Drive C Got Repartitioned - How?

[Robert M. Lincoln]

I woke up this morning and found a Drive F: on my system, containing two
folders - a Dell folder and a "System Volume Information" folder. Drive F
is only 31 MB and FAT. Also, old system restore points are no longer
available. I can only display a restore point from this morning, 11/3/2003,
and cannot access October, September, etc. "System Volume Information" is
also on Drive C:, but now I suspect that the System/Restore is reading from
Drive F:

I have Norton Antivirus, did a scan yesterday (no viruses), and have the
latest virus definitions. Everything seems to work fine.

What could cause this? Dell says the only way to get rid of Drive F is to
reformat my hard disk and reinstall XP. Ouch!

Thanks

[Doug Knox MS-MVP]

This is normal. Drive F is likely to contain information that is critical,
should you ever need to completely wipe your system and put it back to "out
of the box" condition. System Volume Information is where your System
Restore Point information is kept.

--
Doug Knox, MS-MVP Windows XP/ Windows Smart Display
Win 95/98/Me/XP Tweaks and Fixes
http://www.dougknox.com
--------------------------------
Associate Expert
ExpertZone - http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/expertzone
--------------------------------
Please reply only to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Unsolicited e-mail is not answered.

"Robert M. Lincoln" > wrote in message
...
> I woke up this morning and found a Drive F: on my system, containing two
> folders - a Dell folder and a "System Volume Information" folder. Drive F
> is only 31 MB and FAT. Also, old system restore points are no longer
> available. I can only display a restore point from this morning,
11/3/2003,
> and cannot access October, September, etc. "System Volume Information" is
> also on Drive C:, but now I suspect that the System/Restore is reading
from
> Drive F:
>
> I have Norton Antivirus, did a scan yesterday (no viruses), and have the
> latest virus definitions. Everything seems to work fine.
>
> What could cause this? Dell says the only way to get rid of Drive F is to
> reformat my hard disk and reinstall XP. Ouch!
>
> Thanks
>
>

[Robert M. Lincoln]

Normal???

So how do I recover restore points older than today?

But why did this happen? I have PLENTY of free disk space on Drive C (over
60 GB free).

I take it you don't think I need to reformat my hard disk. Right?

[HillBillyBuddhist]

"Robert M. Lincoln" > wrote in message
...
> I woke up this morning and found a Drive F: on my system, containing two
> folders - a Dell folder and a "System Volume Information" folder. Drive F
> is only 31 MB and FAT. Also, old system restore points are no longer
> available. I can only display a restore point from this morning,
11/3/2003,
> and cannot access October, September, etc. "System Volume Information" is
> also on Drive C:, but now I suspect that the System/Restore is reading
from
> Drive F:
>
> I have Norton Antivirus, did a scan yesterday (no viruses), and have the
> latest virus definitions. Everything seems to work fine.
>
> What could cause this? Dell says the only way to get rid of Drive F is to
> reformat my hard disk and reinstall XP. Ouch!
>
> Thanks
>
>

That partition has always been there, it comes that way on all the Dells (I
have two). It used to be hidden. I have been reading in the Dell Newsgroup
that installing both Napster 2.0 and/or Roxio Easy CD&DVD Creator 6.1 have
been for some reason "unhiding" this partition. The technical details do not
seem to be known so far.

I don't know what to make of the System Restore problem or if it's related.

See the thread "Mysterious Partition" in alt.sys.pc-clone.dell.

Word is it can be rehidden using Partition Magic.

--
D

I'm not an MVP a VIP nor do I have ESP.
I was just trying to help.
Please use your own best judgment before implementing any suggestions or
advice herein.
No warranty is expressed or implied.
Your mileage may vary.
See store for details. :)

Remove shoes to E-mail.

[Robert M. Lincoln]

That's exactly what happened: I installed Napster 2.0 yesterday.

How do I access the newsgroup: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
Is that a microsoft newsgroup, a Dell group? What is the server address?

Thanks

[HillBillyBuddhist]

"Robert M. Lincoln" > wrote in message
...
> That's exactly what happened: I installed Napster 2.0 yesterday.
>
> How do I access the newsgroup: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> Is that a microsoft newsgroup, a Dell group? What is the server address?
>
> Thanks
>
>
>

alt.sys.pc-clone.dell is just a standard old usenet Newsgroup. It can be
accessed from your ISP's News Server. See your ISP's support site or give
them a call to get the server name.

Some of the common ones are here. http://www.newsbin.com/ISP.htm#US

--
D

Remove shoes to E-mail.

[HillBillyBuddhist]

"Robert M. Lincoln" > wrote in message
...
> That's exactly what happened: I installed Napster 2.0 yesterday.
>
> How do I access the newsgroup: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> Is that a microsoft newsgroup, a Dell group? What is the server address?
>
> Thanks
>

BTW I should have mentioned that partition contains only Dell diagnostic
utilities and is not necessary for functionality. The same utilities are
located on your Dell Utilities and Drivers Disc that came with the computer.

--
D

Remove shoes to E-mail.

[R. C. White]

Hi, Robert.

As they say, with Napster, you get A LOT MORE than you bargained for! :>(

That newsgroup is a part of Usenet, which is owned by nobody, just by the
Internet community as a whole. Any news server can furnish it for you, but
that NG is just one of well over 100,000 groups available. Most news
servers have limited disk space (just like you and I do) and they have to
pick and choose which groups to carry, based on demand from their
subscribers.

While the Usenet is available to everyone, you will need a way to access the
NGs, using OE. Most local ISPs (such as Corridor.net for me - and American
River for you?) provide a news server as a part of what's included in the
monthly bill. You'll have to ask your own ISP which one they provide and
how to use it. Once you have the information, click Tools | Accounts...,
select News and set up the account for that server. (You can also access
these MS public newsgroups that way, but you're better off connecting
directly to the MS public news server - msnews.microsoft.com - and bypassing
the middleman.)

Or, you can have Google search for "free news server" and get over 25,000
hits. You can check out a few of those to find one that includes the Dell
newsgroup.

RC
--
R. C. White, CPA
San Marcos, TX

Microsoft Windows MVP

"Robert M. Lincoln" > wrote in message
...
> That's exactly what happened: I installed Napster 2.0 yesterday.
>
> How do I access the newsgroup: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> Is that a microsoft newsgroup, a Dell group? What is the server address?
>
> Thanks

[Sharon F]

On Mon, 3 Nov 2003 13:48:34 -0800, Robert M. Lincoln wrote:

> That's exactly what happened: I installed Napster 2.0 yesterday.
>
> How do I access the newsgroup: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell
> Is that a microsoft newsgroup, a Dell group? What is the server address?
>
> Thanks

If your ISP does not carry the group, head over to Google Groups:
http://groups.google.com/

A direct link to alt.sys.pc-clone.dell :
http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&group=alt.sys.pc-clone.dell

--
Sharon F
MS MVP - Windows Shell/User

[D.Currie]

I certainly wouldn't reformat a drive just to regain 31 mb of space.

"Robert M. Lincoln" > wrote in message
...
> Normal???
>
> So how do I recover restore points older than today?
>
> But why did this happen? I have PLENTY of free disk space on Drive C
(over
> 60 GB free).
>
> I take it you don't think I need to reformat my hard disk. Right?
>
>