Dual Boot on Vista Dell Laptop and recovery partition?

I was talking to Dell tech support the other day, no, she was not in India
;-) and I asked what would be the state of the recovery partition on the new
Dell laptop if I installed XP on it, even if I used Acronis to create an
image of the drive before hand. I was thinking that if the wife decided she
like Vista better to use Vista without having to go through the hassle of
reinstalling XP. It would be probably a good idea to create a Dell Vista
Slipstream CD with a service pack, but I don't like Vista.

Any how, the response I got from Dell is that the hidden recovery
partition(s) would either be corrupt or not recoverable. Is this true?

Thanks

Sam <sun@sunn.com> wrote:

> I was talking to Dell tech support the other day, no, she was not in
> India ;-) and I asked what would be the state of the recovery
> partition on the new Dell laptop if I installed XP on it, even if I
> used Acronis to create an image of the drive before hand. I was
> thinking that if the wife decided she like Vista better to use Vista
> without having to go through the hassle of reinstalling XP. It would
> be probably a good idea to create a Dell Vista Slipstream CD with a
> service pack, but I don't like Vista.

> Any how, the response I got from Dell is that the hidden recovery
> partition(s) would either be corrupt or not recoverable. Is this true?

Nope.

Sam wrote...
>
>I was talking to Dell tech support the other day, no, she was not in India
>;-) and I asked what would be the state of the recovery partition on the new
>Dell laptop if I installed XP on it, even if I used Acronis to create an
>image of the drive before hand. I was thinking that if the wife decided she
>like Vista better to use Vista without having to go through the hassle of
>reinstalling XP. It would be probably a good idea to create a Dell Vista
>Slipstream CD with a service pack, but I don't like Vista.
>
>Any how, the response I got from Dell is that the hidden recovery
>partition(s) would either be corrupt or not recoverable. Is this true?
>
>Thanks

I think Dell believed that YOU will screw up the hidden partition(s)
by installing a new OS. Maybe Dell wanted to scare you so you won't
mess around. If you screw up, they'd have an excuse to tell you that
"[they] have already warned you so."

If you know what you are doing, you don't need to ask Dell.
If you asked Dell, it meaned that you might not know what you're doing,
and hence you might have the chance to screw up the hidden partition(s).

"Harry331" <harryooopotter@hotmail.co_> wrote in message
news:7z31k.767$C12.108@pd7urf3no...
>>
> I think Dell believed that YOU will screw up the hidden partition(s)
> by installing a new OS. Maybe Dell wanted to scare you so you won't
> mess around. If you screw up, they'd have an excuse to tell you that
> "[they] have already warned you so."
>
> If you know what you are doing, you don't need to ask Dell.
> If you asked Dell, it meaned that you might not know what you're doing,
> and hence you might have the chance to screw up the hidden partition(s).
Interesting logic. However, I fail to see it. Either you [can] image the
entire drive including hidden partitions or you don't. How could you screw
that up?

"Rod Speed" <rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:6ajrhpF37jvqtU1@mid.individual.net...
> Sam <sun@sunn.com> wrote:
>
>> I was talking to Dell tech support the other day, no, she was not in
>> India ;-) and I asked what would be the state of the recovery
>> partition on the new Dell laptop if I installed XP on it, even if I
>> used Acronis to create an image of the drive before hand. I was
>> thinking that if the wife decided she like Vista better to use Vista
>> without having to go through the hassle of reinstalling XP. It would
>> be probably a good idea to create a Dell Vista Slipstream CD with a
>> service pack, but I don't like Vista.
>
>> Any how, the response I got from Dell is that the hidden recovery
>> partition(s) would either be corrupt or not recoverable. Is this true?
>
> Nope.
Thanks, I didnt think so.

"Sam" <sun@sunn.com> schreef in bericht news:nG41k.1289$gc5.795@pd7urf2no...
>
> "Harry331" <harryooopotter@hotmail.co_> wrote in message
>>
>> If you know what you are doing, you don't need to ask Dell.
>> If you asked Dell, it meaned that you might not know what you're doing,
>> and hence you might have the chance to screw up the hidden partition(s).

> Interesting logic.

Lol. I think you should just leave it at that, and for the rest ignore
people that use such logic.

--
Kind regards,
Joep

On Tue, 03 Jun 2008 02:17:19 GMT, "Sam" <sun@sunn.com> put finger to
keyboard and composed:

>I was talking to Dell tech support the other day, no, she was not in India
>;-) and I asked what would be the state of the recovery partition on the new
>Dell laptop if I installed XP on it, even if I used Acronis to create an
>image of the drive before hand. I was thinking that if the wife decided she
>like Vista better to use Vista without having to go through the hassle of
>reinstalling XP. It would be probably a good idea to create a Dell Vista
>Slipstream CD with a service pack, but I don't like Vista.
>
>Any how, the response I got from Dell is that the hidden recovery
>partition(s) would either be corrupt or not recoverable. Is this true?
>
>Thanks

These URLs describe the structure of Dell's restore partitions:
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/vista.htm
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm

- Franc Zabkar
--
Please remove one 'i' from my address when replying by email.

"Joep" <available@request.nl> wrote in message
news:3e0fa$48450373$3ec3e0b7$7910@news.chello.nl.. .
>
>> Interesting logic.
>
> Lol. I think you should just leave it at that, and for the rest ignore
> people that use such logic.

My mistake...I shoud've realized that Harry 331 is a troll.

"Franc Zabkar" wrote:
> "Sam" wrote:
>
>>I was talking to Dell tech support the other day, no, she was not in India
>>;-) and I asked what would be the state of the recovery partition on the new
>>Dell laptop if I installed XP on it, even if I used Acronis to create an
>>image of the drive before hand. I was thinking that if the wife decided she
>>like Vista better to use Vista without having to go through the hassle of
>>reinstalling XP. It would be probably a good idea to create a Dell Vista
>>Slipstream CD with a service pack, but I don't like Vista.
>>
>>Any how, the response I got from Dell is that the hidden recovery
>>partition(s) would either be corrupt or not recoverable. Is this true?
>>
>>Thanks
>
> These URLs describe the structure of Dell's restore partitions:
> http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/vista.htm
> http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/index.htm
>
> - Franc Zabkar


Be aware that the new Dell laptops with Vista installations are
configured a little differently:
http://www.goodells.net/dellrestore/vista.htm

Ten gigs is a little tight for XP, and you may want to instead use
some space that is currently used by Vista by shrinking the Vista
partition by 20 gigs. You might even want to use the MediaDirect
button to boot XP instead of using Vista's boot manager in a dual-
boot. Here's how a guy dual-boots Linux with the MD button:
http://ubuntuforums.org/showpost.php?p=3113451
You can run the rmbr.exe utility from the MediaDirect recovery
disk using the command prompt terminal in Vista's recovery
environment. This will remove the MediaDirect functionality,
but most people don't care.

Vista's new 2,048-sector offset that it uses to create partitions
may get in the way of your partition creation/management efforts,
and it's probably better to just use pre-Vista utilities when deleting
and re-creating partitions. See:
http://www.multibooters.co.uk/partitions.html .

To use the 10GB System Recovery partition for other things,
the easiest thing to do would be to simply clone it an external
hard drive or image it to DVDs, then obliterate the System Recovery
partition and the Vista partition, re-create a new larger partition
using a pre-Vista utility, even the XP installation CD.

If you're tempted to "slide" or "shift" the Vista partition down
into the 10GB System Recovery partition, the Vista 2,048-sector
offset may interfere with the 3rd-party utilities that can do that, so
just nuking all the partitions and recreating the ones you need with
a pre-Vista utility or even the utility in the XP installation CD would
make things easier. Then you could install XP before Vista, and the
subsequent re-installation of Vista (into its pre-allocated partition)
would set up the dual-boot for you. This will install the standard
Microsoft MBR which will replace the Dell proprietary MBR
(which Goodell says doesn't exist, BTW), and you'll lose the use
of the MD button, if that means something to you. The System
Recovery partition is only really of any value early in the history of
your Vista installation, since it restores the Vista partition to what it
was when you got it from Dell - without your data files, without your
personal settings, without Windows and other software updates,
and WITH Dell's pre-installed bloatware. So most people just
nuke it.

*TimDaniels*

Sam <sun@sunn.com> wrote
> Harry331 <harryooopotter@hotmail.co_> wrote

>> I think Dell believed that YOU will screw up the hidden partition(s)
>> by installing a new OS. Maybe Dell wanted to scare you so you won't
>> mess around. If you screw up, they'd have an excuse to tell you that
>> "[they] have already warned you so."

>> If you know what you are doing, you don't need to ask Dell.
>> If you asked Dell, it meaned that you might not know what you're
>> doing, and hence you might have the chance to screw up the hidden
>> partition(s).

> Interesting logic. However, I fail to see it. Either you [can] image the entire drive including hidden partitions or
> you don't. How could you screw that up?

Some manufacturers do some pretty silly stuff with their hidden partitions
and some imagers cant actually image the entire physical drive properly.