Weird partitions on hard drive

Discussion in 'Software' started by Twistid, Oct 13, 2006.

  1. Twistid

    Twistid Corporal

    Recently, I completely messed up a computer due to lack of knowledge about the heatsink and how difficult it is to put the processor chip back into 300 pin holes (estimation ;)) and Dell not being specific enough in their manual ;) (said to have an expert put the chip back but didn't give any specifics as to why for a persistent computer geek ;)). Anyways, after all of this I now have a temporary replacement computer to last me a year until I build my own computer but I just noticed something odd, actually two things.

    1. System restore is not working properly and can't turn it off. When trying to turn it off it says that there was an error and when trying other things it says that framedyn.dll is missing (i've tried reinstalling system restore and that doesn't solve anything either). Obviously if these odd partitions (my next problem) doesn't solve this problem then I will also need help with it.

    2. The odd partitions problem is where my main partition for the new C drive (main drive) is NTFS, there is another one which says (EISA Configuration) in parentheses and says (under computer management) that it is FAT, and then there's a third one which says (Unknown Partition) in parentheses and says it is FAT32.
     
  2. matt.chugg

    matt.chugg MajorGeek

    The replacment computer is a Dell too right?

    Dell seem to use their own version of system restore which to be fair i've never tried removing. I don't even normally allow a new dell to get as far as windows without formatting lol.

    The partitions are put in by dell, i've never really investigated them in depth but they probably contain things like, initial setup wizzards, restore information and all the annoying toold that come with a dell computer.

    Personally I just delete all the partitions, repartition the disk how I want it and installl xp pro from a 'real' CD. Its pretty easy to find the drivers on dells website once you've done this but make sure you have the network card driver first otherwise you won't be able to get on the net to download them. Most of my work computers are Inspirons so i've done this about 10 times in the last week.

    Hope this helps a bit ;)

    hmm... (personal musing) why don't I have a disk image since they all have the same hardware......
     
  3. Plaphon

    Plaphon Specialist

    how did you try to turn it off? did you use system properties, system restore tab? try to uninstall it at all through the "add or remove programs" -> "Add/Remove windows components". here the FAQ on system restore may be it will help.

    i didn't get the problem. do you want to change file system on your drives or split them?
     
  4. Twistid

    Twistid Corporal

    When trying to turn it off I tried it through Control Panel/System/System Restore and then clicking the checkbox Turn off system restore for all drives. The good news now is that I fixed the system restore problem last night using this article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319114. I think I tried that before but either there wasn't a framedyn.dll in the folder or I just didn't see it for some reason the first time. The problem might not even be a real problem, especially since I'd rather just leave it alone if changing the partitions would require a reinstall of whatever may need reinstalled. Mainly I was wondering what they are and why they are there (which has kinda been answered already but of course the specific reason for dell doing this is unknown but isn't a problem). I was also concerned about it because the other partitions are FAT and FAT32 whereas the main partition is NTFS which sounds a little scary to me.
     
  5. hopperdave2000

    hopperdave2000 MajorGeek

    If the weird partitions were indeed created by Dell, the reason they're in FAT or FAT32 is so they can be read by DOS. Old time DOS doesn't allow reading of NTFS partitions and file systems. Dell (and HP/Compaq to some extent) create the extra partitons to store drivers, bloatware, wizards of different kinds, and sometimes these extra partitions are full recovery partitions which can be used to restore the PC back to 'original factory condition' just like it was the first time you turned it on after UPS dropped it off or after coming back from BestBuy. HP uses these extra recovery partitions fairly regularly. Anyway, I'm starting to get off point. NTFS file systems can read FAT systems but FAT cannot read NTFS.... the extra partitions are FAT so they can be accessed regardless of the file system.....
    hopperdave2000 :)
     
  6. Twistid

    Twistid Corporal

    Ah I C. Well, that sort of makes sense, I looked it up on google before also and noticed something like that. Thanx for the great reply =o). I also was having problems with my WMI (noticed this when I went to Control Panel/Network Connections/Local Area Connection/Properties when it said that the WMI may be corrupted) but was able to solve this problem on my own thanx to a great Scripting program I found when doing research called "WMIDiag". Another good program is called Dial-A-Fix but can't solve ALL problems but did help with restoring most of the files back to the C:\%SystemRoot%\system32\wbem folder (which is where the WMI is located).
     

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