Dell XP partitions?

R

Ron Hardin

There seem to be 3 partitions on the Dell XP HD (which leaves me
only one bootable partition I can add)

I assume one is system backup somehow, and the other is hardware
diagnostics. The latter is handy (helped a lot with a bad 1gb
memory chip) so I'd like to keep it; can I make the system restore
an indirect partition somehow and use its slot in the MBR instead for
linux?

I think I want 2 partitions for linux OS and my data, so am one
short as things stand is I use the last partition as an indirect one.

(project is to turn 3 $399 Inspiron 2200's into linux number crunchers
but retain XP to communicate with the world)
 
C

Carey Frisch [MVP]

So what is your question related to Windows XP?

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Ron Hardin" wrote:

| There seem to be 3 partitions on the Dell XP HD (which leaves me
| only one bootable partition I can add)
|
| I assume one is system backup somehow, and the other is hardware
| diagnostics. The latter is handy (helped a lot with a bad 1gb
| memory chip) so I'd like to keep it; can I make the system restore
| an indirect partition somehow and use its slot in the MBR instead for
| linux?
|
| I think I want 2 partitions for linux OS and my data, so am one
| short as things stand is I use the last partition as an indirect one.
|
| (project is to turn 3 $399 Inspiron 2200's into linux number crunchers
| but retain XP to communicate with the world)
|
| --
| Ron Hardin
 
R

Ron Hardin

Carey said:
So what is your question related to Windows XP?

How to create a bootable + nonbootable partition and keep the Dell system restore
working and diagnostics working

Or perhaps you can't do it.

It would seem like the system restore doesn't have to be bootable but I don't know.
 
G

Guest

I would recommend leaving your Dell laptops
"as is" and not experiment with a third-party
O/S. Windows XP can more than handle all
your computing needs.
 
R

Ron Hardin

=?Utf-8?B?Q2FyZXkgRnJpc2NoICBbTVZQXQ==?= said:
I would recommend leaving your Dell laptops
"as is" and not experiment with a third-party
O/S. Windows XP can more than handle all
your computing needs.

If you don't know what the partitions are, just say so.
 
H

HeeroYuy

Ron Hardin said:
If you don't know what the partitions are, just say so.

The partitions should be: The XP recovery partition, the Windows XP
partition, and the third one should be (though I'm not positive) a
diagnostics partition. All three should be primary and the recovery and
diagnostics partitions can be made temporarily active by pressing a key on
the keyboard (don't know which) during boot-up. As always, check with your
PC's manufacturer for appropraite information on your specific system.
 
R

Ron Hardin

HeeroYuy said:
The partitions should be: The XP recovery partition, the Windows XP
partition, and the third one should be (though I'm not positive) a
diagnostics partition. All three should be primary and the recovery and
diagnostics partitions can be made temporarily active by pressing a key on
the keyboard (don't know which) during boot-up. As always, check with your
PC's manufacturer for appropraite information on your specific system.

That makes sense. Can any be made non-bootable?

ie. moved into a 4th partition slot along with other non-bootables

Just from the function, I'd suppose the recovery one ought to be data and not
something that has to be booted, but you could after all make it work only if
bootable, and who knows if they did.

I'm not yet sure what the rules are about partitions. I have to create several,
one of which has to be bootable. So one of these has to go.
 
H

HeeroYuy

Ron Hardin said:
That makes sense. Can any be made non-bootable?

ie. moved into a 4th partition slot along with other non-bootables

Just from the function, I'd suppose the recovery one ought to be data and
not
something that has to be booted, but you could after all make it work only
if
bootable, and who knows if they did.

I'm not yet sure what the rules are about partitions. I have to create
several,
one of which has to be bootable. So one of these has to go.

All 3 aforementioned partitions are primary partitions. I don't know if you
can make them non-bootable without damaging either the data on the
partitions, or the partitions themselves. Because they are all primary
partitions, only one of the three can be active at a time. You can, however,
use a partition program to delete the partition tables in those partitions
and format them into a different partition table, make them extended and
logical partitions, or merge them with the Windows XP partition. If you
choose to do that, however, be sure you have the recovery cd's from Dell in
case something goes critically wrong.
 
K

Kerry Brown

Ron said:
There seem to be 3 partitions on the Dell XP HD (which leaves me
only one bootable partition I can add)

I assume one is system backup somehow, and the other is hardware
diagnostics. The latter is handy (helped a lot with a bad 1gb
memory chip) so I'd like to keep it; can I make the system restore
an indirect partition somehow and use its slot in the MBR instead for
linux?

I think I want 2 partitions for linux OS and my data, so am one
short as things stand is I use the last partition as an indirect one.

(project is to turn 3 $399 Inspiron 2200's into linux number crunchers
but retain XP to communicate with the world)

Use a disk imaging program to image the disk to CD, DVD, network share,
external drive, whatever. Don't know if they all will work with the Dell
partitions but Acronis True Image does. If you do not have the Dell recovery
CDs or DVDs then use the Dell utility to create them. Verify the image and
the recovery CD/DVD set. Delete either or both Dell partions and repartition
as you see fit.

Kerry
 

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