Unknown partitions in Disk Management

Hey thanks a lot GreyMack! You answered all my questions and I will look up those other threads you suggested. I could have swore Dell sent me a Windows XP install disk ..... I will have to check. If they did I would have no use for an image on a seperate partition. If anything happens I prefer to reinstall a fresh copy of Windows and not one with a bunch of software I don't need or use.

From what I've read here on the boards, the small partition includes DOS and Dell Diagnostics. The 3GB partition is an image of the original installation that Dell has recently begun including. There are a few posts on the Inspiron Hard Drive board.

I believe you can get to the Dell Diagnostice program by tapping F12 somewhere in the boot-up process, but it's also supplied on one of the CD's shipped with your Dell. (If I'm not mistaken you can also download a file for installation on a floppy or CD.)

The image file may or may not be useful to you. Presumably, it is an exact image, most likely compressed, of the user partition as it was delivered to you. A more useful image may be one that is backed up on another drive or on CD/DVD media and created after you customize your configuration and install your other programs, and periodically updated thereafter. An image file may be used to quickly recover following a catastrophic failure, even a hard drive failure if the image is stored on another device or media.

GM

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@Skitzer wrote:
Hey thanks a lot GreyMack! You answered all my questions and I will look up those other threads you suggested. I could have swore Dell sent me a Windows XP install disk ..... I will have to check. If they did I would have no use for an image on a seperate partition. If anything happens I prefer to reinstall a fresh copy of Windows and not one with a bunch of software I don't need or use.

Yes, they sent you an XP CD in addition to the image.

Skitzer. That image is because sometimes windows could be corrupted in the new system. In that way instead of be wating for 3 days to get a cd with the image or being reinstalling all the cds, you can use the image that came preloaded in the HDD. If everything is working fine for you, good for you!

Best regards,

Thanks all who answered. I hit F12 and it has an option for Diagnostics so I assume that is the 47MB partition. But I saw no way to reinstall the OS from the 3GB partition. I went and read the manual and it mentions absolutely nothing about how to access the Image to reinstall Windows. Is there a certain key you hit to do that? Since it is only 3GB out of 60 I think I will just leave it for emergency purposes if I'm ever stuck without my install CD but I would like to know how to use it LOL. Any ideas?

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@Skitzer wrote:
Thanks all who answered. I hit F12 and it has an option for Diagnostics so I assume that is the 47MB partition. But I saw no way to reinstall the OS from the 3GB partition. I went and read the manual and it mentions absolutely nothing about how to access the Image to reinstall Windows. Is there a certain key you hit to do that? Since it is only 3GB out of 60 I think I will just leave it for emergency purposes if I'm ever stuck without my install CD but I would like to know how to use it LOL. Any ideas?

Using the Advanced Forum Search on the left, you'd find that this has recently been discussed and several links to articles have been provided.  Check for document TT1090151.  You hit CTRL and F11 during boot.