Dell Recovery Partition 1

[mcongdon]

Hi Everyone,
I have a Dell Inspiron 6400 Laptop that I bought 3 years ago. Performance wise it hasn't failed me yet, so I'm not looking to replace quite yet. One problem I have is that I'm very low on hard drive space. I recently dropped under 1GB available on my C:\ drive. When I bought the system, however, it came partitioned with a D:\ drive titled "Backup". I've never once had to use it, and it could give me an extra 10gigs of space. Can I use a program like Partition Magic to remove this partition and give my C drive more space, or would this be a bad idea? Any help with this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[kjv1611]

You can do that, but if something does go wrong, you need some method of reinstalling your system. If you also have the OS (Operating System) and Driver disks (assuming they were included), then you could get away with dumping the restore partition.

Another thing you could look at, if you were able to spend some money on it would be to buy a new hard drive, and mirror your current/old drive onto the new one. You'd gain much more than 10GB, and probably gain a lot of speed as well.

If your laptop hard drive has a SATA connection, then I'd suggest going with this hard drive:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822136280

320GB, 5 Year warranty, 7200 RPM, and VERY quiet for a fast hard drive!

I've installed that one in at least 2 or 3 laptops over the past couple months, and WOW what a difference that thing made.

At NewEgg right now, it's $70 with free shipping - it's cheaper than the next smaller size down in the same family of hard drives, even!

Well, to me, it's a no brainer.... IF you have the $70 to burn. Also, if you're having storage space problems now, and you just delete your restore partition, you'll have the same problems again LIKELY before you change your PC.

If you upgrade to this 320GB drive, not only will storage limitations be a thing of the past, but:
[UL]
[li]Windows will boot faster[/li]
[li]Everything will seem "crisper" when you open/run programs, etc.[/li]
[li]If the thing breaks, you've got a 5 year warranty - that's unheard of for Laptop drives - well, was. [/li]
[li]Did I mention the part of having 320GB of FAST storage?[/li]
[/UL]

If I had a working laptop right now, and was even considering a hard drive, I'd jump on that one if at all possible!

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[mcongdon]

That does make a lot of sense. I'm hesitant to jump to a new computer right now because I love the performance that I get right now, but the hard drive is definitely slowing it down from what it could be. I'll definitely look into this drive. It would probably end up costing me just as much money to get a program like partition magic to remove the partition like i originally was thinking. Thanks a ton for the suggestion!

 

[kjv1611]

Don't forget, however, when I say mirror, you'll need to use a program like partition magic, or Acronis True Image, or Norton Ghost, or a freebie version like them to do that. Although, for that purpose, I'd wonder if you could use a trial version to get the job done, and be finished? Or if you already have another computer with such a program installed, you could connect the first drive via a USB adapter, then create a backup of it... then restore it to the new hard drive via the same adapter.

Nice adapter I'd like to pick up one day (well, it or one of the many others just like it):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817106113

(But understand these things are meant for temporary transfers, not permanently connected drives).

Cheaper ones like what I have are also available, and work fine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16812156102

I've got 3 of that one (don't ask). Out of the 3, 1 is physically broken, but I can get all 3 to work just fine. Transfer speeds are plenty enough for a backup/restore as well.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me

 

[mcongdon]

I will look into the trial versions and some of the freebies too. Worse comes to worst, I'd rather shell out the money for a program and equipment that will get the job done right the first time than fight with freebies for weeks to do what I want. Thanks again for all the help, I'll repost when I decide on what I'm going to do!

 

[dippncope]

EASEUS Partition Master Home edition is free and works very well and will allow you to delete and recover your 10 gig partition.

http://www.partition-tool.com/

 

[mcongdon]

I'm probably going to end up getting a new computer sometime in the near future after all. If I use EASEUS Partition Master, will I have to do a new install of Windows, or will it delete the partition and merge the free space with my C drive?

 

[dippncope]

You can change the size of the partition with out deleting it and leave say 1/2 of recovery partition and make the other 1/2 added to your C:. or what ever size you want. Then you would be able to do a factory restore later.

 

[mcongdon]

That would be perfect. I don't want to delete it altogether necessarily, but there is no reason for there to be a 10gig partition that only has under 1 gig being used. I'll probably cut it in half and that should help my performance seeing as how I only have 600MB left on my C:\ drive right now. Thanks for the tip on the free software!

 

[dippncope]

Your Welcome. This site has helped me countless times so am am always willing to pass along any knowledge that I have to help others on here

 

[confusetek]

i have a 80gb samsung hard drive can install windows xp but cant boot to windows without cd still in drive. cant boot from hard drive

 

[kjv1611]

confusetek,

Welcome to Tek-Tips.

You need to start a new thread.

Also, provide as much detail as you possibly can in your post. Windows XP Home/Pro/Media Center Edition? What motherboard/computer model are you using? SATA Hard drive or IDE? If you don't know, do a little searching to find out. If you don't know and can't find it, just tell us what you're not sure about, and we'll try to help as best we can.

--

"If to err is human, then I must be some kind of human!" -Me