You can download the Dell diagnostics and write a bootable CD that you can use if it becomes necessary.  I would strongly suggest you do so NOW if you choose to delete that partition, and make the CD -- put it in a safe place in case it becomes needed.

If you purchased the system from Dell you do not need to register it.  If you purchased at a retail store (Best Buy, etc.) see:

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/topic.aspx/global/shared/support/order/en/retail_landing_page?c=us&l=en&s=gen

If you purchased from a third party (EBay, etc.). the registered owner needs to initiate a transfer of ownership with Dell.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/change_order/tag_transfer

Thanks for the information. I want to now burn a CD of the diagnostic utility. I've gone to the support/downloads section and see that after entering my service tag # it loads a page with my machine and a list of files. Clicked on Diagnostics and then download. When popup asks if I want to install I click "Don't install", as I have a CD in the drive and want to burn one. Clicking on "Don't install" appears to do nothing.  I assume that once my service tag is entered and my system shows at top, this is the correct utility. Just need to get it burned onto CD.  Am I going about this correctly.  Should be pretty easy....

Once you download the installer, extract it, and then run the resulting setup file.  You'll see a menu, among which is "create bootable image" - do that.  It'll pull out an ISO which you then burn to a CD (you'll need Nero, Roxio, or some other CD writing package - or, if a quick utility is needed, use magicISO (free download) - you CANNOT just write the ISO file to a CD.   You must use a "burn image" feature to do it.

May not need to do this.  Just put the Software and Utilities CD into the drive, gone into BIOS, booted from CD, and am running/testing the diagnostic utility.  But, if you will, please let me know if, to the best of your knowledge, this is a standalone utility, ie. I can delete the diagnostic partition as redundant.

I've noticed that the CD/DVD eject button is not working at the moment. Could be due to Windows not set up correctly yet due to recent changes with the partitions. I also have read online about needing QuickSet. Nontheless, not having a physical eject button on the drive door was not a good idea, IMHO.

Also, I notice that, after installing Windows 7 Home Premium from the re-installation DVD, that my desktop looks different than the one that can up from factory (and after recovery to factory state).  The most obvious difference is missing Dell Dock icons in the upper part of the desktop.  I'm assuming that the re-install DVD has a barebones version of the OS, and that the version out of the box has more bells and whistles.

Before going further, need to also understand from which partition Windows 7 should boot.  Someone on another forum mention that it is likely not the main Windows OS partition due to encryption.  Is booting done from the small FAT32 partition, thus requiring that it stays in place?