OEM (Reserved) Partition -- What is it ??

I am ready to perform a clean install of Windows 7 and I am going to delete my C: and D: partition (see screen shot) under Custom (Advanced). There is another partition that states "OEM (Reserved)" and it is only 54.0 MB. I have a Dell E1705 currently running Windows Vista. The D: partition is a recovery partition.

What is this OEM (Reserved) partition and can I delete it? What are the consequences if I do? And what makes it "OEM Reserved" ??

osu1357 said:

I am ready to perform a clean install of Windows 7 and I am going to delete my C: and D: partition (see screen shot) under Custom (Advanced). There is another partition that states "OEM (Reserved)" and it is only 54.0 MB. I have a Dell E1705 currently running Windows Vista. The D: partition is a recovery partition.

What is this OEM (Reserved) partition and can I delete it? What are the consequences if I do? And what makes it "OEM Reserved" ??

Dell puts a fat32 partition first to park its own software. Usually it is for things like the bells and whistle buttons. My dell has media buttons on the front that require software to be loaded first in order to run.


Can you delete it, but, the "dell" media utilizes may not work

I haven't tried to delete it... What happens if I do? Should I leave it on there?

Actually I tried to delete it inside Vista Disk Management and I cannot ... why ???

What software is on there? There's no drive letter assigned..

Would I get a bad install if I left it on there?

1) If you look at my screen grab (1st post) of my partitions why don't they add up to 80.0 GB? They add up to 74.5 GB ... When I ordered my Dell laptop it was supposed to have an 80 GB hard drive.. Is there a hidden partition that I am not seeing ?

2) Here's another question.. Why are the partition types all different? There's an OEM Reserved, a Primary and a System ... How do I label the partition types? Is it automatic?

3) Also when deleting a partition is there a certain order i need to do it in? For example, if I delete the D: partition, do I have to Extend the C: partition to accept the new space?

Post a snippet of the output of DISKMGMT.MSC

Re: the 80GB
1KB = 1024 bytes
1MB = 1024 KB
1GB = 1024 MB

74.5 GB by (1.024x1.024x1.014) = 80,000,000,000 bytes

A bit of a con but most manufacturers seem to do it. Buy a 500 "GB" HDD and you actually will see 465 GB.

Of course it's to do with the binary system!!!!!!!!!!
But some people do get confused hence the question raised by the original poster.
This is a technical forum not a supermarket.