Basically, it is the replacement for the OEM disk.  It is a "snapshot" of the factory settings of your computer. 

 

Read the first response/Best Answer in this link.  Not very technical, but it explains it well

 

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070807173759AAxWdEM

diab - On my Latitude D620, the RECOVERY D Drive is where the automatic backup goes each time it tries to run.  I have found that I need to delete the previous backup before I can run the new one due to the limited (1.00 GB) disk space on this drive. 

beversoll - If it is a "snapshot" or image of the factory settings of my computer then shouldn't there be an image file, usually a file with an extension .wim, on that partition?  I have no .wim files or anything else for that matter that looks like an image file.  I have OEM disks, you just have to select include media disks when you buy your computer to get them.  Also the dell folder is empty.  So my question still is what is the 2GB partition for?  If I am suppose to be able to boot from it to get my computer back to the why it came from the factory how do I do that?

 

joehdvoyager - I don't think the 2GB partition is ment for backs.  I know the automatic backups default there but that is because it is the first drive that is not your C drive.  So if you only have one partition then it would default to your cd drive.  Also most peoples backups are going to be much bigger that 2GBs.

Hi,
well to answer ur question that 2 Gb partition has got a factory image of ur computer, dell techs call it as PC RESTORE PARTITION.the reason that why it does not have any .wim files in it is because it will not be visible to the regular user. It has been designed in such a fashion that it will only trigger when u press F8 at the dell logo and go the advanced boot options and select repair my computer[assuming that ur computer is running on vista].If u delete the partition u will not be able to restore ur computer back to the factory settings by going through the above mentioned steps, have to do a manual OSRI using vista DVD that wil take around more than one hour.

hope that answers all ur questions :smileyhappy:

Yes I am running vista business.  I tried hitting F8 at the dell logo and go the advanced boot options and select repair my computer but it can't find any images on my computer.  I have not deleted the partition.  Am I doing something wrong or missing a step some place.  If you could provided more detail instructions or step by step instructions that would be a big help.

Well I would suspect that you (or someone) has modified with this partition.

 

The Recovery Partition should be much larger than 2GB (mine for example is almost 10GB). Under the Dell folder, there should be another "Image" folder which contains the "Factory.wim" image file. On my machine, that file alone is over 4GB.

 

You also say that the F8/Repair option cannot find any image file. As I indicated, that image file should be located in the D:\Dell\Image folder. It it's not there (and it is not), then either you received a faulty hard disk from Dell, or someone removed that image file. Without that file, you obviously cannot perform a "factory restore".

I am the only one who has touched the machine since it came out of the box brand new.  My dell folder is empty.  I have a Latitude D830 and a Optiplex 745 both have empty dell folders on the d drive.  Both machines have a 2GB Recovery partition.

I did call dell before posting here.  Though I wasn't happy with the answer I got from the guy I talked to.  I am going to call them again when I have more time to talk to them, hopefully I will be able to get to it tomorrow.  The first guy I talked to from dell said he did not know why that partition was there and that it is something to do with vista.  The dell guy just tells people to delete that partition.

Time to contact Dell then.

some info here.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/en/document?c=us&dl=false&l=en&s=gen&docid=298A2E89689E13C2E040A68F5B280AA4&doclang=en&cs=