Backing Up XPS M1330 Recovery Partition

Hi,
How should I do a backup of the Recovery Partition so that it's bootable and can be run from DVD?
My m1330 can with 4 partitions: Vista, Diagnostics, Media Direct and Recovery. It's preventing me from dual-booting with XP. The maximum number of partitions has been created. Any idea to overcome this issue?
My simple solution is to get another hard drive and swap it out.

 

Download the freeware if you havent got ultimate and make a backup of your system with the recovery and diagnostics...then repartition for what you want.

 

what is the difference between the recovery partition and the windows OS disk provided by Dell? I formatted my recovery partition and use it for extra storage

 

Getting rid of the recovery partition is like shedding your baby fat as you mature lol. You hav to trust your ability enough to say, Hey...I can do this better than them.

Theres bloatware, trialware, incorrect settings and so on in the recovery partition thats you dont want to ever come back to.

 

Any recommendation on the freeware? Will it create a bootable disc?

 

I havent used it for awhile but cannot remember the name. It is considered to be the best program available and its trialware enables a full pc backup...

If anyone else knows the name...Its not Ghost.

 

Acronis maybe?

 

Dear Forummembers,

Does somebody has a backup of the recovery partion for me.
Mine was deleted by the previous owner of my xps m1330 notebook.
Dell won't help me out.
Thank you in advance,


Shulaf

 

The best thing to do is to find someone who imaged their hard drive right when they got the machine, or else image someone else's factory-fresh M133O.

 

Thank you for the reply,

Is there someone here who can do this for me i have vista business dutch language edition. If someone has this please reply.

Shulaf

 

Just to add using Norton Ghost v12 full back make sure to enable show hidden device in NG12. then using standard settings the backup came to 9.34GB.There are freeware apps out there which do a good job also, just do a search on yahoo. TrueImage by Acronis is very good I believe they still have a full try period for 30days worth a check...

 

Thank you for the advice i'm looking for the dutch version of the image i had it but lost it i want to make my computer factory default maybe you can help me with a list of program which comes installed on the default configuration including the dell tools and trialware i also don't have the c:\dell\utilities directory anymore could you tell me where to find this.
Thank you in advance

 

You need to install the Dell apps from you Dell disc or download from Dell site.
Once install you'll have said directory or the likes of.

 

Ok thank you tommorow dell will bring the discs i will check if the software is in there.

 

I have checked for now but i don't have the directory.
Could you tell me the contents of the directory with a screenshot so i can find them myself.
Thank you in advance

 

For you Dell drivers apps you need your Dell disc = Dell Driver and Utilities...Already installed On Your Computer Along with Cyberlink webcam disc= Driver and Utilities...For Reinstalling Dells Webcam Manger
PS:These are the titles on the disc that I have.

 

So I'm thinking about deleteing and reformating the recovery partition so I can put on Ubuntu.

I'm not sure if I will ever use MediaDirect, but for now I'm gonna leave that partition on there.

Although, what is the 1st "78mb Diagnostics" partition? I'm wondering If I can delete this one, to make room for another Linux distro, BackTrack V3 Beta

In factory state, the Dell takes up the maximum of 4 partitions!

 

Please backup the whole system partions I'm facing a problem right now can't get them back once there lost even dell can't restore them.

 

It's dell's diagnostic partition.
I wouldn't mess with that.

You don't need a primary partition to install linux: use one of the four primary partitions to create an extended partition and use that to host as many logical volumes you like.
My two linuxes sit inside the extended partition.

I incinerated Media Direct a few days after receiving the laptop.
Now I have 15 partitions (including the extended wrapper and linux swap).

 

Have you tried TestDisk?