Dual Boot on Vista Dell Laptop and recovery partition?

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Sam

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 said:
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.
Click to expand...
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?
Click to expand...

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
Click to expand...

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 said:
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).
Click to expand...
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?
 
Joep said:
Lol. I think you should just leave it at that, and for the rest ignore
people that use such logic.
Click to expand...

My mistake...I shoud've realized that Harry 331 is a troll.
 
Sam said:
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).
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
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?
Click to expand...

Some manufacturers do some pretty silly stuff with their hidden partitions
and some imagers cant actually image the entire physical drive properly.
 
Sam wrote in news:ut91k.3111$gc5.2304@pd7urf2no
My mistake...I shoud've realized that Harry 331 is a troll.
Click to expand...

The truth is always harsh.
It is far easier to call the messenger a troll and return to fairy land,
where all the other ostriches live.
 
Sam wrote...
Harry331 said:
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).
Click to expand...
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?
Click to expand...

Here is one way you can screw it up.

You borrow a temp hard drive from your friend for drive-to-drive
backup.
You backup your whole drive onto another temporay drive.
Then you burn the serveral images on the temp drive to DVDs.
Now, wipe the temp drive clean and return it back to your friend.

Without verifying you have recoverable images (ever heard of
cyclic redundent errors ? on DVD copies), you wipe the images
on the temporary hard drives and return the temp drive to your friend.

Now you notice that you want to keep your mp3, movies etc on your
old drive but there is not enogh room to keep one old XP, one new Vista,
and your tons of mp3 & movies. So you un-hide your hidden partition
(thinking that you have DVD backups) .... and you can continue with the
storyline.

Of course I made it up.

The point is, why the heck did you ask Dell? and then ask this group?
Do you have confident to do the new Vista installation?
If not, don't bother to do that.

Remember Murphy's Law ... everything that might go wrong ... will go
wrong.
 
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