It is a FAT32 partition for the Dell diagnostic program. The same diagnostic program is on the Drivers and utility CD that came with your system. So if you plan on repartitioning the drive you can delete that partition and include it with the rest of the drive. NO you really don't need it IF you save all the CDs that came with the system.
For some unknown reason there are MANY poster to these forums that can't find all the CD disk and documentation that comes with EVERY Dell PC. I still can't figure that out. I still have the floppy disks that I made when I got my first Dell desktop 11 years ago but I gave all the manuals to the person I gave the PC to.
The 3G partition is a system-restoration partition -- the utility partition is/was a 20 meg (or so) partition at the front of the disc. Starting mid-July, 2004, Dell is shipping a quick-restore partition on the hard drive - that's what that 3 gig partition is for.
The 3G partition is a system-restoration partition -- the utility partition is/was a 20 meg (or so) partition at the front of the disc. Starting mid-July, 2004, Dell is shipping a quick-restore partition on the hard drive - that's what that 3 gig partition is for.
Does that mean Dell is NO longer sending a REAL, although with a Dell label on it, CD of the OS????
As far as I can tell, they still are - the restore partition quickly restored everything to as-shipped (faster than a reinstall-patch-install app install).
Yes, this is a restore partition, which contains a Norton Ghost image of the hard drive at the time it was installed at the factory. It's actually a full disk image, which itself contains both the factory install image and the small 47MB or so diagnostic partition.
They do provide the WinXP OS CD (you may sometimes need it even if you aren't reinstalling Windows), and they do provide a dell diagnostics CD. However, I doubt they provide a CD of the image - in fact, it would have to be several CDs or a single DVD, since the image is about 2.7GB. I would recommend that, if you can, to save/transfer this factory image off onto a DVD before deleting the partition, since a clean factory install with all the appropriate device drivers installed can be a big time saver (restore typically takes <15 minutes), particuarly after a virus/malware infection.
Ed C
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July 26th, 2004 23:00
It is a FAT32 partition for the Dell diagnostic program. The same diagnostic program is on the Drivers and utility CD that came with your system. So if you plan on repartitioning the drive you can delete that partition and include it with the rest of the drive. NO you really don't need it IF you save all the CDs that came with the system.
For some unknown reason there are MANY poster to these forums that can't find all the CD disk and documentation that comes with EVERY Dell PC. I still can't figure that out. I still have the floppy disks that I made when I got my first Dell desktop 11 years ago but I gave all the manuals to the person I gave the PC to.
Message Edited by Ed C on 07-26-2004 08:27 PM
IamBah
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July 26th, 2004 23:00
Thanks for the info Ed. I don't get that either, as it's too difficult to keep track of those CD's.
evervigilant
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July 26th, 2004 23:00
Message Edited by evervigilant on 07-26-2004 07:41 PM
ejn63
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July 27th, 2004 21:00
The 3G partition is a system-restoration partition -- the utility partition is/was a 20 meg (or so) partition at the front of the disc. Starting mid-July, 2004, Dell is shipping a quick-restore partition on the hard drive - that's what that 3 gig partition is for.
Ed C
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3.2K Posts
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July 27th, 2004 22:00
Does that mean Dell is NO longer sending a REAL, although with a Dell label on it, CD of the OS????
Ed C
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3.2K Posts
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July 28th, 2004 20:00
ejn63
9 Legend
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87.5K Posts
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July 28th, 2004 20:00
As far as I can tell, they still are - the restore partition quickly restored everything to as-shipped (faster than a reinstall-patch-install app install).
thetaomega
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July 31st, 2004 14:00
They do provide the WinXP OS CD (you may sometimes need it even if you aren't reinstalling Windows), and they do provide a dell diagnostics CD. However, I doubt they provide a CD of the image - in fact, it would have to be several CDs or a single DVD, since the image is about 2.7GB. I would recommend that, if you can, to save/transfer this factory image off onto a DVD before deleting the partition, since a clean factory install with all the appropriate device drivers installed can be a big time saver (restore typically takes <15 minutes), particuarly after a virus/malware infection.