Homebuilt Laptop Question

[M C Del Papa]

Hey everybody!

I just got my first non-homebuilt computer, a laptop from Dell (an Inspiron
600m). Needless to say, I got a virus and was maniacal for about a day and a
half trying to clean it off without a fresh reinstall (I am
anti-anti-virus). I have run homebuilt desktops exclusively where I
partitioned down my HDD and imaged the OS. Whenever I got buggy programs or
a malware, I would format c: and reload the image. WHAM!

So now I am contemplating rebuilding my DELL laptop from scratch. That's
right, a complete new load of XP and all the drivers. However, I am nervous
about a couple of things:

1. DELL has a couple of hidden partitions installed that I desparately want
to DELETE. A 50 MB front end partition for diagnositics, and a 3.5 GB
partition on the back end with an image of the factory load. Will deleting
these partitions confuse the BIOS? I have heard rumours about PC's refusing
to boot without these partitions present.
2. Are there any other pitfalls I need to be aware of?

I have a lot of experience building my own PC including the software loads.
However, DELL laptops are new territory!

Thanks!

MC

 

[BigJim]

that partition is the diagnostics you can leave it won't hurt a thing
second look for a folder call Drivers and copy them to a cd rom
you will need these. They are the drivers specific to your machine and it
will save you time. After you reinstall your OS look to the driver disk you
created for the drivers for your sound and video and anything you may need.

 

[jaster]

Hey everybody!

I just got my first non-homebuilt computer, a laptop from Dell (an
Inspiron 600m). Needless to say, I got a virus and was maniacal for about
a day and a half trying to clean it off without a fresh reinstall (I am
anti-anti-virus). I have run homebuilt desktops exclusively where I
partitioned down my HDD and imaged the OS. Whenever I got buggy programs
or a malware, I would format c: and reload the image. WHAM!

So now I am contemplating rebuilding my DELL laptop from scratch. That's
right, a complete new load of XP and all the drivers. However, I am
nervous about a couple of things:

1. DELL has a couple of hidden partitions installed that I desparately
want to DELETE. A 50 MB front end partition for diagnositics, and a 3.5 GB
partition on the back end with an image of the factory load. Will deleting
these partitions confuse the BIOS? I have heard rumours about PC's
refusing to boot without these partitions present. 2. Are there any other
pitfalls I need to be aware of?

Well if you're using a Dell OEM XP the license is probably on one of those
partitions. I've seen one case where the Windows partition was actually
compressed by the software on the hidden partition. Then there's the
potential that Dell is using proprietary drivers for your hardware that
could make a fresh install more trouble than it's worth. 3.5 gb isn't
that much waste of space, less than a DVD's space.

I think the 3.5gb partition contains the restore data of the original
Dell software including XP, drivers, etc. Check the Dell support
site for the key sequence for starting the restore process and details
about your laptop. Something like hitting Ctrl-F11 on reboot or
something. Then the restore should format the hard drive and restore the
software to what it was when shipped from the factory.

 

[David Maynard]

Well if you're using a Dell OEM XP the license is probably on one of those
partitions.

If they're using the normal method their version of XP is checking the
motherboard's signature in the BIOS to verify it's being installed on the
system type it was licensed for and, if so, bypasses activation as it's
already activated for that.

If it doesn't detect the correct motherboard signature then it should
behave as any normal, as of yet un-activated, XP install.