New Dells Still Have Recovery Partition?

The inspiration 6400 I bought last week has one.
ill most likely format it and install XP just to get rid of vista that came
on it. so the partition is on big deal to me.



"1234" <> wrote in message
news:gjGOh.14$...
> Hello,
>
> I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the
> recovery
> partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it did
> not.
>
> Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me if it
> came with the recovery partition?
>
> Thanks,
> Ellen
>

Hello,

I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the recovery
partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it did not.

Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me if it
came with the recovery partition?

Thanks,
Ellen

"1234" <> wrote in message
news:gjGOh.14$...
> Hello,
>
> I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the
> recovery
> partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it did
> not.
>
> Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me if it
> came with the recovery partition?
>
> Thanks,
> Ellen
>

Ellen -

How did you confirm that it's not there?

Did you use the CTL+F11 hot key comb. at the Dell splash, or did you go into
control panel and look at your disks via 'disk management'?

Stew

"1234" <> wrote in message
news:gjGOh.14$...
> Hello,
>
> I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the
> recovery
> partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it did
> not.
>
> Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me if it
> came with the recovery partition?
>
> Thanks,
> Ellen
>

The XPS410 does have a recovery partition. What happens when you press
CTRL+F11? If it doesn't work, google DSRFix. This is a freeware program
that will fix it, as long as the partition is intact.

Wow. Is my face red! It indeed has a CTRL+F11 to a Dell PC Restore. And
in Disk Management the Disk 0 - Basic 298.09GB Primary Partition was in 3
sections:

55MB FAT (EISA Configuration)
(C 293.29GB NTFS (System)
4.74GB FAT 32 (Unknown Partition)

I think my original misconception came when I searched for "recovery" in
Windows Help thinking it was Dell Help, and found nothing. We have an older
HP with a Recovery Partition and if I remember correctly, the hidden
partition is more clearly marked/obvious in routine use (labeled as Drive D
and won't easily let you click on it). It was also clear about the need to
create recovery disk(s).

I'm figure it's still a good idea to create some kind of backup for the
recovery partition. (I always wondered about a hidden partition saving the
day if there's a hard drive failure.) An old posting referred to a
Start/Programs/Dell OS Recovery CD, but I don't see one. I'll continue my
research.

Thank you all for your help.
Ellen

"Tom Scales" <> wrote in message
news:460b933a$0$17991$...
>
> "1234" <> wrote in message
> news:gjGOh.14$...
>> Hello,
>>
>> I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the
>> recovery
>> partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it did
>> not.
>>
>> Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me if it
>> came with the recovery partition?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ellen
>>
>
> The XPS410 does have a recovery partition. What happens when you press
> CTRL+F11? If it doesn't work, google DSRFix. This is a freeware program
> that will fix it, as long as the partition is intact.

Mangyrat wrote:
> The inspiration 6400 I bought last week has one.
> ill most likely format it and install XP just to get rid of vista that came
> on it. so the partition is on big deal to me.
>
>
>
> "1234" <> wrote in message
> news:gjGOh.14$...
>> Hello,
>>
>> I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the
>> recovery
>> partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it did
>> not.
>>
>> Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me if it
>> came with the recovery partition?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Ellen
>>
>
>

I recently got the 6400 with XP before it went to Vista. How do you
locate the hidden partition. I read something about Cntl-F11. Do you
have to click on those keys during bootup, or what?

"richard" <> wrote in message
news:84mdnduOT8_z45DbnZ2dnUVZ_g-...
> Mangyrat wrote:
>> The inspiration 6400 I bought last week has one.
>> ill most likely format it and install XP just to get rid of vista that
>> came on it. so the partition is on big deal to me.
>>
>>
>>
>> "1234" <> wrote in message
>> news:gjGOh.14$...
>>> Hello,
>>>
>>> I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the
>>> recovery
>>> partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it did
>>> not.
>>>
>>> Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me if
>>> it came with the recovery partition?
>>>
>>> Thanks,
>>> Ellen
>>>
>>
>>
>
> I recently got the 6400 with XP before it went to Vista. How do you locate
> the hidden partition. I read something about Cntl-F11. Do you have to
> click on those keys during bootup, or what?

Yes, when you see the Dell logo, as long as you haven't removed the
partition. It will WIPE OUT everything on your machine though.

Tom Scales wrote:
>
> "richard" <> wrote in message
> news:84mdnduOT8_z45DbnZ2dnUVZ_g-...
>> Mangyrat wrote:
>>> The inspiration 6400 I bought last week has one.
>>> ill most likely format it and install XP just to get rid of vista
>>> that came on it. so the partition is on big deal to me.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "1234" <> wrote in message
>>> news:gjGOh.14$...
>>>> Hello,
>>>>
>>>> I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the
>>>> recovery
>>>> partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it
>>>> did not.
>>>>
>>>> Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me
>>>> if it came with the recovery partition?
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Ellen
>>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
>> I recently got the 6400 with XP before it went to Vista. How do you
>> locate the hidden partition. I read something about Cntl-F11. Do you
>> have to click on those keys during bootup, or what?
>
> Yes, when you see the Dell logo, as long as you haven't removed the
> partition. It will WIPE OUT everything on your machine though.

Yowza, I'm glad I asked. So ctl-f11 activates the hidden partition. I
had thought that one could merely examine its contents....

Thanks

"richard" <> wrote in message
news:. ..
> Tom Scales wrote:
>>
>> "richard" <> wrote in message
>> news:84mdnduOT8_z45DbnZ2dnUVZ_g-...
>>> Mangyrat wrote:
>>>> The inspiration 6400 I bought last week has one.
>>>> ill most likely format it and install XP just to get rid of vista that
>>>> came on it. so the partition is on big deal to me.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> "1234" <> wrote in message
>>>> news:gjGOh.14$...
>>>>> Hello,
>>>>>
>>>>> I bought a new XPS 400 from Costco about a year ago and it had the
>>>>> recovery
>>>>> partition. Several months later I bought another (XPS 410) and it did
>>>>> not.
>>>>>
>>>>> Has anyone bought one very recently from Costco.com and can tell me if
>>>>> it came with the recovery partition?
>>>>>
>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>> Ellen
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>> I recently got the 6400 with XP before it went to Vista. How do you
>>> locate the hidden partition. I read something about Cntl-F11. Do you
>>> have to click on those keys during bootup, or what?
>>
>> Yes, when you see the Dell logo, as long as you haven't removed the
>> partition. It will WIPE OUT everything on your machine though.
>
> Yowza, I'm glad I asked. So ctl-f11 activates the hidden partition. I had
> thought that one could merely examine its contents....
>
> Thanks

I don't remember if you can or not. It warns you before it kills anything.
As I recall, it is a Ghost partition, so if you have Ghost....

On Thu, 29 Mar 2007 20:57:48 -0800, "1234" <> wrote:

>Wow. Is my face red! It indeed has a CTRL+F11 to a Dell PC Restore. And
>in Disk Management the Disk 0 - Basic 298.09GB Primary Partition was in 3
>sections:
>
>55MB FAT (EISA Configuration)
>(C 293.29GB NTFS (System)
>4.74GB FAT 32 (Unknown Partition)
>
>I think my original misconception came when I searched for "recovery" in
>Windows Help thinking it was Dell Help, and found nothing. We have an older
>HP with a Recovery Partition and if I remember correctly, the hidden
>partition is more clearly marked/obvious in routine use (labeled as Drive D
>and won't easily let you click on it). It was also clear about the need to
>create recovery disk(s).
>
>I'm figure it's still a good idea to create some kind of backup for the
>recovery partition. (I always wondered about a hidden partition saving the
>day if there's a hard drive failure.) An old posting referred to a
>Start/Programs/Dell OS Recovery CD, but I don't see one. I'll continue my
>research.

As I understand it there is no way to backup the partition - you are
given OS install disks if you want to just install the OS again.
However, Acronis will do it, if you backup the entire disk.

Andrew.