Tom's Hardware: Topic Partitioning Hard Drive ?
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Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)
I have just rcvd a Dimension 3000 with a 160GB drive and I want to partition
it into 3 partitions (C:,D: & E.)
Have burnt the winXP OS disk. When I boot the Pc from this disk and check
the existing partitions I note that there is the main (C
partition, and
also another partition (-) present.
Should I delete both these partitions,create the new ones as I require,
format and reinstall windows?
Whats the purpose of the (-) partition?
Thanks
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)
"Martin Bluston" <martin@bluston1.freeserve.co.uk> wrote in message
news
94km1$skm$1@news8.svr.pol.co.uk...
>I have just rcvd a Dimension 3000 with a 160GB drive and I want to
>partition it into 3 partitions (C:,D: & E.)
> Have burnt the winXP OS disk. When I boot the Pc from this disk and check
> the existing partitions I note that there is the main (C partition, and
> also another partition (-) present.
> Should I delete both these partitions,create the new ones as I require,
> format and reinstall windows?
> Whats the purpose of the (-) partition?
> Thanks
It is either the Dell support partition or the Restore Partition.
How big is the partition?
Normally the Dell support partition is 30 meg or so.
moncho
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)
On Sun, 19 Jun 2005 21:31:08 +0100, "Martin Bluston"
<martin@bluston1.freeserve.co.uk> wrote:
>I have just rcvd a Dimension 3000 with a 160GB drive and I want to partition
>it into 3 partitions (C:,D: & E.)
>Have burnt the winXP OS disk. When I boot the Pc from this disk and check
>the existing partitions I note that there is the main (C partition, and
>also another partition (-) present.
>Should I delete both these partitions,create the new ones as I require,
>format and reinstall windows?
>Whats the purpose of the (-) partition?
>Thanks
>
My guess is a restore / diagnostic partition. Based on most people,
I'd leave it alone. Its usually a small partition so you don't lose
much in space. You might consider buying Partition Magic to
repartition your drive so you don't have to reinstall your OS. I can't
speak for others but for me it's a very handy tool. I'm not affliated
with Partition Magic, just a customer who recommends it. You can see
on the net what it can do.
Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)
Martin Bluston wrote:
> I have just rcvd a Dimension 3000 with a 160GB drive and I want to partition
> it into 3 partitions (C:,D: & E.)
> Have burnt the winXP OS disk. When I boot the Pc from this disk and check
> the existing partitions I note that there is the main (C partition, and
> also another partition (-) present.
> Should I delete both these partitions,create the new ones as I require,
> format and reinstall windows?
That's an option; whether you ought to do it is up to you. I imagine
it's using less than 5% of your drive, so I'd keep it there.
Personally, I decided to keep the partition when I repartioned (for
Linux). Just remember, it is a primary partion, and one drive may only
have 4 primaries. You can use logical partitions to extend that number,
but at least one of the logical partitions must also be a primary. If
you plan to dual boot in the future, this may be important.
> Whats the purpose of the (-) partition?
As others have stated, it's likely a recovery portion, or possibly some
diagnostic tools.
If you do decide to remove the partition, I found a great, open source
alternative to Partition Magic (which is a good program, but not free)
is called cfdisk. Most Live linux distro's ought to contain it; I know
the minimal install disk for Gentoo does for sure (as well as another
progam to non-destructively resize an NTFS partition). Just download
and burn the disk. Boot to it and get to a console, type cfdisk for a
nice ncurses (console) GUI.
Please mind
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