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joseph_melow

3 Posts

223870

January 3rd, 2005 01:00

How do I re-create the Dell Diagnostic/Utility Partition?

I had a hard disk crash and now wish to re-create the Dell Diagnostic/Utility partition. Can anyone give me the details of the partition (type,size, source for files, etc)?
 
Any help in this area would be greatly appreciated!
 
Thanks in advance!
 
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ITNorm

2 Posts

November 9th, 2011 10:00

See Using Dell's Tools to Build a Utility Partition  at www.goodells.net/.../recreate.shtml.

The utility is mkup.bat which is found on the "Drivers and Utilities" CD.

ejn63

1 Rookie

 • 

87.5K Posts

January 3rd, 2005 10:00

You can't rebuild this. You can still run the diagnostics from the CD, however.

geno52

40 Posts

January 4th, 2005 22:00

Is what your saying is that if a person puts the WINDOWS ME cd in rom and rerun it the diagnostic program will but put back on ???  I was thinking that it was done away with a long time ago, but not

sure...........????????????

joseph_melow

3 Posts

January 4th, 2005 22:00

Really? It can't be all that difficult. I would imagine it is nothing more than a FAT16 partition...I'm just sort of confused on where the partition is supposed to go in order for the BIOS to find it correctly.

I just find it very hard to believe that it cannot be re-created...I mean, what is the point of adding it to the BIOS as a boot feature and then no being able to re-create it? If that is the case then my respect for Dell has just gone down considerably. For that would be a serious design flaw in my opinion. At any rate, thank you for answering my post. Do you know why it cannot be created or any other details about it?

joseph_melow

3 Posts

January 5th, 2005 07:00

No, not quite that...but if you download the Dell 32-bit Diagnostics Utility Partition Contents Upgrade Tool, v.UpUpdate.D26A1236, A1236 it checks for the partition before trying to copy it...it errors out when it can't find the partition. I was just wondering what the specs were for the partition. I can create the partition but would like to know what size it should be as a bare minimum.

jedi1026

87 Posts

January 6th, 2005 23:00

Which disc does the diagnostics come on. The only cd's I got with the system are the Windows XP cd, the word perfect cd, the Sonic record now cd and the Cyberlink power DVD cd. I keep hearing about another utility cd but I dont have anything like that. If I'm missing a cd, which one. I would like to call them to get a copy.

mdward

2 Posts

December 3rd, 2010 16:00

Many years ago Dell used to supply for download the software to CREATE the Diagnostic Utility Partition along with the diagnostic software. 

I checked with Dell support and it appears that Dell no longer offers this software download.  The diagnostic software download they offer is only for running from a CD and will only UPDATE to an EXISTING diagnostic partition.

So for those of us who switch to a new hard drive whether it be for larger drive space or because of a failed hard drive, there is no easy software download from Dell that will allow you to CREATE the Diagnostic Utility Partition.

I was disappointed that Dell decided to not supply that to its customers anymore.  I hope they read this and reconsider adding it to the support downloads on their website.

For hard drive upgrades (original Dell hard drive functional) and for the technically advanced, here is a link that mentions you can clone the hidden partition to another drive.  http://www.goodells.net/dellutility/recreate.htm

speedstep

8 Wizard

 • 

47K Posts

November 16th, 2011 12:00

You can always Make a Utility CD instead.

  5/2/2006  4:54 PM      5605376 cdd_1264.ISO
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 7/13/2006 12:22 PM      5605376 cdd_1273.iso
 7/26/2006  2:25 PM      5605376 cdd_1275.iso
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 11/7/2006  8:08 AM      5605376 cdd_1277.iso
 9/15/2006 11:17 AM      5605376 cdd_1280.iso
  9/5/2006 11:41 AM      5605376 cdd_1281.iso
  9/5/2006  8:05 AM      5605376 cdd_1282.iso
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12/12/2006  7:20 AM      5605376 cdd_1288.iso
  4/1/2008  6:55 AM      5605376 cdd_1291.iso
 6/12/2007 11:49 AM      5605376 cdd_1295.iso
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 7/10/2007  9:58 PM      5605376 cdd_1299.iso
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 7/12/2007  7:52 PM      5605376 cdd_1301.iso
  4/1/2008  7:14 AM      5605376 cdd_1303.iso
 8/23/2007 11:48 PM      5605376 cdd_1306.iso

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osprey4

4 Operator

 • 

34.2K Posts

November 16th, 2011 17:00

But you should check how old the thread is first.

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