Deleting Recovery partiton on Precision

Can i do that with Acronis or something? Without reinstalling xp

 

It seems that you've figured it out, but since it hasn't been said clearly anywhere in the thread I'll chime in.

The recovery disks are totally unrelated to the recovery partition. The disks will give you a true fresh install of Windows, letting you chose which drivers to install etc. Recovery partition will take about 10mins to get the factory install back.

Greg

 

Thx for that....did a frash install of xp anyway and still in xp now...before puttin the ACHI drivers in place so will be right back to tell if it worked this time round...i hope

 

Too bad...still doesn't work

Vista only boots if i put SATA in IRRT...do i have to install the ACHI drivers in Vista manually?
Acronis somehow can't set the logical partition to primary or active....and it warns me that if i do set it to active the other partition won't be bootable anymore...what to do?

 

First, YES it is possible. That's what I'm running right now on my M4400.

I recommend you start from scratch. You will have to FORMAT your entire HDD again (No worries I did the samething, mentioned it in my earlier post).

Easiest way to get the DUAL BOOT to work is to install the older OS (in this case XP) first. Then install Windows Vista. Again, make sure you follow DELL's order. No idea, why the drivers have to be installed in a specific order, but it worked. I'm currently at work and have the links saved on my PC at home. If you need the correct order, let me know and I'll post the link.

Regarding SATA in IRRT... I'll have to check my BIOS, but I do not have to make any changes when booting to XP or Vista.

Let me know if I can be of anymore assistance.

IT WILL AND DOES WORK

 

Yeah thought it might come down to that, will give it a try in the weekend, too busy now to spend those hours on reinstalling again

But didn't you have to set your SATA to ATA to make xp see your HDD when installing? And if i install XP fisrt, there is no problem with logical and primary partitions? I mean, will Vista be installed on a Logical partition and be fine booting from that or do i have to do anything to make that happen?

A lot of question again, i know I do belive that it'll work in the end...IT HAS TOO!!

Here's the order of installing driver i usually follow, please correct if wrong.

Intel Chipset
Ricoh Drivers
Nvidia Driver
Intel Gigabit Driver
Intel Gigabit Utility
IDT Audio (but i probably won't install this at all in the XP setup)
Intel Wifi 5300
Dell Controlpoint System manager
+ rest of the Dell Controlpoint stuff
Touchpad / pointing Stick

Now usually i start with installing Intel Matrix Storage Manager application but XP won't let me run that before i have all the updates for XP (NET framework etc.) So i install the above first + xp updates. Then install Matrix Storage Manager, then manually load the ACHI driver from Matrix storage mananger for the SATA controllers

so yes, please advise!

You've all been a great help so far!
btw..i'm working with these guides
http://apcmag.com/how_to_dual_boot_vista_and_xp_with_vista_installed_first__the_stepbystep_guide.htm
and
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=187998
both describe how to do this with vista installed first and xp second but it seems they're overlooking something....and maybe the recovery partition or my whole disk setup is causing some trouble.
this is what it looks like now:

... 133mb - OK (EISA configuration)
C: 182gb - OK (Boot, pagefile, crashdump, primary partition)
E: 48gb - OK (logical partition) <-- xp is there now
RECOVERY D: OK (system, active, primary partition)

translated from dutch vista...."ok" might be "working" or something in english OS?

 

Where are you up to now?

 

I saw your other thread regarding the order in which to install drivers. You had the DELL LINK
and that is the correct order.

One thing I didn't see in your list was the Notebook System Software (NSS) According to DELL, "A vital utility that provides critical updates and patches for the operating system. If you are reinstalling Windows or updating all drivers, it is important that this software be installed first. Currently, the DSS and NSS are not required for computers with Windows Vista®. This is located under the System and Configuration Utilities Category on the Drivers and Downloads page." I have no clue what this actually does but it's required for Windows XP (must be installed FIRST).

Again, NO changes are necessary to the BIOS (including SATA Options) for installing XP or Vista.

Regarding logical and primary partitions problems... I didn't have any.

 

Great thx...i think i'd give it another go...if it wasn't for Dell who just gave me a call that they would give me a refund for the laptop because of the terrible screen i have. At first they didn't because i bought it as a business and it seems other rules apply here.
I'll probably go for the refund, reorder when the RGBLED screen is available and then do the XP - Vista install right when i get it

The weird thing is that the category mentioned in the link and on the download page doesn't even exist on the Dutch Dell page....but the two files in that category are somhow put under mouse and keyboard/ inpout devices. Very logical But that is the Dell - Utility / system software and the Dell - Utility /recommended vista power management settings right?

And one more time about the SATA You didn't have to change anything but what is it set at?

Hope the RGBLED is available soon!!!

 

I have the DEFAULT setting for SATA, IRRT.