Partitioning on new Dell Inspiron Laptop...

Hello, I just bought a Dell Inspiron and I have some doubts about partitioning my new Hard Disk...

The thing is Its been ages since I partitioned my older pc (Windows 98) wit Partition Magic 8. And I did it with the help of the wizard... and now when I try to use the wizard It wont let me because the ppl of Dell partitioned my Disk in the following (in that order):

1.- "Dellutility" is a primary FAT partition of 39.2 MB

2.- "Main" is a primary NTFS partition of 72 GB (this is where XP is installed and is the active partition, of course)

3.- "Local" is a primary partition taged as "CP/M Concurrent, DOS, CTOS" of 3 GB (I dont know what this is, so dont ask ;P)

4.- and there is 7 MB of unlocated space.


Note: Disk space is 80 GB

My concern is:
I wish to create a backup partition of about 30-40 GB taking space from the "Main" partition and I dont know Where to place it... I mean, should it be

after "dellutility" and before "Main" or
after "Main" but before "local" or
just, Place it at the end of the Disk?


Thanks a lot, im pretty confused, and its urgent to do this hehe =)

 

Navestax: First of all, welcome to the BBS!

I may not be answering your immediate question, but I'll share a warning with you. I have a Dell Dimension that's 3 years old now that has an 80 GB HDD. When it was new I partitioned it with Partition Magic 7 into virtual drives C, D, E and F. After about a year I decided to move some of the capacity around and I learned a lesson the hard way. You can move, say, from C to D or the reverse, or from D to E or the reverse. But don't move from C to E or the reverse. In other words, you can shift space from one drive to a contiguous drive, but don't skip over any. I did that and lost 5 GB of space I've never gotten back.

Maybe your PM 8 will allow that now, or the Wizard will warn you about it, but it's something to keep in mind. Good luck.

 

Hi Steve,

Powerquest PM 8.0 will work with XP.



Hello Navestax,

I would put the partition at the end next to the unallocated space.

I would also make sure that you can recover from any problem:

Do you have a XP cd in order to reload the OS and start over? Because if not, I would take Steve's suggestions and get an external HD and use that as a backup. Think that's better in the long run anyway, it protects you're data from HD failure or any other disaster on the original HD.

I personally would wipe the Laptop's HD altogether and re load the OS and start over. But I understand that Dell's warrenty would probably prohibit that.

Regards - Charles

 

I'd just resize the system partition leaving the left over space behind the system. Then, make a partition out of the unallocated space that's left over. No need to move anything. More confusion for ya.

 

Ok! =D

Great! I was afraid of ****ing it up hehehe

So the advice is resizing the "Main ", leaving some unallocated space BEHIND it; and then just use that unallocated space to create a NTFS primary partition.
Is that ok? Nothing will like die? hehehe =)


Edit: And yeah, I have backups, what Im afraid of is that my computer wont be able to restart or to lose some space

 

If you're not intent on moving partitions, then Zander's outline is the way to go.

I would still make sure you can recover By recover, I mean recover from an inoperable system. Do you have a way to do that - XP CD or Dell recovery disk(s)?

Anyway, let us know how this turns out.

Regards - Charles

 

Yeah I can recover... and I think ill better do it after the "Main" partition and before "Local ", what do you guys think? Cause Ive heard its better to do Backup partitions after the system partitions...

 

If you change the partitions on the drive the Dell restore system will no longer work. http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm

 

=ssss

I guess I shall contact Dell before doing anything, so I dont get any problems with the warranty then... ¬¬

 

Can’t see why it would affect the warranty, it would just mean you would no longer be able to restore Windows to factory condition with the Dell auto restore system. If you have your own means of restoring images then it’s no big loss. I was just pointing out the consequences of modifying the partitions in case you did want to retain the Dell restore feature.