Dell XPS M1710 :: Clone HD To New Drive Including Hidden Restore / Utility Partition Setup?
Dec 14, 2008
The only reason I purchased my xps m1710Â is that I thought it was the top of the range model at the time, now all I want to do is replace the hd but at the same time retain all the functionality of the hidden restore partition and the media centre partition. You would expect Dell would make this easy for me as the owner and as Dell market themselves as providing user friendly IT solutions.
I have tried using trueimage to clone the drive but when trying the new drive on boot up it gets to the Dell 'blue bar' then freezes. I have tried copying partition by partition but this is even less successful.
I have tried restoring the restore 'ghost' image to the new hard drive but symantec ghost reports incompatibilities with the image file.
I am upgrading my original Samsung hd (SATA) to a new hd and would like to keep the hidden partition and mediacentre partition as my original hd. I have a new SATA hd which is currently connected in a USB enclosure. I am not a hd or filesystem expert and don't want to spend a year studying the goodells website.
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Apr 26, 2009
I made a backup of "something" after the software first installed itself. The set is 2 DVDs for Vista Home Basic.
But what did I really back up? Was it the C drive or the hidden partition?
I ask because, after a number of changes to the C drive, I want to take another backup.
If I use eRecovery, what will I get in the backup?
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Apr 22, 2009
Can the C drive be enlarged?
Can the hidden partition be emptied and made "visible"?
My laptop is rather new, and I noted that the C drive was pretty full already. I deleted many software items and added other software that I needed, but there isn't much left anyway. The D drive is largely empty however. Can the C drive be repartitioned? Is any special software needed to do that?
The hidden partition seems not to be of much use after one has made the 3 DVD factory default backup. Can it be deleted? Made Visible and used for something else?
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Apr 29, 2013
I have an Inspiron 1750 that will not recognize the hard drive. I have done the on-board diagnostics and the preboot assessment says that no diagnostic utility partition identified.  I am hoping that I just need to replace the hard drive, but I did not make a restore disc before it crashed. Which of the drivers I need to restore the computer to it's factory settings.
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Mar 29, 2009
I know that my notebook came with the Sony® Notebook Setup utility program but I lost this recovery disks that came with this notebook so I did have to buy Windows XP Home and did a clean installation of it. I did get the drivers from esupport.sony.com but I can't find the Sony Notebook Setup utility program.
Does anyone know how I can download this and install this on my notebook? It's a program that tells the specs of my PC.
My notebook model is: PCG-R505ESP
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Nov 10, 2008
I have a Dell Inspiron E1505 laptop two years old Windows XP 80GB HD
I notice that my C drive has a capacity of 51.2GB while my D drive has a capacity of16.8 for a total of 68GB. Now I know that I should only expect around 74GB due to the decimal vs. binary issue. But I wonder where is the other 6GB (74-68)? After reading many posts, I am assuming it is on a hidden partition. Thus my questions are...
1. If there is a hidden partition, can I get rid of this partition somehow to get me another 6GB? I am pretty much maxed out on HD so I could use every bit of possible. When I bought the laptop, I made sure to get the reinstall disks. So I have a disk that says "Operating System- Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Version 2005 with Update Rollup 2" and a second disk that says "Drivers and Utilities - For Reinstalling Dell Insiron and Dell XPS Computer Software". So I assume that whatever is on the hidden partition is the same as on the disks, and thus I could get rid of the partition. Agree?
2. If folks suggest keeping the partition, or when I run out of HD again, is it fairly easy to add HD GB to the 1505? Again, I have read tons of posts and it seems pretty simple, even for a newbie like me. Is it pretty easy? I'll probably start a different post if I get to this step.
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Sep 18, 2013
I recently bought an ideapad y510p. It came with win8 pre-installed and I don't have any recovery CDs. I plan to play around with linux on this laptop, but don't want to lose win8. So before I potentially reformat everything away, I'm thinking of making a clone copy of my hard-disk to an external USB drive. The general plan is like this,
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1. make copy of laptop HDD to external usb drive
2. muck around with linux - and stupidly reformat everything in the process
3. get fed up with linux and want to go back to windows
4. copy back data from external usb driver to latop HDD
5. return to comfort of win8
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Will using this tool (clonezilla) work in the above scenario? [URL] ...
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My intent with the backup, is that after I "restore" things, the "one key recovery" button should continue to work as before.
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Feb 1, 2015
Two and a half year old Inspiron 5110 with Win 7 Home Premium. Â Cloned the internal drive using Easeus. Â Set the BIOS to USB in number one position, but this laptop won't boot from the external drive. Â Is this laptop bootable via a USB platter drive or a thumb drive? Also, can the recovery partition be used to repair Win 7 Â or is the recovery partition only to format the drive and install software the way it was when new ?
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Aug 16, 2009
This concerns the Sony Vaio SR 290c model.
Recently I deleted the "hidden" partition that was used to store recovery files. However,
after I formatted the drive, it has not showed up in "my computers." I was wondering
if anyone could advice me on how to basically make the hidden partition become visible on my computer
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Apr 11, 2009
I have had to recover my Acer Aspire 5103 laptop twice now and on both occasions the Recovery (Alt + F10 at the acer logo) did not work.
I have now reinstalled Windows Vista after formatting and partitioning my hard drive into 3 equal partitions with C and D in NTFS format using Paragon Partition Manager.
That is 112Gb of 120Gb because the recovery software is on the 8Gb hidden partition and I intend to install Linux on the 3rd partition.
how to unhide the hidden partition so that I can format it and merge it with the C drive.
I have downloaded all Vista and Acer drivers and programs so the hidden partition is surplus to my requirements.
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Nov 24, 2008
how to retrieve acer hidden partition.i accedentally delete ie.dont have backup for it,have a backup the acer factory setting but but didnt recover the hidden partition.
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Jan 17, 2010
I have an aspire 4930 laptop which came with Vista pre-installed. To cut a long story short I installed windows xp to replace this which has been a total disaster (although the system is still working). I would like to start afresh with vista so need to do a factory reset. I have no recovery CDs.
I can confirm that the hidden partition PQSERVICE is intact. I cannot however run the erecovery software from windows because it was lost along with Vista and as far as I am aware I cannot download a windows xp compatible version.
WinXP over-wrote the ACER MBR so the Alt-F10 command stopped working however I have used a live CD version of GRUB to boot to the recovery partition, sidestepping the need to restore the Acer MBR. When the vista partition boots up Acer eRecovery Management loads, however the "restore system from factory default" and "restore system from user's backup" options are both greyed out.
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Dec 4, 2014
Acer Aspire V3-772G - BIOS setup utility menu items have disappeared
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I have setup this brand new laptop, pre-installed with Windows 8.1, for my sister-in-law who bought it. Â The installation went well BUT the 16GB USB device which I purchased as advised by the Acer literature to store the recovery partition was not big enough, the physical capacity being 14.4GB. Â The Acer book says use a 16GB device or larger so I did. Â I naively thought that a USB drive which was labelled 16GB would be appropriate. Â Not so. Â I have had to buy a larger one but am still awaiting delivery.
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I therefore decided to image the whole HDD to save the work I had done but found that the Acronis Backup and Recovery DVD would not boot. Â I went into the setup utility and adjusted the Boot settings to legacy and changed device priority. Â Acronis would not run so I did not continue. Â I went back into the setup utility, used F9 to restore the default and found to my astonishment that the DUAL boot option had now disappeared and the Windows Boot option had also vanished.
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This means that this £800 laptop is now unusable.  The setup utility self-reconfigured without warning.  Nowhere is there any advice or warning not to use the setup utility in case it erases features which cannot be recovered by using F9 to recover the default configuration.  If this is not a serious design fault, I don't know what is.Â
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I am deeply worried because the idea of a BIOS setup utility behaving this way seems so improbable. Â How is it that the setup utility has been designed to self-harm like this?
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Dec 3, 2014
Acer Aspire V3-772G - BIOS setup utility menu items have disappeared
Â
I have setup this brand new laptop, pre-installed with Windows 8.1, for my sister-in-law who bought it. Â The installation went well BUT the 16GB USB device which I purchased as advised by the Acer literature to store the recovery partition was not big enough, the physical capacity being 14.4GB. Â The Acer book says use a 16GB device or larger so I did. Â I naively thought that a USB drive which was labelled 16GB would be appropriate. Â Not so. Â I have had to buy a larger one but am still awaiting delivery.
Â
I therefore decided to image the whole HDD to save the work I had done but found that the Acronis Backup and Recovery DVD would not boot. Â I went into the setup utility and adjusted the Boot settings to legacy and changed device priority. Â Acronis would not run so I did not continue. Â I went back into the setup utility, used F9 to restore the default and found to my astonishment that the DUAL boot option had now disappeared and the Windows Boot option had also vanished.
Â
This means that this £800 laptop is now unusable.  The setup utility self-reconfigured without warning.  Nowhere is there any advice or warning not to use the setup utility in case it erases features which cannot be recovered by using F9 to recover the default configuration.  If this is not a serious design fault, I don't know what is.Â
BIOS setup utility behaving this way seems so improbable. How is it that the setup utility has been designed to self-harm like this?
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Mar 9, 2008
Just to state first and foremost, this is not an issue I have. This is a preventative post for anyone that may ask down the line. (as I've seen it asked on multiple other forums.)
I had this issue with an inspiron 1720 I just got. It had an issue, so I installed vista from a Vista RTM disk. It didn't fix the problem in the end, so I sent it into dell and got fixed, but I wanted to a fresh restore from the restore partition because on restarts, I'd get the blue screen of Death. Fun stuff right?
Well, Unknowingly, when I installed vista off of the cd, that removed the ctrl+F11 option from the dell. This is stated on many forums, and it seems that most answers to this issue is to format and install a fresh install from cd again, or call dell and get recovery disks. I figured "Heck, If I still have the restore partition, there is not reason why I can't get it to restore with some effort."
Some other people I've seen have just had viral attacks, or just want to sell their laptop and need a fresh install. This is for those people that need it. The answer to the question of what if Control and F11 don't work.
So, Here I am with the fix. There is one required bit of software that's required, and that is simply a dos boot cd. You can find many iso's for dos on the net. All you have to do is burn a copy and boot from it. [EDIT] IMPORTANT: I was wrong about dos. As stated below ( http://www.notebookforums.com/post3049150.html ) you have to do it from a 32 bit environment. You can get through one in the XP repair console (on the install cd) or through one of the options in vista's setup.[/EDIT]
Ok, so this is going to be dumbed down a bit, and I'll explain what the dos commands do. First off, after booting into dos, you need to change to the restore partition. This isn't hard at all, all you do is type "D:" and press enter. After this, you need to find the restore file. This is a file with the extension of *.wim. This is an image of windows from dell factory.
Generally this file is found in d:dellimage and is called Factory.wim. Just to double check, I'm going to tell you to change the directory. Type in "cd dellimage" and press enter. In dos, CD means Change Directory (or enter a folder). Now, to list all of the files in the directory type in "dir" and press enter...............
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Nov 10, 2008
I just wanted to know if there was a way to reconstruct the hidden recovery partition with the recovery dvds? The thing is that when i bought the notebook I noticed the partition and thought it was just garbage(how fool), so i totally erased everything, the good thing is that i made the recovery dvds with Erecovery before that.
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Feb 2, 2009
I have a new FW285DH. The hard drive is 350GB 7200rpm. I found there is hidden 10gb at the first partition for recovery. You can't see that in My Computer. You can only see it in Disk Management. Since I don't need vista any more, I deleted that partition and make myself 10gb more space.
When you do a clean installation of Windows 7, it will force a 200mb at the first partition which is also a hidden partition. I wonder what is that 200mb partition for. There is no such thing in Vista.
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May 6, 2009
I am going to install Win7 RC on my Vaio TT21XN. Have made Recovery DVD. If I remove hidden partition and install new system (for example Win7) and after some time will want have hidden partition back will it be recovered after using Recovery DVD?
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Jan 29, 2015
When I bought my Aspire 5733 laptop about 18 months ago it came with a hidden partition built in now I cant remember what the partition was called or how to find it .
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Oct 2, 2008
I gained a lot of information from the 5315 CPU Upgrade Thread. I'd particularly like to thank BigOzone, Hoggie and Quilty997. There are many others but information from the above formed the basis of my upgrade.
Other information I've collected from other parts in the forum.
The specification of the laptop was as follows.
Acer Aspire 5315
Celeron 550 2.0Ghz (eek)
1gb of Ram
Vista Home Basic (double eek)
Atheros Wireless Card
80Gb Toshiba Hard Disk
The new Specification is.
Core2Duo T7500 2.2Ghz 800 Mhz Front Side Bus 4Mb Cache
3Gb of Crucial Ram
Vista Home Basic (No Choice At the Minute)
Intel 4965 AGN Wireless Card
200Gb Hitachi Hard Disk
The CPU Upgrade I won't actually cover, not necessary when there is a fantastic sticky at the top of this forum. The Upgrade took about 15 minutes, but the actual swap took about 5 minutes or so, I was very anal about cleaning the heatsink and applying AS5. I think the biggest scare was the door unerneath, quite tricky to get off and put back on without damaging the tabs.
My main focus is the hard drive swap, whilst maintaining all the eRecovery software. For this I use Acronis True Image Home, I am aware that the trial can be downloaded or users obtain by other means, can I just say BUY IT as it only cost me £17 from Amazon.co.uk and as usual it was cheaper in the US. The biggest reason for buying is that some features are not available in the trial. I also bought a Laptop SATA External Drive Holder and boy was I glad I did......................
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May 31, 2010
From this [URL] ....Â
This is the Driver for T 440p
And chose the BIOS strings the
ThinkPad Setup Settings Capture/Playback Utility for Windows (SRSETUPWIN) for Windows 8.1 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 8 (32-bit, 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit, 64-bit), XP - ThinkPad
The download driver is not included.
[URL] ... are missing.
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Sep 4, 2014
I lost the restore partition on the original SSD that my Yoga 13 shipped with. Â Is there a collection of drivers and whatnot that would allow me to restore it to factory defaults on my own with a fresh windows installation? Â I have the win8 key from the BIOS but don't want to lose out on all the required drivers if I were to just reinstall windows myself.
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Feb 9, 2015
I got a virus somewhere along the line. Every time I do a factory install it's never right. Can the hidden recovery partition become corrupt? If so, how do I wipe my hard drive clean so I can use the "Completely Restore Coomputer to Factory Default" setting?
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Oct 11, 2014
Got a Aspire one 722 from mom-in-law. She didn't use it much. Sticker says I have a 320GB HDD but Properties only show 284 GB. How do I recover the lost HD space?
I discovered the space holds MS Office but I can't access Office without purchasing it which I have no need for so this is just a closet full of stuff I don't want and apparently I can't use the storage space either.
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Feb 27, 2013
I am using an Inspiron 15R SE 7520 which I upgraded to Windows 8 after partitioning my hard drive (two accessible drives c: and d:). The restore partition was left intact.
Due to a software incompatibility I am going to have to restore back to Windows 7, and I hope to use the Dell restore utility.
My question is: If I use the utility will my D drive data (backed up files etc) also be wiped, or will just the C drive be reformatted?
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Jun 27, 2009
Going the clean install route and looking at the partitions, found this small Dell one. It's only about 40MB and uses only 400KB.
Looking with Gparted it's called Dell Utility and with Vista Disk Management, nothing but does say EISA configuration under status.
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Jun 15, 2012
I have a Pavilion G7 2223nr. It came with w7, and free upgrade to W8. Was never able to go to W8.1. Caught something bad everything went south. Had to reload win 7 pro, I had the software pack from MS.
I cannot get the computer to reconize anything doing with the ethernet, or the WiFi.
I tried F11 at bootup, and all I get is Computer is broken error code 0000225.
I have lost my HP partition, so I need to know if HP sells a disk that will give it back to me?
If all else fails I just use my tablet until I buy win8, or 8.1. Or I take it to a repair shop. I have been researching this for 2 days, have downloaded all drivers from HP for my computer, and it still doesn't recognize any device.
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Dec 31, 2007
Ever since I saw newer systems being offered with Dual SSD drives in RAID for 128GB of SSD storage I've been wondering if I can do that with my XPS m1710.
My 100GB drive is just too small. I've been looking at replacing it with the Hitachi 200GB 7200 RPM drive, but I thought I'd look at the SSD option as well.
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Feb 24, 2009
trying to clone my hard drive.could some of you take a look at this picture and tell me if i have done this correctly ie will my c partion be able to boot ok,
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Mar 15, 2013
My Inspiron 1545 needs to reset to ex factory condition. The manual and the dell website say press F8 several times once the Dell logo appears. Obviously this has been changed. How to achieve this?
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