Inspiron 9300 HDD Hidden Partition

[gtsimmo]

great post, after i read it i got on chat with customer service and had them send me a disk also ^^. Thanks. I feel more secure knowing i got the disk for when i upgrade my 40gb drive down the line.

I do not know if you can save/copy the hidden partition over to your new harddrive.

 

[yezhou]

I just got my CDs today. Also got the issue with them charging me dealt with, apparently its "supposed" to show up when you check your order status online, but its not actually charged. I think its OK because unlike the order for my laptop, my credit card name was not under "Payment Method", but instead "Exchanges"...whatever that means.

 

[Banana]

FWIW, I used a WinXP OEM CD from another system to reformat the hard drive and reinstall the OS. I used the product key from the sticker under the laptop. As for the drivers, I downloaded them from Dell's site and burned them on a CDR. Machine working fine now, sans crap.