Hey all.
I've done a lot of work and research into this Dell HPA situation, for the last 3 years. Learned it inside and out.

There are a few things to know. TOO Much to go into without an IN-DEPTH 3-4 page ARTICLE. Yes, it really is that complicated. Essentially, if you are NOT getting what you want, go back to the beginning and start again. There's too many mistakes to be made that are SUCH A PAIN to correct, that either you wipe the drive and do it again, or edit the HPA and wipe the drive and do it again.

For those of you asking for
1) Media Direct
2) DSR images or info and files

There is something to understand.
EACH is tailored to
1) you HD size
2) Your notebook model

The fast and dirty method...
Check "Goodell" (goodell's) Website and READ IT ALL.
Print out the guide here- it works in most cases.
DL and try and learn how to use HDAT2 in dos format. Too complicated?
Then don't use or mess with your HPA or MD2, skip it and go to MD3+ which no longer does or uses all this rediculous tech stuff.

Lost your image or DSR structure? we can NOT help you- unless we
1) Have the same HD side
2) the same model laptop.

you run risks painful indeed in a restoration process should you seek to return to it in a crisis time otherwise.

I wrote a huge guide on it in notebook reviews, linked to this thread and other important links (forum name "TangoGrandma").

Essentially, this MD2 and ctrl+f11 was SOO TROUBLESOME that even the TECHS WHO INVENTED IT GAVE UP ON IT (Dell kept the ctrl+f11 to simplify consumer tech help, it's there to revert everything to shipped condition in case of troublesome and lengthy tech calls burning up their time).
One no longer needs the hidden restore image though with ghost and 8gb dvd's.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The restore image was/is a cool idea, but it's too problematic vs. simply burning an image to a dual-layer DVD and storing it in a safe place, which can be done in 10 minutes or so, vs the 10 DAYS it takes, of full time work to recreate and make a perfect restorable image for your Dell. Forget it.

By the way, the ctrl+f11 isn't something you LOOSE- it's part of the Dell BIOS. Unless you flash your bios with some custom made thing or hack it yourself, it's in there. If it doesn't find what it needs it simply either
1) skips it, or
(worse)
2) assigns something else to be the boot partition than what you want.
(I.E. Welcome to Dell!).

Make a Boot CD with these things
Mouse driver
CD/DVD driver
Normal DOS bootable
and add
HDAT2.exe
PTEDIT.exe
DSRFIX.exe

That's all you need to fix everything.
And by the way, I ABSOLUTELY RECOMMEND REMOVING THE HPA.
It's a waste of space and a pain -REAL-pain if something goes wrong.
Again, simply burn your OS's and partitions to a 8gb DVD, or leave in a viewable partition.

The only REAL COOL thing anyone ever did with the MD button and restore function was rigging up the MD button to boot the machine into Linux (NICE!) and back out when done. SWEET! all that work though for
ONE
COOL
BUTTON
TO
PUSH

vs.
selecting the OS option
with a mouse?


LOL!

I vote wipe the drive and the HPA off, and never use it again.
4 months from now you'll thank me.
I've been doing this stuff for almost 20 years.

I have been running all this time with the original factory configuration in my older Dell Inspiron 6000 with a single drive for the OS, Programs & my Data. On my desktop computers I have always separated the System from the Data, in case of a crash... but those also have the space for two separate drives in them... Maybe most folks trying to do what I'm doing have accomplished it already, but just in case, I thought I would post my discovery. Sorry it's a bit long...

I am attempting to help fix an identical machine of a friend who has the System/Data configuration, but no longer has the Utility or Restore Partitions on his machine. (We both purchased the "off the rack" Inspiron 6000 that was available at a discount a few years ago.)

I have been searching the various boards to see if I could:

A) somehow create custom restore image for my friend so that he can more easily restore his system (with everything on a single DL-DVD disk.)
B) Get my own computer configured with separate System/Data drives without destroying the ability to do a Ctrl+F11 restore, and
C) Eventually, maybe, also create my own custom image that I could run from the Ctrl+F11 command.

Part B has been accomplished , and I thought I would share the process, as I stumbled into something, quite by accident, that did not require ever messing with DSRFIX or PTEDIT to get the Ctrl+F11 to work again -- as it never stopped working!

My process (after fully backing up all my personal data, and doing a factory restore just to make sure that was working correctly before making any changes) is below...

1) I used EASEUS Partition Master (free version) to shrink the "C" drive to about 17 GB (might shrink it more, but I didn't know if I'd run into problems with the drive size being too small to restore the image to it... so I gave it a bit of extra room.)

2) I used Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Disk Management to create a "D" drive from the empty space. I made this an Extended Partition, and NOT a Primary Partition (in case I wanted to change it later and split it to also have a dedicated pagefile partition... and you can only have a max of 4 Partitions -- but if you can sub-divide an Extended Partition in a number of Logical Drives.)

3) I tried the Ctrl+F11 restore, figuring I'd just undo the changes above if it didn't work out -- and it worked like a dream!!!

Then I started reading this thread (mainly I am interested in now in creating the Custom Images.) I naturally became curious as to why it worked so well, without any of the seemingly common problems it seemed that I SHOULD have run into, having changed the Configuration from 3 Partitons to 4 Partitions.

I ran PTEDIT32.EXE (mainly to make the changes needed to back-up the Factory Recovery Image to another location before trying to create a Custom Image) and discovered why it had worked.

In the PTEDIT Window, the Extended Partition appeared AFTER the 3 Primary Partitions. This meant the Partition for the Dell Recovery Image was still in location #3 (where the Ctrl+F11 command wants it) and therefore the Dell Restore process was unaffected -- the Ctrl+F11 was able to proceed without a hitch!

I don't know if this is always the case, but if so, creating an Extended Partition out of the available space, rather than a 4th Primary Partition becomes an effortless way to make a 4 Partition Configuration without affecting the Dell Ctrl+F11 System Restore.

Dell Inspiron 6000 running with XPsp3

Wow,
I can not believe this thread is still going. I have read back a few pages, ok, I admit, not all the way. Been awhile since I hung out here. Working an average of 74 hours a week for over a year leaves little time for the tinkering.

It is good to see so many options and opinions on how best to accomplish what boils down to the same thing. I provided this post as a tool for folks who wanted to accomplish it by replacing the ghost images on the hidden partition. I agree having DVD's around is useful. But I have a personal distaste for them, but many of my geek bro's swear by them. Neither is right, and neither is wrong. both just "are".

If we are hanging out here, we are geeks, simple as that. And personally, I believe that to be a good thing indeed. Educating and sharing expertise with other geek brethren can never be a bad thing in my book.

What have I been up to? Leading my small rural Hospital into the 21st century, deploying an EMC SAN, ran a domain migration myself into Server 2008 and HYPERV, did some P2V conversions to consolidate and decommission physical boxes, created a couple SQL 2008 clusters, deployed MOSS 2K7, Replaced the entire hospitals PC's with OptiPLex 755 USFF boxes, implemented System Center Essentials 2k7, Virtual Machine Manager 2008, couple CORE servers for HYPERV, Exchange 2007 (ready to hit a Exchange 2010 CCR environment ASAP too), deploying an Enterprise Single Sign On solution with RFID PRoximity Cards, and in general... not sleeping a whole lot since I am the lone IT guy around the place.

I see I have 93 PM's. I really appologize to everyone, as I said above, 74 hrs/wk average doesnt leave much play time when I got a wife and 5 kids at home too. you will have to forgive me.

For PC's in the house currently:
Still have my trusty E1705, both of them in fact.
added a Studio 17
Dell M90 (4gb ram + 250 HDD)
threw in a Dell Inspiron Desktop for the monkeys (kids) who stole my 22in. lcd.
couple old beige boxes for playing around differnet things
and a i6000 for the 4 yr old to round it out.

I have a couple vintage notebooks too from IBM. packed away right now, but they are SWEET! keyboard tilts when you open it up, has a monstrously long port on the back that I hadnt seen in person before so I had to have the darn thing. Nothing better than Windows 3.1 right!!!!

Running Vista and Windows 7 RC at work, hoping to play with MED-V in the next couple months, and cant wait to get my hands on the Office 2010 suites.

Good luck to all, and again, I appologize for my absence. I wont lie tho, I doubt I will be back again anytime soon, or at least, dont plan on it.

Take Care all of you geek bro's.