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Windows XP forum: EISA Configuration

by: Mailman February 3, 2008 8:07 PM PST

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EISA Configuration

by Mailman - 2/3/08 8:07 PM

I have a partition in my Disk Management which shows it with no drive letter, and it's FAT, with the Status listed as Healthy (EISA Configuration). Capacity is 39MB with 32MB Free Space, so there's not much there. I have no idea where this partition is, or how to see what's on it. I'm running a Dell XPS Gen 5 with a 160GB ATA HDD Seagate, I think, and a 120GB Maxtor EIDE HDD on a Promise card which I use for backups. Both HDD's are NTFS. Is there any way I can find out where this tiny partition is, and what's on it? I guess it's never been a problem since I never knew it was there. But I think stuff like this just muddies the waters and I'd like to find a way to remove the partition and just make it part of the main partition.


Thanks,

~Dave


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Probably a recovery partition

by Jimmy Greystone - 2/3/08 8:58 PM

In Reply to: EISA Configuration by Mailman

It's probably a recovery partition, so you don't want to touch it. Someone can likely confirm or correct me on that, or you could just email Dell tech support about it.


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But it's so small.

by Mailman - 2/3/08 9:16 PM

In Reply to: Probably a recovery partition by Jimmy Greystone

A 39MB partition with only 7MB used. Could that possible be a recovery partition?

~Dave


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Well...

by Jimmy Greystone - 2/3/08 9:52 PM

In Reply to: But it's so small. by Mailman

Long ago I bought this Compaq system that actually had most of the BIOS store on the hard drive. It ran what appeared to be an stripped down version of Windows 3.1. That practice generally fell out of favor, but maybe it's back.

Best thing I can suggest is emailing Dell tech support. They're usually pretty good for simple questions like this.


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Think I'll pass on that.

by Mailman - 2/3/08 9:58 PM

In Reply to: Well... by Jimmy Greystone

Talking to those guys in Northern India is usually an exercise in futility for me. I'm sure they help a lot of people, but I don't need that aggravation. LOL! Thanks anyway.

~Dave


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A small partition of around 39 meg ...

by Edward ODaniel - 2/3/08 11:21 PM

In Reply to: EISA Configuration by Mailman

on a Dell is normally the Diagnostics partition and is accessed by pressing the F12 key which takes you to a Boot Menu from which you can make selections.

You can use Disk Management to delete the partition if you want but if you do you will need the Diagnostics CD for your computer.


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I agree.

by MarkFlax Moderator - 2/4/08 3:14 AM

In Reply to: A small partition of around 39 meg ... by Edward ODaniel

I have a Dell Dimension 8300 and I have a similar 39MB FAT32 partition. My Dell came with all the XP and Driver disks so I assume this is a diagnostic partition like Ed says, and options there would ask for the disks.

In later Dells they shipped without disks and had a full recovery partition installed which would take a machine back to factory install.

Personally I would leave it. It may become useful in the future.

Mark


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