# Solved: Create partition in Dell inspiron.



## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

I have a dell inspiron 1504 with 320g HDD and Win 7 pre installed.
I wish to create 4 partitions in it.Is it possible to do so?
Pl pl guide me.
thanx...


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Do you have recovery media? A recovery partition?

If you have your Windows installation files in a recovery partition instead of getting a DVD with the machine, you will lose normal access to them if you make any changes to the partitions at all.

Dell uses a special MBR not used by anyone else, so it cannot be repaired except by the manufacturer (though there are some workarounds on the web).

As with all people that get a machine with a recovery partition, I highly recommend that you make a drive image on DVD's or an external drive. If your hard drive fails, or you need to restore your machine for some other reason, you can restore the image. Otherwise, you not only lose all your installation, but you lose the Windows installer that you spent good money to license.

If you have a drive image, you can then make all the changes you want and still have a way to get back.

Dell wants to be sure you don't change anything. Your warranty will probably become invalid if you do. It almost seems like they are only lending you the machine.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

thanks for your help.
actually i am having the OS cd which has been provided along with the machine.but i think you are right stating "they are only lending their machine to you" !! 
i searched around the web about it and found that some of them were recommending "shrinking" of the hard drive.though i was not much sure about it.keeping only one partition is highly risky coz it may lead to a great loss when the OS fails and you are forced to re install the same.
i dont have the recovery partition and hence i am left with only one option of keeping the machine as it is.
so to preserve the settings and data i have to create the image of the system?
how to do this?is it something like making a ghost?
thanks...


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## dustyjay (Jan 24, 2003)

Dells Recovery Partition is often hidden from the OS.


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

> actually i am having the OS cd


Better double check what you actually have. The Windows 7 installation comes on a DVD, and I seriously doubt it can fit on a CD. And a Recovery disk is probably at least one DVD. Maybe you have some kind of rescue CD to get you into the Recovery partition.


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## Mumbodog (Oct 3, 2007)

> dell inspiron 1504


Check the model number again, no such model Inspiron Laptop or Desktop
.


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## DaveA (Nov 16, 1999)

1504 is a monitor not the computer!


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Right-click Computer > Manage > Disk Management.

Do you have a partition on that drive at the very beginning that may be labeled as an EISA and has no drive letter?



DaveA said:


> 1504 is a monitor not the computer!


LOL. Well, I guess when you look up, that is the first number you see.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

yes,the dell recovery partition is visible in disk management.
it is of around 9 gb.but can it be used for making a new partition or restoring the notebook to the manufacturer's original settings?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

If you make any changes whatsoever to the partitions, you will lose the access to the recovery partition for restoring your computer. That partition contains the version of Windows that you paid for when you bought the machine instead of a DVD or CD.

If your machine is under warranty, chances are that the warranty will be invalid, too.

If you want to make changes to the partitions, I'd suggest that you first make a complete image of the whole hard drive on an external drive or DVD's so you can restore the machine if you have to.

Why would you want 4 partitions?


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

Elvandil said:


> If you make any changes whatsoever to the partitions, you will lose the access to the recovery partition for restoring your computer. That partition contains the version of Windows that you paid for when you bought the machine instead of a DVD or CD.
> 
> If your machine is under warranty, chances are that the warranty will be invalid, too.
> 
> ...


Ya thats true that I may be loosing the warranty for the machine by changing the partitions.But i am worried if there may be the problem with the OS in future and i am forced to reload the OS,i may be loosing all the data on the partition.so if there is an additional partition (other than the OS)i can survive my files and other info.
if i reload the OS,my recovery partition will also get formatted?if yes,then what will be the use of that recovery partition?
I have received the OS DVD and other drivers also on a DVD.
But if there are chances of warranty violation it will not be wise to make any changes in manufacturer settings.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Oh, so you have recovery media from the manufacturer? That does make a difference because then the recovery partition on the drive is not really needed. You can recover from the disks if you have to. If you use the disks to restore, they will also restore the recovery partition.

Please don't misunderstand me. We are perfectly willing to help you accomplish whatever you decide to do, just so long as you understand the risks and any downsides and choose to assume those risks.

But why extra partitions? If you want to run other operating systems, there are alternatives to that, too, that do not involve changing partitions on your drive.


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## Mumbodog (Oct 3, 2007)

You will lose the warranty on software support, not Hardware.

.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

Elvandil said:


> Oh, so you have recovery media from the manufacturer? That does make a difference because then the recovery partition on the drive is not really needed. You can recover from the disks if you have to. If you use the disks to restore, they will also restore the recovery partition.
> 
> Please don't misunderstand me. We are perfectly willing to help you accomplish whatever you decide to do, just so long as you understand the risks and any downsides and choose to assume those risks.
> 
> But why extra partitions? If you want to run other operating systems, there are alternatives to that, too, that do not involve changing partitions on your drive.


Thanks for your help.as i specified in my last post that i dont want an extra partition for running other OS but i need it to preserve my data and files by getting lost if the original OS malfunctions.the rescue disks are there but they may not help me get my files back.so that is my intention of creating other partitions.
And if they have provided me the rescue disks,then what is the purpose of giving a recovery partition?and if it will be created again,will it be having all the settings and prograames that were on the machine before re installation?
thanks again...


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

The most likely thing that will happen to cause loss of your data is failure of the hard drive. If that happens, all your files and recovery partition will be lost, anyway. That is one of the things I dislike most about the "recovery partition" idea.

In fact, if the drive is working all right, the chances of losing your data are almost 0. Files can be recovered fairly easily from a hard drive that is working, even if the machine will not boot.

Saving backups on the same machine will also mean that all your files are lost if the machine is lost.

Your very best solution to backing up files would be to have an external hard drive. You could then back up your entire drive and restore it when it fails. Your backups would be safely in a different loaction if the laptop is lost. And you could make an image of the entire drive that would back up your files, the operating system, and all your programs. Your machine could be restored when you bought a new hard drive.

Even USB thumb drives would be a better idea than a backup on the same drive. A backup that is on the same drive is not really a backup at all, in short.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

Elvandil said:


> The most likely thing that will happen to cause loss of your data is failure of the hard drive. If that happens, all your files and recovery partition will be lost, anyway. That is one of the things I dislike most about the "recovery partition" idea.
> 
> In fact, if the drive is working all right, the chances of losing your data is almost 0. Files can be recovered fairly easily from a hard drive that is working, even if the machine will not boot.
> 
> ...


thanks a lot for your valued help...
i have dropped the idea of creating a new partition!!!i will make a image of the machine now and make it safer.
thanks...


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

If you have an external drive, you can make an image of the entire drive for backup that will restore absolutely everything. And the image is smaller than the drive. For example, if you had 20 GB's used on your hard drive, the image would only be around 12 GB's. So you have room for one main image and several "incremental" images that save just the changes since the last one was made. If you don't want to go out and buy an imaging program right away, these work just fine. They are just a bit less automatic than the pay versions.

Free Disk Imaging Tools:

EASEUS Todo Backup
Runtime Shadow Copy
SelfImage (Open-source)
O&O DiskImage Express
Macrium Reflect
PING (Partimage Is Not Ghost) (Free alternative to Ghost with more features)
Paragon Drive Backup Express
Drive Image XML
G4U - Ghost For Unix (Platform-independent, floppy or CD)
DiscWizard (For Seagate or Maxtor drives - contains reduced version of Acronis)

Don't forget to make the boot CD whichever one you choose. If the machine will not boot the operating system, you can still boot from the CD and use its tools to restore the image you made on the external drive.

You could even restore the image to a completely new computer if you lost yours and have everything back the way it was (same model computer). And you can also access files and folders in the backup without restoring the whole image to your hard drive.

You are very wise to be thinking about this. Many, many people don't realize the value of good backups until years of work or precious memories are lost forever.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

shatrughna said:


> And if they have provided me the rescue disks,then what is the purpose of giving a recovery partition?and if it will be created again,will it be having all the settings and prograames that were on the machine before re installation?


I guess I never answered this question.

Most people don't even get the disks. All they have for recovery is the recovery partition.

At least with the disks, you can reinstall the operating system if your hard drive fails. But, what is installed is the same as would be installed from the recovery partition---the system that was on the computer the day you bought it. All your files, programs, and settings would be gone. It is not what most people would call a "recovery" at all.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

Elvandil said:


> If you have an external drive, you can make an image of the entire drive for backup that will restore absolutely everything. And the image is smaller than the drive. For example, if you had 20 GB's used on your hard drive, the image would only be around 12 GB's. So you have room for one main image and several "incremental" images that save just the changes since the last one was made. If you don't want to go out and buy an imaging program right away, these work just fine. They are just a bit less automatic than the pay versions.
> 
> Free Disk Imaging Tools:
> 
> ...


Thanks..one more thing i would like to know is,as you said the incremental back ups just save the changes since the last back ups,if i want to restore a new hard drive with my back up i need to restore all the incremental images along with the basic one?also,can i replace the old images with the new ones to save some space?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

The ideas may be implemented somewhat differently by each manufacturer, so what I am saying here is general in nature.

There are differential and incemental images that are somewhat different depending on the tool you choose. But the idea is the same. You make one original image and then the next time you want to back up your machine, instead of making an entirely new image, you can make one that just records the changes. Occasionally, you make another full image if you choose when the space requirements of the incrementals gets too much. Incrementals are not usually very large, but they can be. If you defragment your drive, for example, and most files change location, the incremental can be almost as large as the original.

When restoring, you get options to choose which of the images you want to restore, like in System Restore, and can opt to restore to the date of any of the incrementals or the date of the original.

The pay versions have the advantage that they handle this automatically, deleting older images and consolidating images to maintain a space quota.

Acronis True Image is the most popular retail version in this forum. In Acronis, a restore only requires one differential image and the main image, but all the previous incremental images and the main image are required if you go incremental. So the incrementals are cumulative, but the old differentials can be deleted as new ones are made. These words may be used differently with different programs.

I hope that was somewhat clear. I know it was hard for me to understand until I did it.  But I can tell from the nature of your questions that I am not entirely speaking Greek here.

What I usually do is make one image and put it on DVD when I first get the machine set up and all is working well. That would restore me way back in time, but at least to a point where all my programs were still present. That is the "last resort" backup. It's like my recovery partition except that all my programs are installed.

Then, I make differential images on an external drive (all automatically at 5 AM) twice a week. So in the event of a catastrophe, I lose only a day or 2 of work and changes. Acronis also has a separate backup for files and folders that you may want backed up more often than you want to make an entire image.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

Elvandil said:


> The ideas may be implemented somewhat differently by each manufacturer, so what I am saying here is general in nature.
> 
> There are differential and incemental images that are somewhat different depending on the tool you choose. But the idea is the same. You make one original image and then the next time you want to back up your machine, instead of making an entirely new image, you can make one that just records the changes. Occasionally, you make another full image if you choose when the space requirements of the incrementals gets too much. Incrementals are not usually very large, but they can be. If you defragment your drive, for example, and most files change location, the incremental can be almost as large as the original.
> 
> ...


thanks...i got it.but as you said i have to do it to understand it better.
thanks again.


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

You're welcome. If you go for Acronis, look around. There are very good deals some places, sometimes. But others are good, too. Anything's better than starting over from scratch. Macrium is very much like Acronis.

You can mark your own threads "solved" using the button above.

(PS. If you ever decide to partition, I have all kinds of good, free tools for that, too.)


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## DVOM (Jun 21, 2002)

As has been said, it's not a good idea to store your only backup for your OS and your data on the same hard drive because a hard drive failure will wipe everything out. However, hard drive failure isn't the only thing to guard against. 

For instance, I've found that restoring an image of your operation system (OS) is a lot faster than trying to cure some virus/trojan infection or some corruption in the OS software. Personally, I give trouble shooting about 5-10 minutes and if that doesn't do it, I restore the OS image.

Because of this, I keep the OS on one partition and all my data on another partition. That keeps my OS image backup considerably smaller than imaging both OS and data all at once. And I can restore my OS without disturbing all my data.

I keep one backup image of the OS on the second partition with the data. That makes transfer a lot faster than a USB cable from an external hard drive when restoring the OS image.

I also keep backups of both my OS image and all my data on an external hard drive.

So:

OS and data on separate partitions
OS image stored on data partition (for quick OS restore)
Data and OS image backed up on external hard drive. (for hard drive failure)

Also, if a "worst case scenario" type of thing is important to you, you should plan for a flood or a fire. Meaning, keep a second external hard drive (or burned DVD's) with all backups in another location.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

DVOM said:


> As has been said, it's not a good idea to store your only backup for your OS and your data on the same hard drive because a hard drive failure will wipe everything out. However, hard drive failure isn't the only thing to guard against.
> 
> For instance, I've found that restoring an image of your operation system (OS) is a lot faster than trying to cure some virus/trojan infection or some corruption in the OS software. Personally, I give trouble shooting about 5-10 minutes and if that doesn't do it, I restore the OS image.
> 
> ...


thanks for your help.
but what in case like mine,where there is only a single partition is present,i have to store the image on the external hard drive only.and keeping the images both on the dvd's and usb drive is a wise idea.but in case the OS crashes and the machine doesn't boot what would you do?so in that case you will have to get the data from the external resources only.but if there is only one partition-common for data and the OS,is it possible to create the image of the OS only?


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Yes. There are options for imaging the entire drive, or individual partitions. It would not make sense in your case, for example, to keep imaging the unchanging recovery partition. One image would be enough. After that, only the partition that changes would need to be imaged.

You could probably fit an image of the recovery partition on 2 DVD's, for example. Put that away for a rainy day. Then, just image your system partition after that.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

Elvandil said:


> You're welcome. If you go for Acronis, look around. There are very good deals some places, sometimes. But others are good, too. Anything's better than starting over from scratch. Macrium is very much like Acronis.
> 
> You can mark your own threads "solved" using the button above.
> 
> (PS. If you ever decide to partition, I have all kinds of good, free tools for that, too.)


thanks a lot..it was really a knowledge sharing session...


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

LOL. I think imaging is a gift from God, if you have not already gathered that. If more people used them, this site would have far fewer poor people who have lost all their hard work because the idea that their hard drive may just stop spinning some day never occurred to them. Those of us who have experienced such losses first or second hand would just as soon spare others from it. It also gives a sense of security because you know you cannot destroy your machine if you try things that you might otherwise be afraid to try.

Data recovery from a dead drive can cost into the $1000's. Acronis looks very cheap after that.

I don't know where you got the partition idea. If it popped into your head while considering backup possibilities, it's not bad for a popped idea. But if a friend who claims to be some computer guru suggested it to you, maybe you better get second opinions from now on.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

i got it elvandil!!!it was not really a popped idea actually but as i got the machine delivered at home to find that there is only one partition.due to my old desktop mindset i was forced to think about having more than one partition.but before doing any experiment(fortunately!!!) i thought to refer techguy and it helped me like charm...
ya you are right that the biggest risk of loosing data is not because of the OS or some other things but the hd itself.so keeping data out of the machine would be more wise idea to play safe.
i hope one day people would invent the harddisk that would last for centuries and in the wills at the end of life it would be handed over to the successers!!!


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Oh, but think of all those poor, laid-off hard-drive assembly-line workers, their kids crying themselves to sleep with empty stomachs, not to mention the shuttering of Acronis, the guys who drive the delivery trucks, the salesmen. That inventor must be stopped!


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

There are reasons to have data in a separate partition, but as *Elvandil *has well explained data preservation is not one of them. We can advise on how to shrink your current Windows 7 partition, create additional partition(s) from the freed space, and move your data. But step 1 of that advice is to make sure you have all your data backed up elsewhere! Depending on the amount of your data CD or DVD may also be appropriate.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

TerryNet said:


> There are reasons to have data in a separate partition, but as *Elvandil *has well explained data preservation is not one of them. We can advise on how to shrink your current Windows 7 partition, create additional partition(s) from the freed space, and move your data. But step 1 of that advice is to make sure you have all your data backed up elsewhere! Depending on the amount of your data CD or DVD may also be appropriate.


OHHHH!!!thats really true but what about the IT support centers who may be getting obsolete with the help of you guys?!!!anyway thanks a lot for your superb support and active response.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

TerryNet said:


> There are reasons to have data in a separate partition, but as *Elvandil *has well explained data preservation is not one of them. We can advise on how to shrink your current Windows 7 partition, create additional partition(s) from the freed space, and move your data. But step 1 of that advice is to make sure you have all your data backed up elsewhere! Depending on the amount of your data CD or DVD may also be appropriate.


Ya data preservation is not a big issue but my idea behind creating a partition in addition to the OS was to make the data safe in the event of windows getting corrupted because i have passed thru the instances when i had to perform the reinstallation of my OS and had to move all of my important data to the partitions other than the OS.So i wanted to play safe with my new laptop and hence thought of having another partition.But as Elvandil said it will be the safest to have the data backup on external storages.I am thankful to him for giving the extended knowledge on creating and preserving the backup images.But one thing is worth noting here that as the quontum of the data increases,will it be somewhat difficult to preserve it?and also in the case of the pc configuration which may be getting differenet day by day?


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## TerryNet (Mar 23, 2005)

I have also come to like the idea of having data in a separate partition. I now have it that way on two of my PCs and may do the same on my XP/Ubuntu laptop the next time I need to totally rejuvenate it.

I recently bought an external drive (1 TB) that has 3 or 4 times the total capacity of all my other hard drives and USB flash drives combined. So now it's really easy for me to say that one cannot afford to not backup important data.  But I've always backed up data, beginning with 5 1/4 inch floppies and progressing through 3 1/2 in. floppies, Zip disks, CDs, USB flash drives and online.


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## shatrughna (Aug 13, 2008)

but i dont know why the companies like dell provide only one partition for data and OS.probably to keep their data safe online running??!!


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## Elvandil (Aug 1, 2003)

Most people never reinstall their OS. But data on even another partition is not really "safe" from the effects of a reinstallation. Things can and do go wrong and data on even a separate partition is often lost. Most commonly, that is because people use drive letters for identification of drives and they change quite often and readily. The wrong partition is formatted and removed. Identify partitions by position and size, always.


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