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Hard drive questions
I have a inspiron 2020 with windows 7 service pack 1 installed. Since, I have the backup disk and they work. I no longer need the Oem partition and recovery partition. I discovered something new. That the recovery partition also contains W7 boot files. They should be located on the C drive. Is there anyway to fix this using partition wizard home or other software? I wanted to install windows xp in 32 bit mode. Would the boot partition be a problem? Also, would there be a problem with the boot partition if I converted the c drive to fat 32 using partition wizard? Yes, I have partition drives before.
theflash1932
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January 31st, 2014 11:00
You might have a utility that can convert NTFS to FAT32 without loosing data, but 1) Windows 7 will not work after the conversion, and 2) I still don't know why you would want to do such a thing, even if you could. I doubt that "partition wizard" will even be able to convert the C: drive.
"Normally", the boot files will be on the reserved partition ... if they are on the Recovery Partition, I would say someone made a mistake (or a "repair" was run at some point and restored the boot files to the wrong partition, for whatever reason).
If you want to install XP, that's ok ... just use Windows 7 to "shrink" the C: partition, then install XP to that partition. XP's partition CAN have EITHER NTFS or FAT32 (you do not have to convert the entire "disk"). When you install XP though, it will destroy the boot files for Windows 7, so you will need to perform a repair using the Windows 7 DVD to repair the boot files.
theflash1932
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January 31st, 2014 09:00
"That the recovery partition also contains W7 boot files. They should be located on the C drive."
Not for Windows 7. Windows 7 will, by default, create a separate "Reserved" partition for recovery and boot files. On OEM installations, this is usually labeled "OEM Reserved". While it is possible to create boot files on another disk/partition, I'd recommend leaving it intact, unless you have a VERY good reason for needing it removed. The larger "Recovery Partition" that contains the Dell factory image can be deleted.
"Also, would there be a problem with the boot partition if I converted the c drive to fat 32 using partition wizard?"
Converting your C: drive from NTFS to FAT32 will WIPE OUT everything on the disk. Also, Windows 7 cannot be installed on a FAT32 partition.
gproze
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January 31st, 2014 10:00
On converting to fat32, I was talking about using a 3rd party software like partition wizard. That won't lose data but that could cause a problem with a boot file since it is located on a different partition . On my system, the larger recovery partition does have a boot partition. See, I deleted the OEM small partition & it booted fine. I restored it back to factory settings including the Oem partition. Once I deleted the recovery partition, it wouldn't boot. Maybe I need to mount the drive to a temporary folder & see what is on the larger recovery partition.
gproze
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January 31st, 2014 13:00
Just for info here is what computer disk management
All say healthy, simple, basic.
No Label Oem Partition partition type not labeled.
OS ( C: ) NTFS Boot, Pagefile, Crash dump ,Primary Partition
Recovery NTFS System, Active, Primary Partition.
This before & after using the dell recovery cd, I made.