Backing up recovery Partition + media direct?

Is it possible to back up the recovery partition and media direct partition?

I plan on doing a complete format and reinstall Windows XP Media Edition and then install Ubuntu on a separate partition. I'd like to back up everything just incase i ever decide to sell the laptop/return it. I've read where people lose the symantec recovery partition or the ability to use media direct if they format their windows partition.

Any help would be much appreciated.

 

Acronis True Image seems to work.
I have done a restore and Media Direct still worked. Actually, I cloned the drive from one 1705 to another 1705. I didnt try the recovery on it.

 

wrt MediaDirect...

Aconis or the like should work if you restore the image back to the original hard drive. MediaDirect resides in a host-protected area [HPA] of the hard drive and that portion will not be imaged.

fwiw

Mark

 

So once i get my laptop i should just go ahead and install symantec ghost and it should display three different partitions right? Then i should go ahead and backup Media Direct and the Symantec Recovery partition?

Anyone know how big each would be? Possible two DVD's total?

 

I used true image to clone the whole disk and successfully verified it by software. Havn't reinstalled it back to the disk though.

 

On my new 1705, which appeared to have an extra partition configured from Dell, the D: "backup" partition. My previous 1705 had one large C: drive with no D: drive. This is with a 100GB Fuji 5400rpm drive.
Looking at the image backup, Acronis shows 4 partitions in this order.
47.03MB FAT16 (EISA Configuration)
65.2GB NTFS C:
21.86GB D: Backup
4.642GB FAT32 (concurrent DOS, CTOS)
That was done immediately after it ran the initial self install.

 

That's interesting.... The other three seem 'standard': Dell Utility [~40MB]; OS [~65GB]; Dell Restore [~4.5GB]

Anything on the D drive as-delivered??? If it's empty, then maybe they're just 'helping out' in creating a partition for data or whatever???

Mark

 

it was empty.
This is on my order, I wonder if it has something to do with it.
420-5449 PC Backup, 90-day Trial English, for Inspiron

Right after I made that image of the new 1705, I put the Acronis I had made of the 1705 I sent back onto it. I literally didnt do anything on the new 1705 except finish the initial install to get into windows for the first time and reboot it to imake an mage backup. As soon as that image backup was done, I put the image from old 1705 onto it.

 

I have acronis True Image home and having alil trouble backing up the Dell Recovery partition onto a bootable media device.

Initially I wanted to create a recovery disk but I'm having trouble finding a way to actually burn the partition. I can make an image of the partition w/ acronis but it gives me a .tib file... Is there anyway to create a bootable iso file that has the Symantec recovery partition saved on it?

 

We had another user say that they also had a backup partition with no info... Dell does change it's policies and systems very often, so this could be a new thing.

I haven't used Acronis, so I can't help you there. If you click on "Reinstall & Reformat " link in my sig, I do have a link to a website (in the Partitions post) which gives you directions on how to burn a copy of your restore partition.

 

I also recommend Acronis. I made the image of the whole hard drive, and successfully restored everything after some installation problem.
I used an USB external hard drive. You may want to get one as well. It is really handy. (no need for swapping DVD-roms)

 

I also have a new e1705 with a D: Backup partition. I sent my other back about a week ago secondary to LCD issues. It had only one C: patition on a 60 GB HDD. Since I had to repurchase the new e1705 the special of the day was an HDD ugrade (and not RAM). So, this e1705 has a 100 GB HDD witht the following partitions:

47 MB FAT
C: 65.2 GB NTFS
D: Backup 21.82 NTFS
4.64 GB FAT 32 (restore)

The D: Backup partition is empty and has no files (including hidden). As previously mentioned, this my be a helpful gesture on Dell's part to create a separate partition for back-up data. I appreciate the effort but they have the ratio wrong. I cannot see any reason to image or back-up the "factory" D: partition.

I have used Acronis True Image for a while with good results. My plan is to continue with Southern Girls reformat guide and preserve the Diagnostics partition, create a 20 GB C: partition and the remainder will be D:

After the clean OS install, driver install, and OS optimization then I will create the Acronis Boot Disc and the .tib image.

Thanks to all here for your help.

 

The back up partition is part of Norton's Ghost. Once you uninstall Norton's Ghost, the space is added to your XP partition.

 

SouthernGirl,

I uninstalled Norton Ghost just out of curiosity and, after re-boot the D: Backup partition is still present. Not that it matters.

 

Hmm, okay. Sorry about that. I don't have a new system, so I have to base some of my info on other user's experiences. Well that was just stated in another thread. The user did the same as you, and the partition was combined with XP.

More info towards the bottom of this thread:
http://forum.notebookreview.com/showthread.php?t=58132&page=2

 

Any dell system (laptop or desktop) with this item would have a Backup Partition (D:/). So whenever PC RESTORE is needed, the user wouldn't need to backup, since all the files should already be in a Partition that is not wiped out when you run it. This partition might also by used as a repository for user-created norton ghost v21 images.

Backup Partition removal Instructions:
1. Boot to the WinPE environment by pressing ctrl+F11 during boot, or run boot_dsr.exe from the c\dell\utilities\dsr folder. Accept Eula, select utilities tab.

2. Select Delete Unused Backup Volume. Then select D: from the list (note warning screens talking about data being lost on the D .
Message asks user to confirm D: deletion.

3. After deleting D, press reboot which will take you to Windows again. Disk Manager will confirm that C is now the only drive, and will reflect the increased size.