why FAT partitions on my Dell Ubuntu notebook

[noanker]

I have a Dell 1420 notebook with Ubuntu 7.10 installed. There is one 80M primary FAT 16 partition and one 2,155M primary FAT 32 partition. There is also a 206M primary ext3 boot partition, as well as a 158G primary extended partition containing several logical partitions for Ubuntu. My question is, what are the FAT partitions for (I assume something to do with Dell) and are they important. Can they be deleted and the entire HD be devoted to Ubuntu stuff.

[StuartN]

The two FAT partitions are about the right size for Dell diagnostics and system restore. They probably don't even feature as options in GRUB (see http://www.ehow.com/how_2184092_perform-dell-system-restore.html) and probably don't have any functions that a decent Linux CD lacks. If so then you could delete them. There is probably a DSR.EXE file in the little one and Windows stuff in the bigger one.

[TBerk]

The two FAT partitions are about the right size for Dell diagnostics and system restore. They probably don't even feature as options in GRUB (see http://www.ehow.com/how_2184092_perform-dell-system-restore.html) and probably don't have any functions that a decent Linux CD lacks. If so then you could delete them. There is probably a DSR.EXE file in the little one and Windows stuff in the bigger one.

I'd agree with most of that BUT-

If your system didn't come with a Windows Installer CD and if you delete the partitions (that we are assuming are Restore/Install locations for Win_x) then you have burned a bridge so to speak.

So, think it through before you delete them.


berk

[bumanie]

I imaged the restore partitions, placed them on external media and then deleted them off the hard drive, that I can restore them if necessary.

[rob-ward]

If you have a decent backup image of them partitions and are able to recover them if you ever decided that you needed to then there is no reason that you can't destroy the partitions and use the entirety of your drive for ubuntu.