08-06-2005, 02:28 PM
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Commander
  
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: boston, ma
Posts: 1,020
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Dell "Utility" partition
Hey all,
just got my dell 4700 from the deals page in. Pretty decent so far! Question, does anyone keep the utility partition? There are 3 partitions on the 40GB sata disk that i got - 1 540MB "EISA Parition" (Which supposedly means that it is an OEM system, according to windows help), 1 35GB data / system partition, then a 5gb unknown partition. I'm about to repartition and format and put on XP Pro and XP Media Center 2005 (Praise goes to MSDN universal subscription  ) , and probably wont have a need for the dell partitions. DO they have anything special in them ? Machine didn't come with a system restore disk... maybe that is occupying one partition.cheers!
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08-06-2005, 02:51 PM
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#2 |
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President, Cowboys Nation
 
Join Date: Dec 2004
Location: In the 'burbs, west of D.C.
Posts: 5,139
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Congrats on the new PC!
I'd wipe 'em out and start over... BTW, I'm assuming you got the SATA drive? No slaving additional drives, so if 40 gig won't be enough you may want to start with a fresh drive now.
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08-06-2005, 04:57 PM
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Secretary of the Navy
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Location: Chillin' N Da 'Hood
Posts: 34,997
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I would think that the "utility partition" would have the backup files for a re-install of your Dell system. For now (while it is under warranty) I would just recommend keeping it as is... Hard drives are pretty cheap nowadays... you might can just buy a 2nd drive and format that one as you like and keep the original for storage.
 Or if you don't care about the Dell utility stuff... then yeah you probably can wipe it. But then you might lose some of the drivers that run the peripherals in your system.
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08-06-2005, 05:14 PM
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Chief of Naval Operations
 
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 11,733
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Yeah, if there's ever a problem with the system, tech support can be pretty picky if there has been any hardware (or OS) changes to the system. They pretty much want it to be "out of the box".
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stay low... keep moving... |
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08-08-2005, 01:59 AM
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#5 |
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Old Skooler Numba 1
Join Date: Nov 2000
Location: Diego
Posts: 10,063
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You could format it and make it a DOS partition. Backup your files that you can't afford to lose to that partition, in the case you get a virus and it wipes out Windows. If you have your DOS partition you can wipe Windows and reinstall everything, keeping your backed- up files safe.
You could also then switch to a Mac, and pull your DOS files without a problem on OSX  /ribitch
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08-08-2005, 07:42 AM
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#6 |
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Lieutenant Commander
Join Date: Jan 2003
Location: Middlesex, NJ
Posts: 541
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The Utility partition is used to make a restore CD with Windows XP on it. Make sure to search Dells website and make this CD before you kill the partition. They do this now instead of sending you a Windows XP CD.
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08-08-2005, 08:21 AM
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#7 |
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Commander
Join Date: Jan 2001
Location: boston, ma
Posts: 1,020
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Thanks smokey for the info ... I already wiped the partition though... But i can get an xp system up and running in about an hour ... not too worried about that.
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08-08-2005, 11:31 AM
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#8 | |
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Chief of Naval Operations
Join Date: Feb 2001
Posts: 11,733
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Quote:
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Linear Mode
