oop's I done it too

Hi There,

I have been reading with everything about Dell's 2 hidden partitions. Like most folk I deleted mine, and now find it imopossible to restore.

I have a friend who has the same system as me with the same spec. Am I able to use Ture Image to gain a image of his hard drive and copy it to mine?

Also I have a WINXP on my system would I be able to transfer the copied image onto my system without corrupting the current O/S?

Your wisdom is greatly appreciated.

Kypmeister

 

Hello kypmeister,

I'm not sure whether it will help but check out these two Dan Goodell articles on Dell's hidden Utility and Restore partitions, including the links on how to rebuild them:

<Inside the Dell Utility Partition>
<Inside the Dell PC Restore Partition>

Regards

 

You can create an image of his hard drive and restore it to yours but there will be problems.

The only way CTL+F11 Dell PC Restore will work on your machine is if you create and restore an ENTIRE disk image. You can't selectively restore or change partitions without disabling Dell PC Restore.

Also, the restored image will have exactly the same size partitions as his so you can't expand or contract them to fit your drive if it's a different size.

Both machines will have the exact same operating system as well as all applicable serial numbers, etc. for the OS and programs.

Both machines will also have the same system ID's so they can't both be on the same network at the same time without confusion. You'll need to run MS Sysprep.

Both systems will share the same service tag and express service code when restored from the Dell image because those numbers reside in the restore image and can't be changed. However, after a restore you can edit the service tag and express service code within the Windows folder.

And, on and on. In other words, you can do it but the result is counterproductive.