Kougar
OCing one chip at a time
- Joined
- May 11, 2009
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- 588
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What TrainableMan said... the files are likely hidden. This is why the partition does not show up in My Computer by default as the OEM wants to keep it clean and unmodified.
I can assure you that Dell didn't put any of the recovery software on the C drive... Doing so would mean you couldn't boot to the recovery software since only one OS can exist within a partition. Also, if you ever needed to reinstall the system to a factory state, in most cases it would require wiping the C drive which would also wipe out the recovery software and data files. That is why the files are stored on a separate partition.
I don't have an OEM system to test, but since these are Dells you should be able to boot to the recovery software by pressing F11 during POST. If you can then it's a safe bet the files are actually still there, as the recovery environment should boot off the D partition files.
I can assure you that Dell didn't put any of the recovery software on the C drive... Doing so would mean you couldn't boot to the recovery software since only one OS can exist within a partition. Also, if you ever needed to reinstall the system to a factory state, in most cases it would require wiping the C drive which would also wipe out the recovery software and data files. That is why the files are stored on a separate partition.
I don't have an OEM system to test, but since these are Dells you should be able to boot to the recovery software by pressing F11 during POST. If you can then it's a safe bet the files are actually still there, as the recovery environment should boot off the D partition files.