What is exacly the HP_TOOLS partition ? Do i need it ?

[kerinos4]

Hi, i have purchased in 21/08/2012 the HP Pavillion dv6 6c01ev Notebook (laptop),

and the hard disk has one partiton with the name : HP_TOOLS ( E: )

Inside in this partition, it has 3 elements :

1 folder with the name "Hewlett-Packard",

1 .dat file with the name "HP_WSD.dat" ,

1 text file with the name "HPSF_Rep" , (inside it has only one date, the next day that i purchased it - 22/08/2012)

Inside the "Hewlett-Packard" folder, it has another 4 folders :

1 folder named "BIOS" => inside in it has another 3 folders : Current - New - Previous

1 folder named "BIOSUpdate" => inside it has various files...

1 folder named "QuickWeb" => iside it has and folders and files...

1 folder named "SystemDiags" => inside in it, it has various files

So, i would like please to explain me , if you can, and answer me, because i am confused

1) Where is useful this partition ? and all these folders and files...

2) Do i need this partition ? If i delete this partition, will i have problems in the future ?

3) Is this partition so important ? (as the recovery partition is)

Thank you for your help...

And also, i just noticed, that the file system inthis partition, is FAT32, and not NTFS...

[Mumbodog · Accepted solution]

The partition is used for a few things

1. Stores advanced UEFI bios tools (advanced diagnostics for hardware).

http://support.hp.com/us-en/document/c01443317#N1218

2. It is also used during a bios update to store the bios update and the backed up bios that will be replaced, this is crucial to have if for any reason the bios update fails and the laptop will no longer boot, you can restore the old backed up bios, without this partition being present during the bios update you cannot recover and you will have a useless PC. This HP_TOOLS partition also allows the bios to be updated outside of Windows which is much safer.

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