[rgreen4]

Very Interesting. I note in the last link to disc.jpg, which is actually the first image taken, that the legend is only primary partition and unallocated wheras the second image par.jpg show the full four item legend including extended partition and free space. My disk management window has always had all four and when right clicking on an unallocated space, the only option that was not greyed out was format.

Smax may be right, MrMurphy may have paid you a visit. It appears as though when you went it the first time, it did not load properly for some reason, and that may be why it allowed you to delete an unallocated space.

That does not tell us how to get it back - yet.

[smax013]

lilxkid24 said:

Good thing i took a ss of it before. That pic was the unac one. Then i right clicked and made a new volume. After i deleted the volume that was made it became free space.

s209.photobucket.com/albums/bb118/lilxkid24/?action=view¤t=disk.jpg

Refresh my memory...if you right-click on the "free space", what options are available to you? Looking at the picture with it show as "free space" (rather than "unallocated"), it appears that it is NOT formatted. In the list above the graphical representation of the volumes/partitions, it does not show up at all.

[lilxkid24]

im done with this problem, no need to unpartion it before il just keep it. But i do have one other question, anyone know where i can find a guide on how to reformat vista? I might need it later on lol

[smax013]

lilxkid24 said:

im done with this problem, no need to unpartion it before il just keep it. But i do have one other question, anyone know where i can find a guide on how to reformat vista? I might need it later on lol

I am willing to still try to see if we can't get you back to one parition...I would think that rgreen4 is game too.

What do you mean by "reformat Vista"? Format the drive and re-install Vista from scratch?

[lilxkid24]

from scratch of course

[smax013]

lilxkid24 said:

from scratch of course

The easiest thing would be to use the Dell recovery partition (that is the D: partition that shows up in your pictures).

If you truly wanted to go to a blank hard drive and re-install Windoze, then you should be able to reformat the drive. The only issue to be REALLY careful with is the recovery partition. If you REALLY wanted to go from scratch, my suggestion would be to buy a new blank hard drive and pull this one out and store it somewhere. That way you will have a drive with the Dell recovery partition on it. I believe that Dell has gone to a better system with the recovery partition...I believe it used to be that screwing with the partitions (i.e. repartitioning the drive or adding/splitting partitions) could wipe or damage the recovery partition. Dell used to have it as a hidden partition...I don't believe they do that anymore (based upon my experience with a client's new Dell computer when I set it up).

[lilxkid24]

I just want a guide on a site where it shows steps on completly installing windows over again.

[smax013]

You could look at Windowsreinstall.com. It looks like it might do the trick.

[rgreen4]

The easiest and least expensive way to reinstall Windows (XP or Vista) is from the recovery DVD's burned from the recovery partition when the computer is new. Dell apparently includes recovery disks in some machines, I do not know if they have to be ordered or only come included with certain machines. HP offers the DVD's for $19 when ordering a new machine directly from HP. These recover disks return the operating and recovery partitions to the as shipped condition when the PC left the factory.

Simply put the DVD into the optical drive and restart the machine.

That is not to say that it is the best method, just the easiest. The path of least resistance is rarely the best path to take.

When I used the HP recovery disks on a new drive, it partitioned, formatted, installed the recovery partition and installed the operating system and all included programs on the operating partition. What I don't know about at this point, is how it will handle the "Free Space"

Lilxkid24 - when you had the incident with your old machine - was the HD damaged?

[lilxkid24]

nope but i threw the hd in the trashbin lol. Cant i just reformat using windows vista operating disk like how you do it with xp. I dont care about any of my files lol. Nothing imporant.

[rgreen4]

Do you have just the disks that came with the computer, or the ones you burned, or both.

[lilxkid24]

i have all the disk with vista, all the xp disk i threw them out i think

[rgreen4]

I didn't make myselft clear. The OEM recovery partition is capable of burning a set of recovery DVD's. You have to provide the DVD's. Some Dell computers in addition to the recovery partition are coming with the recovery DVD's as well. This means if you choose to burn a set, you would wind up with 2 sets of recovery DVD's. Some would consider this overkill, but you know me - if 1 is good, 2 is better.

Before we burn this bridge. Do you have acess to an XP machine that has SATA connections?

If you do, what is the brand the HD in your machine?

[lilxkid24]

nope dont have access to any? Why are these questions imporant lol? I just want to do a clean reformat like xp. Isnt it the same just put in a disk and it auto does it?

[rgreen4]

Well, if you had acess to an XP computer that had support for SATA drives, and your disc was either Seagate or Western Digital, you could attach the disck to the other machine as a secondary drive, download either the Seagate Discwizard or the WD Data Lifeguard and reset the drive. Then you could take the newly blank drive, put it back in your machine and run the restore program. That process I know would work. I bolixed up a WD drive years ago to the point that the OS wouldn't recognize it (it was a Win2K, WinXP thing). I still use the drive.

While I am confident that this recovery will work, Murphy has already reared his head once. Worst case is that it does not work, only because of a flaw in the recovery disks. In that case, you would have to contact Dell and get another set.

If this is what you want, lay the recovery disks in order, since your recovery partition is 10GB, I would assume 3 recovery DVD's.

Insert the first into the DVD drive, reboot, and in the BIOS change boot order to CD/DVD first and HD second. Save, and let the machine boot off
the recovery DVD. It will start, it may require confirmation, I'm not sure, I have only done this once and it was with an HP XP MCE set. At the end of
the first disk, it will ask for the second, and at the end of the second, it will ask for the third (if there is one).

You should be able to do a similar recovery from the recovery partition, but I think it is very likely it will only restore the boot
partition, and will not touch the free space. It is entirely possible that restoring from the recovery disks will also not touch the free space and will
instead treat the HD as a 220GB drive.

Now you know why I like cloning.

[smax013]

rgreen4 said:

The easiest and least expensive way to reinstall Windows (XP or Vista) is from the recovery DVD's burned from the recovery partition when the computer is new. Dell apparently includes recovery disks in some machines, I do not know if they have to be ordered or only come included with certain machines. HP offers the DVD's for $19 when ordering a new machine directly from HP. These recover disks return the operating and recovery partitions to the as shipped condition when the PC left the factory.

I am not sure that Dell provides recovery disks or the option to burn recovery disks. I believe you are left only with the recovery partition. When I recently set up a client's new Dell computer running Vista, I could find no option to burn recovery disks. Dell does, however, supply an OEM Vista install disk and driver disks typically as a "backup" to the recovery partition.

I did find this How Do I Restore the DellTM Factory Image from the Windows® Recovery Environment with a Microsoft® Windows VistaTM DVD? document that tells how to access the Dell recovery partition.

[smax013]

rgreen4 said:

Well, if you had acess to an XP computer that had support for SATA drives, and your disc was either Seagate or Western Digital, you could attach the disck to the other machine as a secondary drive, download either the Seagate Discwizard or the WD Data Lifeguard and reset the drive. Then you could take the newly blank drive, put it back in your machine and run the restore program. That process I know would work. I bolixed up a WD drive years ago to the point that the OS wouldn't recognize it (it was a Win2K, WinXP thing). I still use the drive.

While I am confident that this recovery will work, Murphy has already reared his head once. Worst case is that it does not work, only because of a flaw in the recovery disks. In that case, you would have to contact Dell and get another set.

If this is what you want, lay the recovery disks in order, since your recovery partition is 10GB, I would assume 3 recovery DVD's.

Insert the first into the DVD drive, reboot, and in the BIOS change boot order to CD/DVD first and HD second. Save, and let the machine boot off
the recovery DVD. It will start, it may require confirmation, I'm not sure, I have only done this once and it was with an HP XP MCE set. At the end of
the first disk, it will ask for the second, and at the end of the second, it will ask for the third (if there is one).

You should be able to do a similar recovery from the recovery partition, but I think it is very likely it will only restore the boot
partition, and will not touch the free space. It is entirely possible that restoring from the recovery disks will also not touch the free space and will
instead treat the HD as a 220GB drive.

Now you know why I like cloning.

Actually, if you look at the pictures of that Lilxkid put on Photobucket, the recovery partition is 10 gb, but is shown as having 6.38 gb (63%) being free space. Thus, there would appear to only be one DVD's worth of data on the drive.



And I am not sure if the recovery operation would fix the hard drive partition issue. My guess is that it would very likely just leave the partitions as is but restore the contents of the C: partition to factory condition. There is a slight chance that it could fix the partition issue, but I am kind of doubting it.



My guess is that to fix the partition issue, Lilxkid might be into doing a true wipe of the drive and re-partition of the drive and then re-install of the OS.

[lilxkid24]

right now i dont care about the partition no more lol i just wana know is reformating my whole os easy like xp or hard?

[smax013]

lilxkid24 said:

right now i dont care about the partition no more lol i just wana know is reformating my whole os easy like xp or hard?

I cannot see why it would not be rather similar to doing it in XP.



I will likely get some first hand experience soon. I bought an upgrade to Vista to use on my current P4 system. I intend to install it on a second parition and then dual boot the system. Installing Vista on the parition should be the easy part...figuring out how to setup the needed stuff to dual boot it will likely be the tougher part I would imagine. Plus, I have a bit of "messing" with the drives to do (I intend to take my original drive out AFTER I clone it to a new drive and keep it out and in a safe place in case I want to go back to a single boot with just XP...see, rgreen4, I HAVE been paying attention when you talk! :^0...and then use a second new drive to clone the boot drive after I have re-partitioned it and installed Vista so that I have a backup boot drive) as well that "complicates" things some.



But, that is the SECOND project on the list. The first project is to open up my MacBook Pro and install a bigger drive in it. That is likely this weekends project (as well as mowing the lawn and doing some real "work" work).

[rgreen4]

Lilxkid - the reformatting is the easy part. Getting you back up and operating is the hard part. I was under the assumption, maybe in error, that the disks you had from Dell were recovery "image" discs in a manner similar to what HP does. I should never assume Dell does anything like anyone else.

Before we work out a plan to get to a destination, we need to know where we are. I know the status of your HD from the image you posted. What I don't know is the type of disks Dell sent with your machine. How are the two disks labeled? Do they have similar labels or does one use the term driver on it?

In case one, you have image discs and the two/three discs would be labeled alike, but with Disk 1, Disk 2, etc. In case two you have an OEM install disc and a driver and application disc, and they would be labeled that way. We need to be careful as you have one machine and one HD. There is very little room for error. I know it's frustrating but never forget the Six P's - Prior Planning Prevents Pxxx Poor Performance.

Let us know what the disks say, and we will proceed tomorrow.