Deleting Recovery partiton on Precision

What would i actually lose by deleting the recovery partition?

What i would like to do is reformat the HDD, make 2 (or 3) partitions and install both XP an Vista Ultimate 64.
I already have an XP disc with valid license but for Vista i only have the recovery discs supplied by Dell.
Does deleting the recovery partition make the discs useless? Or can i just reinstall Vista with these. Alternatively i could use normal Vista discs and use the key from the laptop (tried this with upgrading to 64bit on an Acer and it worked fine, key was found automatically)

I did find some guides to do all this on Dell xps and such and all the issues with the MD buttons. I don't think i have these so are there any issues i should be aware of?

please advise!

 

You may not be able to boot the system after the recovery partition has been deleted and you would probably only loose the option to restore the PC to factory defaults. However if you have used any Dell recovery utility to back up files to the local HDD then you would also loose them too.

If you decide to go ahead and delete the recovery partition, Once deleted Install XP first and the Vista.

P.S. Your laptop probably has a SATA HDD so make sure you have HDD controller drivers prior to installing XP. You will need a floppy disk drive to install the drivers during the XP setup (using the F6 option).

When installing Vista you could try the Dell OS disks. Using your Vista disks may not work as the Dell Vista key might not work with them

 

Thx for the quick reply!

I think i will try installing xp on a new partittion i managed to create iso clearing the whole HDD. I could shrink c: by 50g but not more. I know that's due too some system files location and tried moving those with some recommended apps but no results yet.

Now, in my bios i can set my hdd to ATA, AHCI and IRRT (which is active by default) I read somewhere that i have to put it in ATA mode? And can i change back after XP is installed?

Sorry about the maybe basic questions but i looked around a bit only to get more confused than finding answers....most guide i wasn't sure they applied to my setup

 

Nice signature btw
I did go to vista 64 very consiouslu though....really helps with my CAD stuff but some of my beloved audio apps and hardware don't work too well sooo....dual boot!

 

Thx

I think it will be best to use 'ATA'.

see this post http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=203282

 

Ok thx...but no danger of Vista not being able to boot when i change this?

The BIOS warns me about this and i really don't want to have to do more then maybe repair vista if it goes wrong.
Is there another way to load the driver? I don't have a floppy drive and the only thing related to the HDD is the Intel Matrix Storage driver. I can get that inf file but don't know where i can load it from....as the dvdrom is in use by xp. Or can i swap it to load the driver and then place xp cd again?

 

Think i found it.After installing XP i need to install the AHCI driver for xp, which is avaible from the Dell website....thx, think i'll be all right now

 

Sorry if I'm too late.

Regarding a recovery partition, there is none. That's what DELL Tech Support told. I don't recall seeing one on my factory M4400.

Regarding the reinstall... Whatever you do, make sure you do it in the correct order. If you don'tfor Windows XP, all the drivers won't install correctly. Trust me, I had to redo my first attempted Format and Reload.

 

Hmm...there is on mine...D: recovery.

So now i tried installing xp on e:
XP worked fine...installed the AHCI driver for the matrix storage manager in XP(at least i think i got the right one) Then rebooted, set SATA to AHCI again (or IRRT?) then repaired the startup for Vista and added the xp boot through EasyBCD, everything seemed fine but...XP won't start, /NTLDR is missing

And Vista only runs when i put the SATA in IRRT....maybe i need to load AHCI drivers manually in Vista? I got all this from a guide here and somewhere else on the net and it ALMOST worked

Now Vista works but not XP

btw. Could you tell me the order inwhich to install for XP? I think i have it right but maybe i still made a mistake....not giving up this easy

 

btw...the E: drive with XP is shown as a logical partition...should this be a primary? guess so huh