PC Restore Hidden Partition

Question

I have just received my Inspiron 510m with no Driver & Utility CD and no system recovery CD. In reply to my enquiry Dell informed me that they no longer supply these, since they now place a hidden partition on the hard drive - PC Restore by Symantec utility. There is no reference to this in the owners manual and there's no additional instructions for using this PC Restore utility. I've now found that I can use Ctrl F11 during boot up. I have also been told by Dell Tech that debugging the hard disk drive will erase the content of the Utility Partition. Presently, the Utility Partition is not a protected partition. If a user debugs the drive, removes the partition using FDISK or images the drive the ability to run the Dell PC Restore application from the partition, along with the partition, is gone.

Before I start using my Inspiron, could someone please help me by answering the following questions:
1. What do I do if I want to buy and use a new operating system?
2. What do I do if I want to Upgrade my Hard Drive?

I'm extremely worried. I have used PC's for many years and I know that it's likely that a hard drive can get physically damaged, which will need replacing. Please help.

Message Edited by mansaie on 12-13-2004 05:10 AM

bacillus · Answer

If you want to buy a new operating system you can install it after formatting your hard drive with or without deletion of the hidden restore partition. The restore partition would actually be useless if you changed operating systems so it's probably best to delete it.

If you want to upgrade your hard drive then there are two possibilities: you either clone your present hard drive on to your new hard drive or you buy a new operating system disk.

LA-TECH · Answer

There should be an application inside All Programs/dell Accessories/ Dell OS Recovery CD
Run it and it will explain step by step what to do,
you will need a blank NEW CD for it.
It will acts As the OS recovery CD

The drivers you can download it direct from Support.dell.com wich has the latest drivers and updates for
all dell systems
________________________________________________________________________________

bacillus · Answer

now that is interesting if true as many folk have been moaning about not receiving a xp cd!

LA-TECH · Answer

Just beware to take care of this New CD, cause once you run the application and the cd is burned, it automatically erase from the system.

Ratz · Answer

LA-TECH wrote:
_________________________________________________________________________________

There should be an application inside All Programs/dell Accessories/ Dell OS Recovery CD
Run it and it will explain step by step what to do,
you will need a blank NEW CD for it.
It will acts As the OS recovery CD

The drivers you can download it direct from Support.dell.com wich has the latest drivers and updates for
all dell systems
________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks LA-TECH for your input.
I have a new 600m ordered and I am one of the people who will be dissatisfied not to own OS Recovery CD.
If true, my worries are over reading your post. Where did you get this information? This is the first time I hear
of this. I am surprised Dell reps and moderators are not informing people of this and putting their minds at
ease, that owners of new Dell systems are now able to burn their own OS Recovery CD. Reading all the posts
and even writing Customer Care I received reply that OS Recovery CD is no longer shipped with the system
and I was led to believe only way to obtain the CD is to contact Technical Support and it will be at their
discretion if they send it or not.

This is the answer I received from Customer Care the other day.

"We do not ship Operating System discs with our systems any more. If one is needed you would have to
contact our Technical Support Department, and they would issue it accordingly.
We do apologize for any inconvenience."

It certainly is very unclear what to expect when one places an order with Dell. I share the same views and
concerns as “mansaie” who originated this thread.

Ratz

Bay Wolf · Answer

@Ratz wrote:

@la-TECH wrote:

This is the answer I received from Customer Care the other day.

"We do not ship Operating System discs with our systems any more. If one is needed you would have to
contact our Technical Support Department, and they would issue it accordingly.
We do apologize for any inconvenience."

That is odd. Dell has stopped shipping the Drivers/utilities disk but the policy is that the OS install disk is sent out with the system. I just received my new I8600 and it had an OS system disk with it. Dell started the policy of not shipping the OS disk with the system but they changed that. I would get online with the Chat Online system and have them ship one to you.

Ratz · Answer

Thanks Bay Wolf, that is a great news. I am glad Dell changed their minds and are shipping OS Restore CD with their computers. I got all choked up about it as I would like to possess the CD. I travel in remote areas with no comunications available and may need to reload OS. I also do not wish to spend hours on the phone to Technical Support and plead what I belive is rightfully mine.

I will just patiently wait for notebook to arrive and see if the CD is included as it was with your system.

BTW, your website is awesome.

Regards,

Ratz

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Inspiron 8600 :) Windows XP Home-SP2, Bios A02
Pentium M, 1.4GHz, 15.4 in WSXGA+ Hitachi
512MB,DDR 333MHz, 64MB GeForce FX Go5200
60GB 7200RPM HDD
90Watt Power adapter
Floppy Drive
24x Combo DVD/CD-RW Drive
Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem
Intel Pro 2100 miniPCI Wireless Card
MS Office XP Small Business
Venice Blue Snap Cover
3 Year Complete Care Warranty

D-Link DI624 Router

Inspiron 8100 :) - P3 866MHz - WIN XP Home (Clean Install) -SP2
BIOS A15 (Floppy method )
14.1" Hitachi SXGA Display
External Monitor Dell 1504FP Ultra Sharp
512MB RAM (Crucial)
16MB GeForce2 Go Mobile Drivers 4.4.2.5 Video card Bios 3.11.0144
ESS Maestro Driver 5.12.01.1174
Hitachi Travelstar 7K60 60GB 7200RPM Mobile Hard Drive
Hitachi Travelstar 40GNX 40GB ATA-5 2.5in 5400RPM in MediaBay
TOSHIBA DVD-ROM SD-C2502
Modular Floppy (Standard)
3Com 56K V.90 Mini PCI Modem-Product # 3CN3AC1556B
SONY DRX-710UL DVD-RW 1394/Firewire/i.Link
Iomega 100 Zip Drive USB
EPSON Perfection 1650 Scanner USB
SanDisk CompactFlash Card Reader USB
HP LaserJet 6P 18MB Crucial RAM
MS Office XP Small Business
Burlwood palm rests
MS Optical Wheel Mouse
3 Year Limited warranty
I Love My Dell :)
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Bay Wolf · Answer

If you do not get the OS disk with your system, I would suggest using the Online Chat and get it replaced.  I had to get mine replaced.  I ordered WinXP Pro and they sent me the Home version.  The disk label disk say Pro but the volume label disk say HOME.  In about fifteen minutes, I had the situation corrected and within 2 days, I had the correct OS disk.   This was just last week.

mansaie · Answer

Thank you all very much for your informative comments. I'm glad to inform you that Dell have agreed to send me the missing CD's. I would appreciate an explanation of Dell's reply to me as mentioned in my initial posting above i.e.:

Presently, the Utility Partition is not a protected partition.

1. If a user debugs the drive,

2. removes the partition using FDISK or

3. images the drive

the ability to run the Dell PC Restore application from the partition, along with the partition, is gone.

I expect FDISK to remove everything, but why can't we debug or image the drive and preserve the PC Restore partition? How can we check if this partition is still there? Thank you.

Message Edited by mansaie on 12-15-2004 04:05 AM

mansaie · Answer

Message Edited by mansaie on 12-17-2004 03:52 AM

mansaie · Answer

Message Edited by mansaie on 12-17-2004 03:52 AM

Ratz · Answer

To see if the partition is there, go to Contoll Panel, Administrative Tools, Computer Management, Disk Management, then have a look likely under Disk 0 and you should see the partitions on your disk. I have no answer to your other questions.

Ratz

Teddy-san · Answer

Hello, everyone.

>Presently, the Utility Partition is not a protected partition.

>1. If a user debugs the drive,

>2. removes the partition using FDISK or

>3. images the drive

I used Partion Commander to split the C Drive and now I cannot run "Dell PC Restore by Symantec" using "Ctrl"+"F11". Is there anyway to run the program manually?

Thanks,

suny · Answer

I used Ghost 9 to image the hidden restore partition. Then, from the backup image browser, I can see the restore partition has more than just a ghost image (.gho file). The restore seems to be done by a program called recover.exe. My guess it is a short version or limited version of ghost.exe. Here is the content of recover.bat:

@echo off

REM -- Perform image restore
cd ..\bin
recover -clone,mode=prestore,src=c:\img\FI.GHO:1,dst=1:2 -batch -sure -quiet

REM -- Check if RECOVER.EXE ok?
if errorlevel 1 goto failure

REM -- Launch UI to indicate that restore was ok
cd ..\src4
srclient
goto EOF

REM -- if restore wasn't ok, then display fail UI
:failure
cd ..\src5
srclient

REM -- DONE
:EOF

I8600_Owner · Answer

Hi,

My Operating System upgrade was botched and now I'm unable to use Ctrl+F11 to run PC Restore to recover the original setting. Tried umpteen times, but it wouldn't work. I very bady need to restore my I8600 to the original status. What are my available options? I don't have any ghost imaging software or experience to do so, even if it is possible that the hidden partion can be imaged. Any suggestion or help is most welcome and appreciated.

Thank you All

Storage, Drives & Media

PC Restore Hidden Partition

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