Dell Computer and Formatting

[Newhotness]

So heres where i'm at now, I have a new Dell Laptop running XP with lots of HD and RAM. I want to have multiple partitions (not to dual boot or anything, just to have them for other stuff). I talked to Tech support and they told me they don't encourage multiple partitions and therefore won't help me with my questions (not trying to bad mouth Dell, i find there tech support generally pretty good). The guy on the phone told me that with new dells they have something called PC Restore which restores the computer back to factury settings. He also told me that if i format that i will never be able to re-instal this PC Restore utility and therefore i will not be able to return to factury settings.

 

Here are my questions for you:

 

Does this all sound on the level, or is this guy BS'ing me here?

Do I really need this PC restore? won't system Recovery be just as helpful, and do i really care to ever go back to dell factury settings?

Can anyone here think of any additional harm this could cause my computer? What i mean by this, is if i re-install everything from the Disk that came with my computer, will all the pre-set stuff be re-loaded?

 

I know theres a lot here to analyse, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you.

[Tarun]

Dell and Gateway seem to do that, cause it's cheaper. I tried to get restore cd's from Gateway by telling them I fdisked both partitions, but they wanted to send me a new hard drive instead. I told them no, that I thought the new "restore partition and burn your own recovery media" was total crap, and hung up.

[Sniper]

Seems everyone is going the same route. My HP came with a System Recovery partition. The disk you got from Dell will NOT have any 3rd party software on it, such as CD burner, imaging, games, etc. All the extras are in the Recovery partition only. You should have a Recovery CD maker program that will allow you to burn a set of recovery disk. Took me about 2 hours and 10 disk. On my HP, the program included a tool disk maker. The tool disk allows you to delete the data in the Recovery partition after you have made the recovery disk. This leaves you with a empty partition with about 4-6 Gigs of free hard drive space. It also lets you make a partition. You must have unallocated space on your Basic disk to make a new partition. You can have 4 primary partitions on a Basic disk or 3 primarys and a extended partition. You can make a unlimited # of logical drives in the extended partition, each logical drive can be formatted and given a drive letter. If you don't have any unallocated space, you can download a 3rd party program to resize existing partitions.

http://www.globalshareware.com/Utilities/S...Expert-2003.htm

In XP go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management, click on Help / Help Topics / Index and look for Partitions and Volumes.

This will tell you how to setup a new partition. That's where I got most of this information.

Hope you didn't think I was smart enough to come up with this on my own. LOL

[aof]

So heres where i'm at now, I have a new Dell Laptop running XP with lots of HD and RAM.  I want to have multiple partitions (not to dual boot or anything, just to have them for other stuff).  I talked to Tech support and they told me they don't encourage multiple partitions and therefore won't help me with my questions (not trying to bad mouth Dell, i find there tech support generally pretty good).  The guy on the phone told me that with new dells they have something called PC Restore which restores the computer back to factury settings.  He also told me that if i format that i will never be able to re-instal this PC Restore utility and therefore i will not be able to return to factury settings.

 

Here are my questions for you:

 

Does this all sound on the level, or is this guy BS'ing me here?

Do I really need this PC restore? won't system Recovery be just as helpful, and do i really care to ever go back to dell factury settings?

Can anyone here think of any additional harm this could cause my computer? What i mean by this, is if i re-install everything from the Disk that came with my computer, will all the pre-set stuff be re-loaded?

 

I know theres a lot here to analyse, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thank you.

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

[aof]

Seems everyone is going the same route. My HP came with a System Recovery partition. The disk you got from Dell will NOT have any 3rd party software on it, such as CD burner, imaging, games, etc. All the extras are in the Recovery partition only. You should have a Recovery CD maker program that will allow you to burn a set of recovery disk. Took me about 2 hours and 10 disk. On my HP, the program included a tool disk maker. The tool disk allows you to delete the data in the Recovery partition after you have made the recovery disk. This leaves you with a empty partition with about 4-6 Gigs of free hard drive space.  It also lets you make a partition. You must have unallocated space on your Basic disk to make a new partition. You can have 4 primary partitions on a Basic disk or 3 primarys and a extended partition. You can make a unlimited # of logical drives in the extended partition,  each logical drive can be formatted and given a drive letter. If you don't have any unallocated space, you can download a 3rd party program to resize existing partitions.

http://www.globalshareware.com/Utilities/S...Expert-2003.htm

In XP go to Control Panel / Administrative Tools / Computer Management,  click on Help / Help Topics / Index and look for Partitions and Volumes.

This will tell you how to setup a new partition. That's where I got most of this information.

Hope you didn't think I was smart enough to come up with this on my own. LOL

 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

[aof]

Hi all, I'm new to this forum but can answer some of your questions. With all due respect to your choice of computers, ....If you have a Dell or Gateway you would be well advised to return it fast.

Having said that...No, you do not need Dell's idiot restore system . It is a partition which slows down a slow computer. Should you wish to partition and the (of course) format, it is necessary to go from NTFS to FAT 32. Then you can simply use a Win 98 FDISK. I'm sure this works for drives up to 80 GB......and why would you ever want more.

 

Throw away EVERYTHING Dell put on the computer....which ewill be done in the processes I have just mentioned. Just be sure to get rid of NTFS first.

 

I have just started a business with a friend of mine who insisted upon Dell. I can see the difference every day. Also don't use any wireless devices unless you want to reveal and expose information. They also slow down the computer.....thanks for listening. Al.

[Newhotness]

no disrespect, but i actually think i'm a little dumber after reading that last post. your basically saying Dell suckx for the simple reason that some of their industry standard apps arn't that hot. as for going to FAT32, wtf r u talking about, NTFS is way more secure, and in general a better set-up, also XP requires it if i'm not mistaken. Possibly you misunderstood my first post, i wasn't blaming dell for their loussy computers, i love dells products, i have everything i need and for a lot less than you can get from the local Bestbuy or Futureshop, and the 30% discount i get from them is nice too. and as for the win 98 disk, its probably not the best solution as i don't have a floppy drive, besides, formatting from the XP recovery CD is the easiest thing i've ever done on a computer, its dead simple:

 

insert CD:

change the boot order so that boot from cd is higher than from hardrive

when screen promps you, select boot from cd:

follow simple on screen instruction:

read a bunch of "interesting" XP benefits over previously windows os's:

wait 30 mins and your done.

 

anyway, hopefully this settles ends the thread.