Strange Partition?

[_WW_]

Did a clean install of XP Home on my sister's Dell yesterday. During the reformat phase I noticed a small partition labeled -: sized at around 34MB with 28 free.

Not knowing what it was I left it intact but also noticed that Windows did not "see" it. Now I'm wondering if this may be the home to some kind of hack or virus.

Any ideas on what this partition is for?

....WW (5.0)

 

[RichPLS]

Not a virus...or hack.
I think it has something to do with save to disk function.


<pre><font color=red>°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°`°¤o \\// o¤°`°¤o,¸¸¸,o¤°
And the sign says "You got to have a membership card to get inside" Huh
So I got me a pen and paper And I made up my own little sign</pre><p></font color=red>

 

[_WW_]

Hmmm...next time I'm over there I think I'll see if I can access it by typing -: in the Explorer address bar...

....WW (5.0)

 

[folken]

Most manufacturers have a small invisible partition. Save to disk function or some sort of restore feature is my guess. Usually it is about 4 or 5gb though, not 34mb.

<A HREF="http://www.folken.net/myrig.htm" target="_new">My precious...</A>

 

[Llamaman]

Could it maybe be something like space for the graphics for the manufacturers boot screen? I've never had a pre-made PC so I don't know where they hide these things (I can't imagine them being nice and making it easy to remove the branding!).
34Mb seems way too small for any kind of backup space - maybe a boot password?

 

[Ned_Flanders]

I think that is in the graphics card BIOS

______________
Read the friggin FAQ, and use the search button or I'll kick yer face in!

 

[Codesmith]

Sometimes when you partion a drive using Windows XP it creates a small partion for some reason I cannot recall.

Also some backup utilities create a small partion.

 

[Codesmith]

Boot images are stored in the motherboards BIOS. You need to edit your BIOS then flash to change the splash screen.

 

[i_am_not_god]

its to do with the manufactorer, my guess is that they use it with the recovery cd they give u when u order a pre-made system from them, it prolly contains certain files that are needed to be preloaded to use the recovery disc.