Dell Diags (Linux based BTW) is great, but if you need a completely blank disc, or want all 3 of your allowed Primary Partitions for other uses ... just burn Dell Diags to a bootable CD-R and keep it in a safe place (ready to be used).
I guess thats the diags that are run when via the bios?
The reason I ask ask is I had some weird stuff happen when I wanted to roll back to a previous day backup with acronis. 2011 is a bit different than 2010 with recovery so I may have caused issue when trying to restore c: part. The small fat partion shrunk to 31 MB and I lost a label as well on the recovery partition - Where in volume mgr the recovery partion says recovery. I figured out acronis and went back a couple days earlier and restored all 3 partions to disk. Things seem back to normal for now. Ill just keep an eye on it.
I guess thats the diags that are run when via the bios?
Yes, that is correct.
So, the machines come from the factory with 3 bootable Primary partitions like this:
OEM Partition - Dell Diags RECOVERY - Dell DataSafeLocal (For their lame Imagaing program) OS - Windows 7
I use Acronis 2010 (not 2011) so I can't say for sure ... but it sounds like you might have accidentally created the Acronis Secure Zone partition. It might have split space away from RECOVERY to create itself. Since it must be bootable (and since you can only have 3 bootable Primary Partitions per. physical drive) ... RECOVERY lost it's bootable status. This would be fine because with Acronis, I doubt you will ever try to use Dell DSL.
I don't use Acronis Secure Zone because it doesn't make sense to me to store the small bootable Acronis software or a main Image on the same physical drive that you are trying to protect. If I need to Acronis Restore, I would rather boot a perfect copy of Acronis from CD-R, and restore an partition Image that had been stored on a separate physical drive.
As long as the recovery partition is good i figure i'll leave it there - not taking much space. The diag is good to have.
Good point on secure zone - not sure - maybe a fat finger or a misfire or maybe acronis setting this up as part of install - maybe me saying yes to something during install. I use the cd method as well.
2011 is a little more complicated during restore since you have to choose and or create you dest partition and it is not as wizard - like as with 2010. I Think it does a better job on recovery than 2010 - just too many bells and whistles. I wound up disabling some services such as non-stop backup and scheduler since I dont want the software doing things I dont know about and anyway i do the backups manually.
After I restored all 3 partions and extended the diag partition back to 39MB - things look ok. better than a reinstall and putting programs and files back on.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
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17.4K Posts
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January 24th, 2011 22:00
It's the bootable Dell Diagnostics partition.
Dell Diags (Linux based BTW) is great, but if you need a completely blank disc, or want all 3 of your allowed Primary Partitions for other uses ... just burn Dell Diags to a bootable CD-R and keep it in a safe place (ready to be used).
rich000
1 Rookie
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82 Posts
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January 25th, 2011 06:00
I had just recently updated the norton utilities 15 - not sure if the new defrag method may have caused this.
rich000
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82 Posts
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January 25th, 2011 06:00
Thx!!
I guess thats the diags that are run when via the bios?
The reason I ask ask is I had some weird stuff happen when I wanted to roll back to a previous day backup with acronis. 2011 is a bit different than 2010 with recovery so I may have caused issue when trying to restore c: part. The small fat partion shrunk to 31 MB and I lost a label as well on the recovery partition - Where in volume mgr the recovery partion says recovery. I figured out acronis and went back a couple days earlier and restored all 3 partions to disk. Things seem back to normal for now. Ill just keep an eye on it.
Tesla1856
8 Wizard
•
17.4K Posts
0
January 25th, 2011 11:00
Yes, that is correct.
So, the machines come from the factory with 3 bootable Primary partitions like this:
OEM Partition - Dell Diags
RECOVERY - Dell DataSafeLocal (For their lame Imagaing program)
OS - Windows 7
I use Acronis 2010 (not 2011) so I can't say for sure ... but it sounds like you might have accidentally created the Acronis Secure Zone partition. It might have split space away from RECOVERY to create itself. Since it must be bootable (and since you can only have 3 bootable Primary Partitions per. physical drive) ... RECOVERY lost it's bootable status. This would be fine because with Acronis, I doubt you will ever try to use Dell DSL.
I don't use Acronis Secure Zone because it doesn't make sense to me to store the small bootable Acronis software or a main Image on the same physical drive that you are trying to protect. If I need to Acronis Restore, I would rather boot a perfect copy of Acronis from CD-R, and restore an partition Image that had been stored on a separate physical drive.
rich000
1 Rookie
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82 Posts
0
January 25th, 2011 17:00
Yeah i have the below
oem | Recovery - alien respawn | OS
As long as the recovery partition is good i figure i'll leave it there - not taking much space. The diag is good to have.
Good point on secure zone - not sure - maybe a fat finger or a misfire or maybe acronis setting this up as part of install - maybe me saying yes to something during install. I use the cd method as well.
2011 is a little more complicated during restore since you have to choose and or create you dest partition and it is not as wizard - like as with 2010. I Think it does a better job on recovery than 2010 - just too many bells and whistles. I wound up disabling some services such as non-stop backup and scheduler since I dont want the software doing things I dont know about and anyway i do the backups manually.
After I restored all 3 partions and extended the diag partition back to 39MB - things look ok. better than a reinstall and putting programs and files back on.
Thanks for the response Tesla
Regards
Rich