StarDestroyer.Net BBS

Ok, I have a Dell Inspiron 5150 Laptop with XP Home, and after finally getting fed up with minor system glitches, I've decided to take the time on Thursday and Friday to reformat my HD and to Install XP Pro. Now while the HD is 40 GB, only 37 is usable, because the rest is used by the Dell diagnostic software on a hidden partion. How do I preserve that partion while still getting a clean slate to install windows on?

Any other recomendations for this process would be apricated, and yes I have/am backing up all of my data.

Is that wee partition necessary to make the laptop run? You might consider nuking it all and making it one partition.

Some premade PCs that come with restore partitions let you copy the partition to a CD or DVD, then clear the data from the hidden partition, freeing it up for use.

Alferd Packer wrote:Is that wee partition necessary to make the laptop run? You might consider nuking it all and making it one partition.

It's needed so I don't violate the warenty anymore than I already am.

Gotcha. In that case, you'll see the partition in the install. As long as you don't touch that and make sure you format and install on the other partition, everything'll be copasetic.

Alferd Packer wrote:Is that wee partition necessary to make the laptop run? You might consider nuking it all and making it one partition.

Most pre-fab computers come with this partition to allow you to make a backup, or to restore your computer to factory conditions. I would NOT mess with this partition.

The hidden partition on the Dell computer is only 32mb. The 37GB is actually your 40GB, but in calculated in real units rather than base-10 units. (someone with more knowledge than me and knows what I'm talking about elaborate please)

BloodAngel wrote:The hidden partition on the Dell computer is only 32mb. The 37GB is actually your 40GB, but in calculated in real units rather than base-10 units. (someone with more knowledge than me and knows what I'm talking about elaborate please)

Hard drive sizes are measured in true sizes for bytes (ie: 1024kB = 1MB, and 1024MB = 1GB, etc). Thus what appears to be 37GB is actually your 40GB, minus a little for cluster size.

Cluster size doesn't figure into it as that's only relevant to the space data takes up, not the space available.
BA (and Vertigo1 except for the clusters bit) basically got it: The OS determines HDD size in base 2, so 1024 bytes=1KB, 1024KB=1MB, 1024MB=1GB etc.
HDD manufacturers as often as not use base 10. 1000KB=1MB, 1000MB=1GB...
And I'd nuke that partition just on general principles but then I'm not really impartial where Dell notebooks are concerned.

BloodAngel wrote:The hidden partition on the Dell computer is only 32mb. The 37GB is actually your 40GB, but in calculated in real units rather than base-10 units. (someone with more knowledge than me and knows what I'm talking about elaborate please)

I knew the Base-10/Base-2 thing, I just didn't know the size of the samller partition. Thank you all for your help.

Before you nuke the install, make sure you have the latest drivers for your hardware from Dell's site burned to a CD.
As far as XP Pro over home goes, most users won't notice a bit of difference.
Just be sure you use a Dell OEM install CD, that way you won't be asked to activate windows and you'll have no problem with the WGA check when you run winupdate.

Glocksman wrote:Before you nuke the install, make sure you have the latest drivers for your hardware from Dell's site burned to a CD.
As far as XP Pro over home goes, most users won't notice a bit of difference.
Just be sure you use a Dell OEM install CD, that way you won't be asked to activate windows and you'll have no problem with the WGA check when you run winupdate.

I don't know if they are the newest, but I kept the driver CD from when I got the laptop, and the Copy of XP pro I have is a copy that I got via School about 6 months ago, and it has SP2 built in.