[chickenNcheese]

i have just recently bought a Dell laptop (shuttup - i got it cheap due to some frends hu know some ppl that work at dell). anyway.

there is a partition which claims to be a FAT (not 32 or 16). this means it would automatically be allocated the C:\ drive letter but it is not visible under windows. it is active and not hidden. running a knoppix live cd i had a look inside it and it contains the same files as on of the directories on one of the dell resource cds. the partition upon inspection with other tools is of diagnostic type and is called DELLDIAGNOSTIC.

i want to wipe the comp and start afresh using a partition system i am familiar with and prefer. can i wipe the dell diagnostic partition?

[BlkShdw88]

yes you can .. read here ... you can use a partition program to delete and then merge the delldiagnostic partition with your operating system partition if you wanted too.. id recommend paragon partition manager. or else yeah wipe the **** its not needed its on ur cd

[Osiris]

I used a Windows 98 OEM bootdisk to wipe mine. I have a Dell XPS

[chickenNcheese]

yeah thanks. was just wonderin in case it did anything important or voided my warranty or something stupid like that - u know dell.

[Osiris]

what you do need to do to save you some time is copy all those dell drivers otherwise you will be on there site downloading them from another pc because more than likely, you wont have ethernet drivers, etc