Mysterious partition in computer management utility

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rraawwhh

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In the computer management utility in WinXP there is a mysterious partition of my hard drive that I don't what it is. I only have one harddrive in my computer and I didn't ever make any partitions. The partitioned volume has no label or letter and uses the FAT file system instead of NTFS. There is a status column and the partition is described as "Healthy (EISA Configuration)". Anyone know what this thing is and why it is there?
 
did your computer come with xp already installed? if so did you get an XP cd? if not then it could be a recovery partition where they put the xp stuff incase you need it. if not then I don't know
 
My computer came with xp already installed. It also came with an xp cd. The partition is only 31 megabytes big and it has 30 megs free.
 
It could just be unused space, or some kind of OEM crap. Can you assign a drive letter to it and check it out?
 
In some cases this is your restore points or your system save recovery partition. If you turn off your system restore it will delete this or most of it, then turn it back on and it will create a restore point again. Also is the section on the hard drive in red when performing a defrag? If so this is fragmented files that can be cleaned up by doing a system drive check, the complete option. If your system came with system restore CD's this is what made up another type partition, all it is, is a compressed file for telling the restore CD's to pick up from that point in restoring your system/drive.
 
I can't change the drive letter or path (or at least I can't in the Computer Management GUI). I don't understand what you mean about checking to see if it is red while I'm defragging - do you mean somewhere in the defrag gui? Why is system restore information stored in a different partition with a different file structure? Could the partition be some sort of compatibility drive in case I want to boot into dos? But why would dell put it there?
 
On the subject of Mystery Partitions...what is an extended partition? I have 1 and I don't know what it is. I can't do anything to it either.
 
Extended Partitions

The extended partition was invented as a way of getting around the arbitrary four-partition limit. An extended partition is essentially a container in which you can further physically divide your disk space by creating an unlimited number of logical partitions.
An extended partition does not directly hold data. You must create logical partitions within the extended partition in order to store data. Once created, logical partitions must be logically formatted, but each can use a different file system.

Logical Partitions

Logical partitions may exist only within an extended partition and are meant to contain only data files and OSs that can be booted from a logical partition (for example, Linux, Windows NT, and so forth).

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Also Hi EP and people. I found this place again while looking through a oooollllllldddd backup. I have filled over 10TB and was looking at my collection of antiques. Any bids on the 500Mhz Win 95 fix?
Any of the SP crew still out there?
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Just did some crude math and I apparently joined almost 18yrs ago, how is that possible???
hello peeps... is been some time since i last came here.
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