Inspiron 3670, some basic configuration questions

Question

This pertains to a new Dell Inspiron Model 3670. Have been using Windows computers for as long as they've existed and have my own way of configuring them that has proven to work very well at least for me. At the same time, this is the first experience at configuring a Windows 10 system. When it comes to recovery, reliance on the built in support is near non-existent. Some of the tools that are available from Microsoft for support personnel, that are separate from a potentially defective system, are used instead. For Windows 10 these tools are supplied as part of the ADK (Assessment and Deployment Kit), which includes Windows PE which is capable of making image files of whole partitions. Such files are made periodically according to the state of the systems. Such files can be used not only for recovery but installing multiple instances of Windows on a computer. All of my Windows computers depend on multi-boot which provides instantaneous recovery from problems caused by software malfunction and simple Windows reinstall to completely recovery (i.e., includes all installed software as well) from hardware malfunction. In that, no dependence on a constantly changing error prone OS that could very well be the cause of the problem to start with. Hope this helps to explain the situation. The subject computer includes both a conventional hard drive (HD) and a solid state drive (SSD). It appears as though nothing has been installed on the HD whereas a complete Windows 10 system has been installed on the SSD. No fewer than 5 partitions exist on the SSD. It appears as though the first partition is what Windows calls a System Partition which is used for booting systems that reside anywhere on the computer. One of these is what others of us call a System Partition which contains the Windows operating system (OS) files. It is suspected that another one, labeled 'Image', might be the files needed to recreate the factory installed Windows OS and what Dell uses to create a USB recovery device. The others are a bit of a mystery. One is labeled WINRETOOLS and based on some preliminary research it might be supplied by Microsoft. Just a guess but the one labeled 'DELLSUPPORT' might be supplied by the vendor (Dell). Keeping in mind that there is no intention of ever using the built in recovery tools, what reason is there for keeping what look to be 3 extra unnecessary partitions? The Windows System (Boot) partition is used to boot multiple other partitions. Current thinking is to install as many as 3 separate Windows OS partitions on the SSD drive. Why waste SSD space for any of the other partitions? Present idea is to move the boot partition to the HD which by the way is also used for all of user data (documents, pictures, videos, downloads, paging files, temporary storage, etc.) which are shared with the multiple OS partitions. Are the extra seemingly unnecessary partitions used by a running Windows 10 system or rather some off line tools supplied by either Microsoft or Dell? If it were to be necessary to keep what look like unnecessary partitions because Windows 10 depends on them for some unknown reason, how does Windows 10 locate them?

RoHe · Answer

You could have asked your real question in a just a couple of sentences. :Wink:

You may want to read this to see what the various partitions do and what Microsoft says about them. Some of them may look "unnecessary" but...

aajax · Answer

Sorry if I went beyond what was necessary to explain my intentions.

The referenced article was quite helpful for me but I'm afraid still comes up a little short. The article just says a Microsoft Reserved Partition (MSR) is for the purpose of partition management. However, partition management is not something that is (?should be) peculiar to any given operating system. What in the world can Windows 10 be needing that others operating systems don't. It sounds like this potentially violates the whole idea of having a standard (like GPT) that all systems (e.g., different versions of Windows as well as Linux) are expected to comply with.

The referenced article implies that Windows 10 requires a GPT based hard drive. However, I've been badgered by Microsoft for years to do the free upgrade of my Windows 7 to Windows 10 on a computer that only permits MBR type drives. How was that going to work? Maybe the answer is that I was wise to resist any such thought.

From my perspective it is important to know how an MSR is affected when running multiple instances of potentially different operating systems (i.e., at least Windows 10 and Linux) stored on the same drive. How does one find out what is actually being done on this partition?

Another important question is "can Windows 10 be run without a recovery partition?". If such partitions are absolutely required should there be one for each Windows OS partition, which is the only way I can see to have it located right after the OS partition? The article implied that if they weren't right after this might create problems when Windows 10 wants to dynamically resize the partitions but given that I don't want Windows to do this the real question is "how to turn off ALL RECOVERY FEATURES?".

Oh yeh, what in the world is a DELLSUPPORT partition that is apparently used by Windows without assigning any drive letter? How many instances of Dell software can use such A partition? Again if multiple such partitions are to be created on a drive how does the Dell software know which one to use?

RoHe · Answer

Win 10 includes a tool to convert a MBR formatted drive into a GPT drive without loss of data, but always wise to back up first. Used it on my Dell laptop and it worked out ok.

Read this to understand the DellSupport partition. And this about the other partitions.

Lots of links on the net about installing dual boot with Win 10 and Ubuntu, eg here...

Inspiron Desktops

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