Vista Dell disk on Acer laptop

[IguanaGrrl]

My boyfriend's laptop is an Extensa that came with Vista pre-loaded and a nasty huge hidden partition. In addition, they didn't provide any sort of disc for reinstall.

We would really like to get rid of this hidden partition and reinstall his Vista. We have a Dell Vista disc from a friend of his, but we don't want to try formatting and installing this disc unless we're positive that it will work.

I have confirmed that we have the Windows serial number on a sticker on the bottom of the computer.

So if we were to do a full format and then try to install using this disc, would it work successfully and would the hidden partition be gone?

[stevejohnson1958]

The hidden partition you're referring to is more than likely the recovery partition for that particular laptop.

If I were you, I'd visit the computer manufacturer's website for instructions on how to perform a full system recovery...as well as reading your owner's manual.

This is why your computer did not come with recovery software...performing a full system recovery will wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall all the software that originally came with this computer...so consider yourselves warned.  When you perform this recovery...all the data you've added since its purchase will be gone and will have to be added again.  Hopefully, you've been backing up as you go...

Good luck!

[IguanaGrrl]

We are honestly not concerned with any data on the computer. It has hardly been used and due to this hidden partition issue, my boyfriend has really only been using as a once-in-awhile web browsing computer.

I understand that the recovery software is probably in the hidden partition, but this partition isn't small... it's like 40gb.

That's 1/4 of the total size of the drive!

We really want that space back!

Do you have any suggestions on how to remove the partition? In the past, I scoured the site and it gave directions on how to create backup discs (we ended up with 9 of them), but no instructions on how to remove the partition. PartitionMagic doesn't work on Vista, to my knowledge...

[patio]

This will not work and i don't suggest even trying...

Reason is all manuf. who supply an OEM CD with an operating system on it tailor it to the machine it's tied to including the drivers and such for a particular machine...
Chances are at worst it will erase all your data and never even bootup.

The hidden partition contains everything you need to re-install Vista clean...contact the manuf. and get the instructions.
Some show this as an option right at boot time.

Saviour you type faster than me...

[patio]

Just saw your latest reply....you type faster than Saviour   

Follow the manuf. directions for creating a bootable Recovery CD.
Make 2 copies to be safe.
Recover the machine from one of the CD's to make sure they work properly.
Then post back for info on getting rid of the hidden partition...we want to make sure it works first !

[IguanaGrrl]

Ahh... drivers... duh. I didn't even think about that. I was more concerned with the Vista install than anything.

Ok, then that takes us back to the hidden partition issue... how to get rid of the hidden partition once we have the system restore data...

Edit: you were responding when I was typing... heh

[stevejohnson1958]

Well...I'm a little slow...I can see I'm no longer needed around here...

Keep us posted...

[IguanaGrrl]

Just to put it here for future reference, it's an Extensa 5420.

Searching for system restore information now. I'll have my boyfriend pull the disc tonight and I'll poke my head back in when he has confirmed that the disc works.

[qinghao]

Actually you can delete the partition in the "disk managerment" of "computer managerment"(<-right click on "My Computer" choose manager in popup menu).
After you delete it , you can rebuild a patition,assign it a new volume,and the you can use it's space.

remark: the content of the hidden partition will be lost.

[mcxeb52!]

and I would be sure to make a system restore point before you start working on deleting the hidden partition so that you can restore your computer in the event that you have encountered any problems in the process