What Kind Of Disk Do I Have?

I believe that if you contact Dell support they can supply you with a recovery disk that is similar to the one that Allheart showed as her second example in one of her first posts. Again, Allheart55 is the real source for what can and cannot be done and I am just helping you through her instructions and comments when you have a question in her absence.

 

Thanks for trying to help! I'm happy to wait

 

OK, I will try to go a little further here. All of the above appertains to Dell and Dell only, other manufacturers do some things slightly differently, though mainly sticking to a similar format with the OEM partition, the recovery partition and the main C partition, Acer and Packard Bell (Packard Bell now owned by Acer so basically the same) include another partition named "D" as a data storage space, some folk remove it though and just let everything expand on "C".
Now then what happens when Joe Bloggs builds his own, well really it is down to him, he can put in as many partitions as he wants once he has installed an operating system. If he knows what he is doing possibly create a disk with a similar partition layout. Though not sure if a recovery partition can be created by a home builder, Allheart will possibly know that.

Then we move on to the field of imaging a disk that already exists, with the right imaging software the whole disk can be become an image to be stored on say an external drive for use as full recovery at some time in the future should it be needed.

I am myself and another member here, exploring that avenue now, and have been doing so for a couple of days by trying out a new to us free imaging application.
No doubt more of that when we know more.

Nev.

 

allheart hi, right OK!

So essentially what I have is similar to a normal windows 7 installation disk, but it’s tied to my PC.

One thing I would consider doing is upgrading my hard drive for a larger one, which I’d have to install, I can assume then that disk would successfully install windows 7 (only), excluding partition 1 & 2.!?

I’m really trying to expand my knowledge of the parameters of what I can do with what I have, so I really appreciate your thoughts.

 

Hey allheart and all, thanks so much for staying with me...

Very much appreciated!

 

If for example you wish to keep everything, but install a larger capacity hard drive then a complete image as Allheart says is the way to go, you don't need any other recovery medium doing it that way as a full image is exactly that, everything and all partitions.

Nev