can you partition a drive if you only have a "Restore" CD (not full WinXP)?

A friend bought a new computer (Medion) with Windows XP Home a couple of months ago, and lately it's started to "act up ". Having spent a couple of afternoons trying to troubleshoot it, it looks like we'll probably end up reinstalling Windows. She heard me talking about having created separate partitions on my computer (one for my OS, the other for my data), and she's asked me if I could do the same for hers.
Her hard drive already has two partitions, the second one being a restoration partition. She has a CD that came with the computer, that appears to be a Restoration version of XP as well.
First of all, is a Windows XP full installation CD a requirement for doing a clean installation of XP and partitioning the drive? If so, then I obviously won't be able to do what she wants, and we'll have to just go with a "restoration installation" (or whatever it's actually called). If the full installation CD is not essential, and I can do a clean install and partitioning of her drive, should I try to save the existing "restoration partition "? Is it usual to have both a restoration partition and a restoration CD come with a computer?

 

Hi Rebeca,
Yes, you do need full a XP to do a clean installation and create partitions the way you did on your system.

It sounds like your friend has a restore to factory conditions cd which invokes that restoration partition.

It is usual now for OEM's to do this. I'm sorry that Dell has joined in this trend and one has to be aware and request the full XP cd.

Regards - Charles

 

I believe This Post Refers to the same make of PC.

BillyBob

 

Hi Rebecca,

Forgot, a way to tell whether or not the cd is a full XP:

If it is the XP install CD, it will have an i386 folder with a bunch of .cab files. It will also be labeled Microsoft Windows XP and have a holographic label.

Regards - Charles

 

Charlesvar:
Thanks for the reply. It'll actually make my job much quicker and easier this way, even though I'd kind of been looking forward to doing the partition thing and then following Christer's steps all over again (so that they stay fresh in my mind!). Thanks again, ad infinitum, for mentioning that I should get a full XP CD when I was ordering my Dell! Had you not, I would have breezed right over that option when I was placing my order (that deadly trap so many of us fall into: "if I don't understand the option, the default must be fine" - unfortunately, Dell's default in this matter, as you know, is a Restoration CD only).

BillyBob:
OUCH! Thank you so much for that sad link. I will be sure to have my friend read Radiogold's post, so that she understands I'm not simply bailing out on her for the sake of expediency.

One last follow-up question:
If my friend were to get a program like Partition Magic, would she then be able to subdivide her C: drive into two partitions, so that her data could be maintained separate from her OS? Thanks!

 

Hi Rebecca,

Short answer - yes.

Regards - Charles

 

Hi Charles -
Just noticed your info about how to tell if it's a full XP cd...
Along with my computer came two CDs with the Dell logo on them, one blue, labeled "Drivers and Utilities/ Already installed on your computer/ Dell Dimension ResourceCD ", the other one purple, labeled "Operating System/ Already installed on your computer/ Reinstallation CD/ Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition" (no holographic label or anything). It must be a full XP cd, because I've successfully repartitioned and reinstalled Windows a couple of times with it now (someone here - wasn't it you? - had assured me that despite the "reinstallation CD" label, if I had ordered a full XP cd from Dell, that's what the CD would be).
Maybe the i386 folder with the .cab files is the more foolproof way of ascertaining whether or not the CD is a full XP one or not.

 

Hi Rebecca,

Yes, then i386/cab files is the foolprooof way. Mine does have the holographic label, but that was three years ago.

Thinking some more about this - its worth a shot to call the OEM and ask for the full XP, probably will be a charge though.

Regards - Charles

 

That would probably still be cheaper than having to buy Partition Magic! I'll run it past the computer's owner and see if she wants to give it a shot. Thanks!

 

I'd try partitioning before reinstalling.

Partition magic MAY work even after you reinstall. Very likely Partition Manager (free trial) will.

If you try either, be careful not to remove the tiny 'restoration partition'. The worst case is that you need to repeat the install.

 

Hi Rebecca,

Is it winter in Longlac yet?

My experience is that the holographic label is somewhere on the computer case, not on the CD.

Since your friend has XP Home, and assuming that you have a full CD for XP Home, you should be able to wipe her hard drive completely, and install from scratch, using the Product Key from the holographic label on her computer. I've done this dozens of times, on a number of different computers (each of which originally came with XP installed) using the same XP CD (and an OEM one, at that).

PartitionMagic 8.0 really is the easiest way to format/partition/label a hard drive, and it's available online for as little as $15US. It doesn't have to be installed ... you can run it from the CD.

1. Boot from the PM CD and format the Recovery partition, which normally is hidden. Resize it to zero by dragging the partition boundary. If the hard drive is 20 GB or greater, downsize C: to about 10 GB and convert it to NTFS, if it's not already. Create an NTFS D: partition in the remaining space, which should now include the space originally occupied by the Recovery partition.

2. Reboot normally and, in Windows Explorer, move all of her personal data to the new D: partition.

3. Boot with the installation CD and install XP.​

I've probably left something out, but PM's graphical interface is pretty intuitive. I hate the thought that PM is now a Symantec product (Symantec bought PowerQuest a year or so ago), but I think it's a must-have utility.

Please let us know how things go.

 

BillyBob, There's never a need to delete more than one partition at a time, and only in the case of a single partition present, does removing it "wipe" the drive.

 

JSS3rd, wouldn't just putting the disk in the drive and booting it immediately distinguish its type? Of course, one must go no further unless one is prepared. Reset should stop it dead. Leaving the 'recovery partition' would be safer till you know what you're dealling with, and unlikely to take much space.

BTW, why do any more than shrinking c: and then make a d: ??

 

Sparrow ...

From what I've seen, OEMs put all kinds of unnecessary stuff in their installations, and I prefer to go with "plain vanilla ", which is why I suggested deleting the recovery partition. I just don't think it's necessary to keep it, as long as a full installation CD is available. Windows provides drivers for most hardware, and updated ones can always be downloaded.

 

Hi Jim and Sparrow,

Agree that PM is a must have utility especially if as Jim writes it can be had for under $20 - haven't checked lately.

Also agree that Dell and other OEM's put their OEM ware on the system and in the long run better to get rid of them - I've seen more than one instance of Dell's search (I think, forgot what it was called) app causing problems. For that alone I would get the full XP and re install the OS.

Regards - Charles

 

I uderstand that idea of doing what is need to get clean install of the OS.

But !!. In by doing it while the warrentee is in effect would it not void the warrentee ?

I do not believe there is any way that a Company Rep could not see it right off.

BillyBob

 

BillyBob ...

Is the warranty really a consideration here? I had replacements of hardware components, under warranty, to my computer even after I had wiped the hard drive and reinstalled XP from scratch. No questions asked.

Besides, do you really think a "Company Rep ", as you put it, is going to travel to Longlac, Ontario (look it up on a map) on a warranty complaint?

 

Hi Jim!
Yes, we have snow up here, thank you very much. Supposed to have a bit of a thaw later in the week, though, so we may still get to see bare ground at least once more before the annual deep freeze set in again.
Thanks for the info on how to get around the "restoration CD only" business. I'm so overwhelmed with friends' computer problems right now that I'm just not ready to undertake something that involves that much thinking; but I've printed out your instructions, and will save them for possible (likely) use at a later date.
Thanks to everyone else for their input as well!

 

Found out today that the Windows XP installation CD that came with the Merion computer is a full install one! In light of that fact, I'm going to go ahead with the partitioning & reinstallation that my friend had hoped for in the first place. When I spoke with Medion tech support this evening, they couldn't even tell me how to access the restore partition, so it doesn't seem like deleting that will be any great loss. Would never want to restore the computer to its factory settings anyway - as I mentioned in a separate thread, the computer came with a 30-day trial of Office 2003. The trial period is now up, and numerous programs on the computer in question won't work any more (including IE and OE) because a particular .msi file is missing that's supposed to be on the Office 2003 disk, and we no longer have access to those files.
Thanks for all the input, folks!