XPS 12 Partitions. What can I delete?

Question

Hi all. I just bought an XPS 12 which I received on Friday. All is good, except the GPT partition table prevents me from backing up to my Windows Home Server 2011, which is extremely annoying. However I did discover that the drive has a staggering 6 partitions on it. A couple of recovery partitions, an "OEM" partition, an unexplained 8GB partition... this is a small 128GB SSD, and frankly I can't afford all that wasted space. Does anyone know what each of these partitions is for? I have no need for Dell's recovery stuff or a backup partition: I'm quite comfortable doing a clean install if I have to, and I store all my files on my server so that's unnecessary, too. But I don't want to break anything if I can help it. Can anyone confirm what the purpose of these partitions are and which are safe to delete?

Thank you.

DELL-Royan S · Accepted Answer

Hi,

The 8GB partition is for hibernation which is part of Intel Rapid Start. The 39 mb OEM partition works as a buffer if you are using the 8GB partition. This is just for faster boot up from hibernate. The 2 recovery partitions is one that holds the Factory Settings around 16-18 GB and also holds the Diagnostics Partition. The other partition is your C: partition which contains the OS and all the programs that came installed on your computer. If you do want the 8GB hibernate option, then you can use the 8GB and the 39 MB as storage space.

Thank you.

DELL-Royan S · Answer

Hi,

Welcome to the Community. This is a part of Intel Responsiveness Technologies. Refer to the below link. You can delete these partitions if you would like to use it as storage.

en.community.dell.com/.../dell-whitepaper-intel-responsiveness-technologies-setup-guide.aspx

Thank you.

mmaestro · Answer

Royan, thanks for the link. So the last, 8GB partition is for rapid start? Do you know the function of the 40MB OEM partition (diagnistics?) and the difference between the 2 recovery partitions on there? I just like to know exactly what I'm wiping out before I do so. Thanks for your help, it's appreciated.

ywr · Answer

Hi Royan, if I can join in here.

I have just received my xps 12 and am quite excited about it.

I would like to reuse empty 8 GB Primary Partition and 40 MB OEM Partition. I understand that I am trading quicker starting against more HD space (shouldn't be much difference with SSD?). So, can I just delete this two partitions, and take the space by extending C: (or creating next drive D:)?

Question: What are 6.1 GB and 500MB Recovery Partitions for? They are empty. Can I reuse them also? (I made recovery tool onto a pendrive). If not, can I move it before C: , or do they have to be in specific place? I like to create 3 more drives, D:, E: and F:.

ywr · Answer

Hello mmaestro,

Can you please pass to us your experiences with recovering 8GB and 40MB empty partitions? Did you manage to recover both, what program did you use, were there any difficulties, did this have any repercussions on the system: messages, slower start-up.

The one thing I have found up is that %Free as shown on your partition table (done with Windows Disk Management) is wrong. For example EaseUS and Paragon show actual space taken.

I suppose we can assume that 6GB partition is used for original system backup. It shows 5.78GB on XPS and 5.77GB on pendrive backup (table made with EaseUS).

DELL-Royan S · Answer

Hi,

Welcome to the Community. Kindly start a new thread if you have a question. If you already created a copy of the Factory Image using the back up feature on your pen drive, then yes you can remove all the partitons and use them as storage space. You can use disk management to do this.

Thank you.

mmaestro · Answer

YWR: I actually haven't deleted the partitions, and I probably won't. The rapid startup is valuable to me, I'm more interested in deleting the recovery partitions at present.

Royan: Is there any documentation on the 39MB buffer partition? The White Paper you linked to doesn't seem to reference it, and if in the future I have to do a manual reinstall or create some sort of fresh image (I work at a Dell reseller, we image Dell systems and a couple of clients have expressed interest in the XPS 12: I'd like to get this right if I create an image for them) it's important for me to understand exactly what's going on here. I understand and expect I can recreate the 8GB Rapid Start partition, I'd like to understand the 39MB cache, too.

Thanks.

DELL-Royan S · Answer

Hi,

There is no official documentation for the 39mb space. As per our Product Team, if you are going to use the 8 GB hibernation then its recommmend that you keep the 39mb as buffer space. The 39mb will not make much of a difference if you are going to use that as storage space.

Royan

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XPS 12 Partitions. What can I delete?

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