition and the unknown 3.55 GB partition and then reformat the whole
thingee under NTFS.

Alternatively, if you do not want to reinstall XP, you can use something
like Partition Magic to simply delete the unknown 3.55 GB partition, convert
it to NTFS and then attach it back to C: under NTFS.

I have tried both methods with no probs!

Regards,

DJ.


> I've never seen Dell use the 2nd partition--the 55MB FAT partition is
> standard Dell--my guess is the other partition had some other purpose.
>
> By the way, I'd still recommend getting a copy of PartitionMagic or
> something similar and creating a drive structure similar to what you had
> on
> your old machine. I keep all my software on C: and all data and other
> files on the D: or E: drive. Then I back up the data drive frequently,
> but
> only have to make an image of the C: drive when I install new software.
>
>
>> Thanks for the reply, Joe.
>>
>> Unfortunately, I've started to do a clean install. I've got XP back up
>> and running but there are definitely tweaks and adjustments still
>> needed to get things running right...but at least it wasn't quite as
>> painful as the clean install I did on the 5150.
>>
>> By the way, I assume you are talking about the 55MB FAT partition
>> before the C drive. Just out of curiosity, anything crucial in the
>> 3.55GB FAT32 partition after the C drive?
>>
>
>
>
>




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