February | 2013 | Cameron Mergel

Remove Recovery Partition free up 5gb–Dell Latitude 10

February 9, 2013 Cameron Leave a comment

How to remove the Recovery Partition.

Open Control Panel
Select System and Security
Select File History
Select Recovery
Select Create a recovery drive

Step through prompts. You will be asked to put in a usb drive. On the Dell Latitude 10 you will need at least an 8GB USB Stick. This will create a bootable USB Stick that you can use to boot/install Windows 8.

At the end you will be asked if you want to remove the partition.

Categories: Dell Latitude 10, Tips and Tricks, Windows 8

Create a system image–failure 0x80780119

February 9, 2013 Cameron 2 comments

I just recently got my Dell Latitude 10 Tablet and the first thing that I wanted to do was to create a system image before dinking with it.

Unfortunately, when It tried to run the backup I received the following error:

This is the first time that I have run across this error so initially I didn’t know what to do. I took a search on Google and found quite a number of people reporting it, but not a rock solid way to resolve it.

I initially took a look at the storage manager in the device manager. I see right away that there is one partition of 500 MB is size.

I wasn’t able to determine the amount of free space through the device manager. Well after some searching I did find several people running into a similar issue and they shrunk the partition under the 500 MB limit to get by the error.

I wasn’t able to make any changes to these partitions in the Device Manager, so I had to find another way. After some additional searching I found a tool called MiniTool Partition Wizard Home Edition (here), a free utility that allows you to edit any partitions. A very small download, small footprint, and very easy to use.

I chose to edit the partition and shrinking it from 500 to 492 and after a reboot I was able to run the native Windows System Image Backup. #FTW

Another option would be to use DiskPart to shrink the partition.

Categories: Dell Latitude 10, Tips and Tricks, Windows 8

Dell Latitude 10 Impressions

February 2, 2013 Cameron Leave a comment

I was highly disappointed with Dell’s first try in the Tablet market with the Latitude ST, so when I heard that Dell was releasing an upgrade or a new mode I was a little hesitant. But after reviewing the specs I began to get a little excited. The Latitude ST was way under powered and hearing of the new Dual Atom processor got me a little encouraged. I still wasn’t convinced. I was able to get my hands on one through our Dell Rep at work as a try before you buy. We are looking for something like this for our travelling users.

I have had the Dell Latitude 10 for about two weeks and have had a chance to put it through some tests.

Specs

https://cameronmergel.wordpress.com/2012/11/12/dell-latitude-10-tablet/

POWER [GRADE: 4]
Dual Atom with 2GB of Ram. Seems a bit light, but it is a pretty good machine as a business machine. I don’t have anything installed that pushes it to its limit like a Photoshop program, but its pretty snappy.

Includes a micro-USB charging port. I have not tried, but I have heard that it takes for ever to charge using this method.

Swappable battery – Includes 2-cell with an optional 4-cell battery. I love the swappable battery. They go bad, it’s nice to be able to swap them out if needed. Also the 4-cell. They stick out a bit and make the tablet a little awkward to hold with the weight, but it’s nice to have that available.

STORAGE/DISK [GRADE: 2]
64GB SSD in size but with the OS and Recovery Partition the available space is very small. These devices should be a minimum of 128GB and go up from there. I can’t believe they have a 32GB unit. Seriously?

MISC. [GRADE: 5]
Full Size SD Card. I am a huge fan, but have a couple of units that have the MicroSD and they perform and work just as well, so this is not as big of a deal for me as it use to be.

SCREEN [GRADE: 3]
10.1” Capacitive multi-touch HD display. The screen is so nice and touch is very snappy.

Intel Graphics Media Accelerator is a little weak.

DIGITIZER [GRADE: 3]
This was difficult for me to grade. I love Wacom and was very excited to hear that the Latitude 10 was going to be using Wacom. However, the stylus and digitizer don’t seem to be tracking correctly. Even after calibrating the stylus is not right. The accuracy is off a bit and have to press a little harder than normal to double click on things. Driver issue maybe? I would think that Dell should be able to correct this.

WINDOWS 8 [GRADE: 5]
Windows 8 is very snappy and fluid. It took me awhile to get use to it, but now I can’t go back to Windows 7. I don’t

NOISE [GRADE: 5]
Fanless. Absolutely quiet. Nice feature of the Dual Atoms.

KEYBOARD [GRADE: 0]
No Keyboard. Unforgivable!!! The lack of a keyboard dock like the XPS 10 is unforgivable Dell. This is a being sold as a Business Device. This alone for me would have made it a definite “buy it device”. I have heard of someone purchasing the XPS 10 keyboard and removing the notches that hold the XPS in. Again, why Dell? The extra battery in the keyboard!!!! Why Dell?

OVERALL/FINAL [GRADE 27/40] [C-]
I was overall impressed with the Latitude 10. I think if the Digitizer issue get resolved this will be an outstanding device.

If you can get at a discounted price on eBay, go for it.

Categories: Dell Latitude 10, Reviews, Tablet PC, Windows 8