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DELL hidden HD partition

 
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Pocketgps
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Joined: Nov 16, 2004
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Location: Midlands, UK

PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 1:32 am    Post subject: DELL hidden HD partition Reply with quote

I have a DELL XPS 420 running Vista. For some reason or other I cannot get it start the Dell System Diagnostics hidden partition Crying or Very sad has always worked in the past.

Could someone have a look on:

Control Panel - System and Maintenance - Administrative Tools - Computer Management - Disk Management

and see if it compares with mine:

Screen shot here (image will open in a new window)

Mine shows the hidden partition, but say it is empty/free

Also does it say anything against File System

Note: all Dell systems will have the hidden partition, may not be the same size as shown on mine, depends on the hd size etc.

Thanks
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Pocketgps
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:09 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Come on Dell users, help me out Crying or Very sad
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alix776
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:18 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

make sure you can see all hidden files i very much doubt its empty
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Mullet
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Joined: Dec 12, 2005
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PostPosted: Wed Dec 03, 2008 7:27 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

I dont have a Dell but posted screen shots show contents of several MB. Stating the obvious, it seems empty.

Anything happening when booting with f12?

Is the partition listed under system restore and is a restore point available?
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Pocketgps
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:05 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

alix776 wrote:
make sure you can see all hidden files i very much doubt its empty


Its not possible to see the hidden partition or see the files from the normal C: drive. That is normal.


Mullet wrote:
I dont have a Dell but posted screen shots show contents of several MB. Stating the obvious, it seems empty.

Anything happening when booting with f12?

Is the partition listed under system restore and is a restore point available?


You never get the system restore for that partition. Because it is hidden from you and the normal C: drive.

Using the F12 at boot gives you the option to start via the diagnostics, but it only goes so far and when it should load the Dell System Diagnostics from that hidden partition it just stops. Have to turn off the system and reboot.

There must be someone with a Dell system who can have look to see how it compares with mine.
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Mullet
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 3:54 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Pocketgps wrote:

There must be someone with a Dell system who can have look to see how it compares with mine.

Plenty of user screenshots to compare on Google images, as I said, all showing MB in that partition.
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mattstachurski
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Joined: Feb 02, 2005
Posts: 82

PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:22 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

My screenshot would almost look identical to yours but shows 2 drives with 100% free space, I've just run complete factory restore worked ok. does pressing the fn key while powering on do the same as f12? that runs diagnostics for me on Inspiron 1525 but may only be on laptops.
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Darren
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 8:29 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Am I missing something here? Your screenshot shows the Recovery Partition as 15GB and 70% full which would be about right? The 55MB partition you see as empty is normal, that's just unallocated space on the disk.
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PaulB2005
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PostPosted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:04 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Quote:
The 55MB partition you see as empty is normal, that's just unallocated space on the disk


Except it should NOT be empty. It's a FAT Partition with Hard Drive Diagnostics on it - usually accessed during boot up if the drive is playing up. Also has Memory Tests and other diagnostics stuff.....

However I'm not sure if the data will shown as used space under Windows. (Don't actually know why i think this - been a long day so far)

Lots of info and headachy stuff here

It's called the Dell Utility Partition
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Mullet
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PostPosted: Fri Dec 05, 2008 6:18 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

PaulB2005 wrote:

However I'm not sure if the data will shown as used space under Windows.

There is a detailed explanation here of the Dell tools. Whist the used disc space is clearly shown in the screenshot, the contents are not accessible through the Windows OS.
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