Laptop EISA Configuration Partition

[bnichols]

I'm fairly competent with desktops; but now I have a laptop, I find myself floundering...

There is an "EISA Configuration" Partition on my drive. It is taking up space.

Does it have to be there?

If not, how can I get rid of it? Windows Disk Manager won't touch it and Norton Partition Magic cannot cast its spell thereon ;-).

If I upgrade my HDD how do I cope with the EISA partition?

Come to think of it how does one upgrade a laptop HDD; can you connect two at a time and use an installation utility to copy the disk?

many thanks in advance...


Brian

[Paul Komski]

Most EISA partitions I have seen are small (32mb) Dell Partitions that contain utilities that can be accessed from the BIOS or by a special boot choice during startup. If that's what it is it can be removed but be warned that unless boot.ini is correctly modified you may not be able to boot your system without repairing things first. It can be "got rid of" by editing the mbr's partition table but for the sake of 32MB (if that's how big your one is) I would leave well alone.

If you upgrade/change your HDD you can clone the current one to the new one having first stored an image on CDs/DVDs, an external HDD or by slaving your laptop's HDD to another PC in a drive enclosure.

[bnichols]

Paul, thank you for your kindness in replying.

My EISA partition is titled "Recovery" and is over 4GB (it is not Dell, but Advent) - this represents >10% of my disk space. So you see I feel I might need more space one way or another!!

I appreciate the heads-up on the boot.ini file. There's nothing special in there, but as the EISA is partition 0, I would need to change the Windows partition from 1 to 0. I wouldn't have thought of that.

It would sure be helpful if I could see what files are on the EISA partition. I guess I could reformat the disk and start from scratch - providing I have all the drivers I need (e.g. touchpad mouse etc.) I'm not sure what I need because of my unfamiliarity with laptops.

The tip on upgrading the HDD is excellent thank you. I have a LAN here at home and can drop an image onto one of the desktops where I have got oodles of space.

Much appreciated, sir!


Brian

[Paul Komski]

Advent seem to be made by a number of sources for Dixons. The recovery partition is almost certainly needed should you need to reinstall your system. If you decide to obliterate it make sure you do have a way of reinstalling your operating system.

[bnichols]

Thanks again Paul


Your comment about Advent being made by different companies is insteresting. My daughter and I both bought an Advent about the same time from PCWorld (Dixons with a different badge!) and paid the same for it. Although similar basic specs, they are very different machines! Hers doesn't have a PCMCIA slot but has better speakers for example!

As for recovery, I have the recovery disks. Am I being naive to think I can rebuild by using a normal retail Windows XP, but use the code from the COA on the laptop? (the install code for the retail disk is on use on another machine)


Meahwhile I'll leave well alone. Thanks for your advice

Brian

[Paul Komski]

Am I being naive to think I can rebuild by using a normal retail Windows XP, but use the code from the COA on the laptop?

I don't think you are being naive but the way OEM COAs work is different from the way retail installations work. Firstly, for a long time the OEMs actually "pre-installed" one CD key and put another one on the Sticker on the box or accompanying documentation. It's easy enough to check if the installed key matches the distributed bar code key with a the "magic jelly bean" utility, which will dig out your product key - as will Belarc and Everst nowadays - I'm pretty sure. Anyway that was a loophole which MS fixed about a year ago whereby the key on the sticker would be double scrutinised by a MS customer service rep prior to allowing a re-activation. I would check with MS, who are the only ones who truly know the current situation - but OEM keys were not supposed to be used on other than the original equipment.

[bnichols]

Thanks mate.

I appreciate your giving me more insight! I'll try checking the installation ID as you suggested.

The situation is as user-UNfriendly as I thought it might be. With things like this that might prevent people from using what they have paid for, I am beginning to see why people use cracks. But that's not a road I want to go down.

No where did I put my Belarc....


Brian

[Paul Komski]

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml (251kB)

http://www.belarc.com/free_download.html (835kB)

Freeware development of Everest ended on Dec 1st! http://www.lavalys.com/news.php?arti...cat=PR&lang=en

If you can burn a copy of your restore partition to CD/DVD it would give you the option of restoring the PC in the future in case your HDD goes down on you. Maybe PC World would be able to provide the restores for you; maybe not.

[wguru]

As of today, 3-14-08, I'm finding KeyFinder 1.51 size is 265 KB (272,357 bytes) and on disk 268 KB (274,432 bytes). After unzipping, the zip file lists as size 260 KB (266,836 bytes) and size on disc 264 KB (270,336 bytes).

A little worrisome that it's properties fail to afford a version tab, so since I can't see who made it, I don't think I'll be risk using it.

I got it from download.com, but even though it is a small utility, that and no maker disclosed, leads me to steer clear of it, ref...

http://www.download.com/3001-2094_4-10664536.html

Anyone that has found out more about it, feel free to jump in here and post.


Best regards to all, and to all,

happ-e-trails

[wguru]

And my AV tells me...

3/14/2008 8:33:46 AM
File: C:\Documents and Settings\wguru\My Documents\3rd Party Programs\KeyFinder\kf151\keyfinder.exe//officekey.exe
detected riskware 'not-a-virus:PSWTool.Win32.RAS.a'

[Paul Komski]

It's up to you. The same file (keyfinder.exe) with the same size (272,357 bytes) from the same location has an MD5 checksum of
042f13cb1818a8b9fe026a250c4eef93

AVG gives it a clean bill of health and it works just fine for me.

Size on disk will always vary depending on cluster size and is of no value.

[jango555]

I haven't done this on a laptop, but I have one a Ultra Mobile PC and on a desktop. I found this site had a fairly good walk-through on how to delete it:

http://www.kenst.com/2008/07/deletin...partition.html

I hope this helps. Additionally, you can check out microsoft's reason for the problem:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=242168

[paxmas]

I bought the above product from PC World Feb 2008. Last week the Optiarc DVD RW AD-7530B started to play hide and seek from the <Computer> GUI and the device manager (driver).

At first all i had to do was reconnect it to Broadband and it would find the driver automatically then it decided to go walk a bout a few days ago for good. I had a software backup so i deleted the lower and upper filters as per kb929461 in Microsoft Support to no avail (basically i had no DVD 3rd Party software so this was pointless as its this that creates the filters in the 4D365E965 Class (9th from top). It was here that i decided to destroy my present OS and restore from the EISA. What joy! Four hours later i found out that the backup does not include my MS Office 2007; but, i shall keep that for a raining day when i have to talk to a non-native speaker in India or elsewhere.

My toy has a DIXONSXP BIOS (V1.00 in my case): the EISA is 5.37GB which contains the TechGuys data etc from PC World (pre-SP1 etc so it takes 4 hours to reach the stability (sic, etc) of the present Vista Home Premium OS.

I have decided to take the laptop to PC World and quote the Sale of Goods Act 1979 (UK - http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/sho...refunds-exchan) to them but in a nice way for i would like them to:

(a) Put a post-SP 1 Vista OS on the EISA (Extended Industry Standard Architecture), hence saving me time on getting to the present OS if i have to do this damn thing over again; &
(b) Find my drive, even though it is not to be found at http://www.sonynec-optiarc.com/products/index.html. Dare I suggest I that i was not told about a refurbished machine that has legacy hardware ... Watch this space

[paxmas]

As a conclusion to my problem the TechGuys arranged a collection of my laptop and replaced the Combi drive free of charge within a week as the laptop was bought under a month - the automated phone service puts you through to a 'live' human if the item is under a year old.

[marshal]

hi....

thanks for the link dude...

can u post some more details regarding this?????

[tacy]

Hi.....
This site is really interesting.....
Thanx.....

[nathan3011]

Hey,

I'm just the same as you and i've always been a desktop computer person and i've been offered a laptop for christmas off my dad but I really don't know whether or not to get it.

Are they a lot different to desktop computers and if so are they easier to use or harder ??

Many Thanks

[rawoolanurag]

hi
i'm using sony vaio vgn nr21mr s
my problem is that no drivers came with my lap
i installed new vista but drivers not available on web,sony vaio site
as i'm new user i don't know how to backup these drivers
which are in EISA configuration partition
i tried everything norton partition n powerquest
they don't work on vista
i need drivers from EISA partition
how can i get those

9.3 gb partition EISA specified
backup need badly drivers
help me please


reply me
rawoolanurag@yahoo.com

[Paul Komski]

The drivers are available as far as I can tell on the website at

http://support.vaio.sony.ie/download...IE_cons&m=3050

[nathan3011]

Originally Posted by Paul Komski

The drivers are available as far as I can tell on the website at

http://support.vaio.sony.ie/download...IE_cons&m=3050

Yes thanks for that as far as I can tell by the ones that i've used they seem to be fine and all still working!!

[jango555]

I did this on a computer and found this link helpful:
http://www.mytechfetish.com/2009/08/...partition.html