Hi All,
When running Ghost 15 on a new Dell Win7 machine, as usually when selecting the C drive Ghost then recommends adding the RECOVERY PARTITION (800 MB on this machine) and says it's required as it contains the boot configuration database. We added that as we always abide by Ghosts recommendation. However, this machine also has a small 39 MB Dell partition that Ghost calls "Dell Utility" that Ghost doesn't seem to think it needs. Presumably this is where Dell keeps their tools, Windows reports this partition as being 39 MB with no volume name and no file system. Ghost at least sees it as "Dell Utility Partition." Would we need to be including this in our Ghost backup jobs in order to fully recover this computer to a booting state? Normally we would take everything, but in this case Ghost is only saying the RECOVERY PARTITION is linked to the C drive and the other is not necessary.
We're aware that Windows 7 always adds that extra 100 MB recovery partition upon installing. However, this one is 800 MB. Presumably because it's a Dell OS factory install and they did it differently so we just want to make sure it's not linked to that Dell Utility partition and that one is not needed in anyway.
We asked Norton, they said to stick with Ghost's recommendation at the Dell Utility partition would not be needed to boot the machine if the drive died. They said if anything to back it up separately, but they don't recommend adding it to the C drive backups.
Thanks!
HI Brian,
Don't have that particular machine online at the moment and don't have a flash drive handy, hopefully you're willing to work with this for now. If not, I'll capture a screenshot later. Anyway:
Disk Management shows the following three partitions:
Volume Name = (it's blank, nothing)
Layout = Simple
Type = Basic
File System = (it's blank, nothing)
Status = Healthy (OEM Partition)
Capacity = 39 MB
Free space = 39 MB
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Volume = OS (C:)
Layout = Simple
Type = Basic
File SYstem = NTFS
Status = (Health (Boot, Page File, Crash Dump, Primary Partition)
Capacity = 500 GB (more or less)
Free space = 400 GB (more or less)
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Volume = RECOVERY
Layout = Simple
Type = Basic
File System = NTFS
Status = Healthy (System, Active, Primary Partition)
Capacity = 750 MB
Free Space = 549 MB
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Those are the three partitions showing there right now (other than the CD Drive)
THanks!
Hi All,
When running Ghost 15 on a new Dell Win7 machine, as usually when selecting the C drive Ghost then recommends adding the RECOVERY PARTITION (800 MB on this machine) and says it's required as it contains the boot configuration database. We added that as we always abide by Ghosts recommendation. However, this machine also has a small 39 MB Dell partition that Ghost calls "Dell Utility" that Ghost doesn't seem to think it needs. Presumably this is where Dell keeps their tools, Windows reports this partition as being 39 MB with no volume name and no file system. Ghost at least sees it as "Dell Utility Partition." Would we need to be including this in our Ghost backup jobs in order to fully recover this computer to a booting state? Normally we would take everything, but in this case Ghost is only saying the RECOVERY PARTITION is linked to the C drive and the other is not necessary.
We're aware that Windows 7 always adds that extra 100 MB recovery partition upon installing. However, this one is 800 MB. Presumably because it's a Dell OS factory install and they did it differently so we just want to make sure it's not linked to that Dell Utility partition and that one is not needed in anyway.
We asked Norton, they said to stick with Ghost's recommendation at the Dell Utility partition would not be needed to boot the machine if the drive died. They said if anything to back it up separately, but they don't recommend adding it to the C drive backups.
Thanks!
shawnh,
Thanks. That's all the info I need. One question however. The recovery partitions I saw were about 10 GB and yours is only 750 MB. Is it really 750 MB?
The Recovery partition is the System, Active partition. Note, Win7 is NOT the Active partition.
OK. This is a typical Dell setup with the booting files in the Recovery partition instead of booting files in a 100 MB SRP. This saves a partition slot in the MBR but it means that the Recovery partition has to be backed up because it contains the Win7 booting files. But it only needs to be backed up once. Similarly, you should backup the 39 MB Utility partition as it is the Dell diagnostic partition. But it only has to be backed up once.
Is your Win7 an Ultimate edition? If not then you can't use BitLocker and having booting files outside of Win7 is just going to make image restores more difficult for you. More on this later.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the reply.
Yes, the recovery partition only seems to be 750 MB according to disk management, and 550 or so free. Obviously there is no recovery image there. So anyway, yes Ghost prompted us to add the RECOVERY PARTITION when backing up the C drive. Although you said it only needs to be backed up once, Ghost wanted to add it to the job and it is so small it really doesn't matter so it's permanently a part of the C drive backup job unless you see a reason to remove it?
Regarding the Dell image, we will probably go ahead and back it up but just to confirm, we would NOT need the dell utility partition to restore this machine or make it bootable correct? If we do go ahead and back it up, we can let our daily backup job make new images of the C Drive (and RECOVERY Partition just b/c Ghost wanted too) and if years down the road we need to install, there will be no problem pairing the 3 year old Dell Utility partition image with the up to date copy of the C Drive and Recovery Partition, correct?
Thanks!
PS: Not Ultimate, so no bitlocker.
shawnh,,
The Recovery partition and the Utility partition only need to backed up once and those backups will be fine to use in a few years time along with a fresh Win7 image.
My approach on Dells is slightly different. As you (and my friends) are using Ghost, you don't need a Recovery partition. In fact your Recovery partition is too small to contain an image. As you mentioned. That is strange. What I've done is moved the booting files from the Recovery partition to the Win7 partition and then deleted the Recovery partition. That makes image/restore much simpler. Your choice.
Thanks!
So we have made a one time image of the utility partition. That won't ever get imaged again. The Recovery partition will get imaged everytime the C drive does even though it's uneccsary just because that's how Ghost wanted it to go and the schema is already in place (and has several backups). Is there any reaason to change it. It can't HURT, right?
Also, second question (if you don't mind) that you didn't answer in the last post. The Dell Utility image would NOT be neccesary to restore the machine to a bootable state if that image was lost (or never taken), correct?
Thanks!
shawnh wrote:The Dell Utility image would NOT be neccesary to restore the machine to a bootable state if that image was lost (or never taken), correct?
That is correct. It is not necessary but a restored Win7 may not boot on the first attempt due to the different partition offset. A Startup Repair from a Win7 DVD will fix that.