more on partitioning

As a novice on drive swapping and the subject of partitions, I recently let
Acronis clone my 20 gig laptop (Dell Inspiron 2600) drive to a new 80gig one
automatically.

The old drive had an invisible 30meg odd partition in addition to the usual
C. I didn't know what the invisible partition was for, so I let Acronis
decide, and it resized both partitions proportionately onto the new drive.

Thus my new invisible drive is about 120meg.
Does it need to be?
What is it for?
Should I/is it possible to, reduce it to its original size, or does it
contain information (database/index?) which needs to grow in proportion as
more data gradually fills the main partition?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

S

spamlet wrote:
As a novice on drive swapping and the subject of partitions, I
recently let Acronis clone my 20 gig laptop (Dell Inspiron 2600)
drive to a new 80gig one automatically.

The old drive had an invisible 30meg odd partition in addition to the
usual C. I didn't know what the invisible partition was for, so I
let Acronis decide, and it resized both partitions proportionately
onto the new drive.
Thus my new invisible drive is about 120meg.
Does it need to be?

No. It needs to be the size of what was cloned, maybe less - much less - if
the clone is compressed.

What is it for?

The invisible drive is - probably - a recovery partition put there by Dell.

--

dadiOH
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"spamlet" wrote in message
...
As a novice on drive swapping and the subject of partitions, I recently
let Acronis clone my 20 gig laptop (Dell Inspiron 2600) drive to a new
80gig one automatically.

The old drive had an invisible 30meg odd partition in addition to the
usual C. I didn't know what the invisible partition was for, so I let
Acronis decide, and it resized both partitions proportionately onto the
new drive.

Thus my new invisible drive is about 120meg.
Does it need to be?
What is it for?
Should I/is it possible to, reduce it to its original size, or does it
contain information (database/index?) which needs to grow in proportion as
more data gradually fills the main partition?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

S



Most of the Dells I've worked on had an EISA partition @ the start of the
drive. As you noted they are around 30 MB. The partition contains the files
needed to run Dell's hardware diagnostic programs when you first boot the
computer. You need to hit one of the F keys, F12 I think, when the computer
first starts and it will boot from that partition and allow you to run the
diagnostic programs. IIRC the partition doesn't show up in My Computer but
is visible through Disk Management. The same diagnostics can be run from one
of the CDs that are included with your computer. Look for a CD named
Resources or Drivers for this feature.

It won't get any larger since nothing is written or saved to the partition.
I suppose you could resize it if you're desperate for space. If you've got
the CDs you could delete it entirely. Most of the time when I've had to
rebuild a Dell I've deleted that partition and made the whole drive C. In
your case I'd just leave it be and not worry about it. As long as you're
computer is working OK why mess with success.

If you're curious do a Google search for Dell diagnostic partition for more
info. Here's one link to get you started.

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...2EE16785D39C5C

Good luck

Nepatsfan

"spamlet" wrote in message
...
As a novice on drive swapping and the subject of partitions, I recently
let Acronis clone my 20 gig laptop (Dell Inspiron 2600) drive to a new
80gig one automatically.

The old drive had an invisible 30meg odd partition in addition to the
usual C. I didn't know what the invisible partition was for, so I let
Acronis decide, and it resized both partitions proportionately onto the
new drive.

Thus my new invisible drive is about 120meg.
Does it need to be?
What is it for?
Should I/is it possible to, reduce it to its original size, or does it
contain information (database/index?) which needs to grow in proportion as
more data gradually fills the main partition?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

S



Most of the Dells I've worked on had an EISA partition @ the start of the
drive. As you noted they are around 30 MB. The partition contains the files
needed to run Dell's hardware diagnostic programs when you first boot the
computer. You need to hit one of the F keys, F12 I think, when the computer
first starts and it will boot from that partition and allow you to run the
diagnostic programs. IIRC the partition doesn't show up in My Computer but
is visible through Disk Management. The same diagnostics can be run from one
of the CDs that are included with your computer. Look for a CD named
Resources or Drivers for this feature.

It won't get any larger since nothing is written or saved to the partition.
I suppose you could resize it if you're desperate for space. If you've got
the CDs you could delete it entirely. Most of the time when I've had to
rebuild a Dell I've deleted that partition and made the whole drive C. In
your case I'd just leave it be and not worry about it. As long as you're
computer is working OK why mess with success.

If you're curious do a Google search for Dell diagnostic partition for more
info. Here's one link to get you started.

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...2EE16785D39C5C

Good luck

Nepatsfan

"Nepatsfan" wrote in message
...
"spamlet" wrote in message
...
As a novice on drive swapping and the subject of partitions, I recently
let Acronis clone my 20 gig laptop (Dell Inspiron 2600) drive to a new
80gig one automatically.

The old drive had an invisible 30meg odd partition in addition to the
usual C. I didn't know what the invisible partition was for, so I let
Acronis decide, and it resized both partitions proportionately onto the
new drive.

Thus my new invisible drive is about 120meg.
Does it need to be?
What is it for?
Should I/is it possible to, reduce it to its original size, or does it
contain information (database/index?) which needs to grow in proportion
as more data gradually fills the main partition?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

S



Most of the Dells I've worked on had an EISA partition @ the start of the
drive. As you noted they are around 30 MB. The partition contains the
files needed to run Dell's hardware diagnostic programs when you first
boot the computer. You need to hit one of the F keys, F12 I think, when
the computer first starts and it will boot from that partition and allow
you to run the diagnostic programs. IIRC the partition doesn't show up in
My Computer but is visible through Disk Management. The same diagnostics
can be run from one of the CDs that are included with your computer. Look
for a CD named Resources or Drivers for this feature.

It won't get any larger since nothing is written or saved to the
partition. I suppose you could resize it if you're desperate for space. If
you've got the CDs you could delete it entirely. Most of the time when
I've had to rebuild a Dell I've deleted that partition and made the whole
drive C. In your case I'd just leave it be and not worry about it. As long
as you're computer is working OK why mess with success.

If you're curious do a Google search for Dell diagnostic partition for
more info. Here's one link to get you started.

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...2EE16785D39C5C

Good luck

Nepatsfan


Thanks Nepatsfan (Where have I heard that name before?),

When I reboot and hit the F12, the thing seems to go on line and look for a
mac number it can't find. It does pause and say to press ctrl alt something
but moves on to search on line before I can press anything.

Cheers,

S

"Nepatsfan" wrote in message
...
"spamlet" wrote in message
...
As a novice on drive swapping and the subject of partitions, I recently
let Acronis clone my 20 gig laptop (Dell Inspiron 2600) drive to a new
80gig one automatically.

The old drive had an invisible 30meg odd partition in addition to the
usual C. I didn't know what the invisible partition was for, so I let
Acronis decide, and it resized both partitions proportionately onto the
new drive.

Thus my new invisible drive is about 120meg.
Does it need to be?
What is it for?
Should I/is it possible to, reduce it to its original size, or does it
contain information (database/index?) which needs to grow in proportion
as more data gradually fills the main partition?

Thanks for any enlightenment.

S



Most of the Dells I've worked on had an EISA partition @ the start of the
drive. As you noted they are around 30 MB. The partition contains the
files needed to run Dell's hardware diagnostic programs when you first
boot the computer. You need to hit one of the F keys, F12 I think, when
the computer first starts and it will boot from that partition and allow
you to run the diagnostic programs. IIRC the partition doesn't show up in
My Computer but is visible through Disk Management. The same diagnostics
can be run from one of the CDs that are included with your computer. Look
for a CD named Resources or Drivers for this feature.

It won't get any larger since nothing is written or saved to the
partition. I suppose you could resize it if you're desperate for space. If
you've got the CDs you could delete it entirely. Most of the time when
I've had to rebuild a Dell I've deleted that partition and made the whole
drive C. In your case I'd just leave it be and not worry about it. As long
as you're computer is working OK why mess with success.

If you're curious do a Google search for Dell diagnostic partition for
more info. Here's one link to get you started.

http://support.dell.com/support/topi...2EE16785D39C5C

Good luck

Nepatsfan


Thanks Nepatsfan (Where have I heard that name before?),

When I reboot and hit the F12, the thing seems to go on line and look for a
mac number it can't find. It does pause and say to press ctrl alt something
but moves on to search on line before I can press anything.

Cheers,

S