[satyr]

Does anyone have any idea on what the mentioned 47 MB FAT partition on the beginning of my Dell Mini 9 netbook's SSD drive might be (what's its purpose etc.)?!

The Windows XP "Disk Management" tool says:

Volume -- Layout -- Type -- File System -- Status -- Capacity -- Free Space -- % Free
no label -- partition -- Basic -- FAT -- Healthy (EISA Configuration) -- 47 MB -- 38 MB -- 80%

Note: "no label" under Volume of course means that this field is empty, i.e. there's no volume name such as "OS (C:)" for the system drive on this same SSD drive.

Thanks in advance, satyr

[holmes4]

It's the Dell diagnostics partition. You can run the diagnostics from the BIOS boot menu.

[LocoMonkey]

Is there a way to reinstall this partition if it has been deleted?

[holmes4]

Not that I know of. There is a download for Dell diagnostics on dell.com but I don't think it is independently bootable. I have not looked at it.

[satyr]

Thanks holmes4 for the reply/explanation!!

[bjd223]

Originally Posted by LocoMonkey

Is there a way to reinstall this partition if it has been deleted?

The Dell Diagnostic disc that comes with Dell computers is bootable, and allows the diagnostics partition to be updated if the version on your PC is older than the disc. It also allows you to run the diag, but I am not sure if it runs it from the disk or HDD. I think it is ran off the disc though.

Anyway, you could restore the computer with the Dell provided disk, however this will delete all your personal data but it will restore the diag partition.

If you did not delete the partition then there is a very slim chance that the bootable diag disc may be able to repair/reinstall it, I have never tried so I am not sure if it will work.

[TobyRhino]

I've downloaded and booted into Dell diagnostics from a usb key without having the partition.

[LocoMonkey]

Thanks for the replies guys!

[satyr]

Originally Posted by LocoMonkey

Thanks for the replies guys!

LOL, you know, that's what I usually say!!