Is there a way to delete the predesktop area on T41?

[Glaurung-quena]

I put an 80gb hard disk in a T41 and used the t41 system restore disks to install windows on it. It offered to create a recovery partition for me, I let it.

Since then I decided to use that hard disk in a T42 system, using T42 recovery disks. And the recovery disks don't work, because the T41 recovery partition (predesktop area) still exists on the hard disk, even after using DBAN Boot and Nuke on the disk. Somehow the T41 recovery disks managed to make the disk report that it is 76-ish gb instead of 80 gb, and stuck the recovery files on the inaccessible space, so it can't be removed using regular tools.

Neither Windows partition software nor Clonezilla are able to see the hidden partition. Every tool I've tried sees a 76gb disk instead of an 80gb disk. Does anyone know of a way to get rid of this super hidden predesktop area?

[RealBlackStuff]

This should do it: https://thinkvantage-secure-data-dispos ... /download/

[Glaurung-quena]

This should do it: https://thinkvantage-secure-data-dispos ... /download/

I ran that, it thinks it erased everything, but the hidden restore partition is still intact. Ordinary disk wiping will not work because the disk's firmware has somehow been altered to report fewer sectors than are actually on the disk, so that partition and erase utilities don't see the recovery partition at all.

Any other ideas?

[Glaurung-quena]

This should do it: https://thinkvantage-secure-data-dispos ... /download/

After running the SDD utility, I pressed the access IBM button and it booted into the predesktop environment. Choosing "restore factory contents" caused it to launch the T41 recovery utility and start the process. In short, the SDD utility did absolutely nothing.

Based on how it's acting, I think the disk's firmware has somehow been altered to report fewer sectors than are actually on the disk, so that it's utterly impossible for regular partition and erase utilities to see the hidden recovery partition at all.


Any other ideas?

[RealBlackStuff]

Try https://partedmagic.com/

[Glaurung-quena]

Asking elsewhere, I learned that the restore disks create a "host protected area" HPA, using standard ATA commands to shrink the area of the disk that's visible to the system, and then write all of the predesktop utilities and restore files to the HPA.

The solution seems to be to fire up a Linux live cd and then use hdparm -n to change the HPA setting.

OK, google has surfaced various windows utilities that do the same thing, most are for pay, or worse, "for professional forensic use only, no public downloads". Passmark Diskcheckup (free) seems to be an exception.

[dr_st]

Asking elsewhere, I learned that the restore disks create a "host protected area" HPA, using standard ATA commands to shrink the area of the disk that's visible to the system, and then write all of the predesktop utilities and restore files to the HPA.

It's really crazy, I don't recall mine did that (I had restore disks for T42, T60 and X61). I wonder if only specific revisions do it. Or maybe mine was the same and I never noticed, until the drive was replaced at some point?

[Glaurung-quena]

Asking elsewhere, I learned that the restore disks create a "host protected area" HPA, using standard ATA commands to shrink the area of the disk that's visible to the system, and then write all of the predesktop utilities and restore files to the HPA.

It's really crazy, I don't recall mine did that (I had restore disks for T42, T60 and X61). I wonder if only specific revisions do it. Or maybe mine was the same and I never noticed, until the drive was replaced at some point?

There's a BIOS setting on the T41 to enable or disable the predesktop area. I didn't experiment to see if that worked.

I put the drive back in the T41, wiped everything yet again, and suddenly the predesktop area was not showing up when I hit "access IBM" anymore. Installed using CDs, (like a prehistoric hunter-gatherer), and the restore disks did not give me the option to create a recovery partition. After feeding it disks and letting it do its software restore process, suddenly the predesktop screen shows up again when I hit the button. Weird.

I think occurrences of flakiness like I experienced plus people complaining about not being able to reclaim the 3-4gb of storage it takes up caused them to switch to just having a normal restore partition with the T42 restore disks.

[Glaurung-quena]

It's really crazy, I don't recall mine did that (I had restore disks for T42, T60 and X61). I wonder if only specific revisions do it. Or maybe mine was the same and I never noticed, until the drive was replaced at some point?

The restore disks for T42, T43, and T60 (and later) all just use a regular partition. IDK about older systems, I haven't played with anything prior to the T4x series.

I put the drive back in the T41, wiped everything yet again, and suddenly the predesktop area was not showing up when I hit "access IBM" anymore. Installed using CDs, and the restore disks did not give me the option to create a recovery partition. After feeding it disks and letting it do its software restore process, suddenly the predesktop screen shows up again when I hit the button. Weird.

And the size of the disk reported by Windows continues to be 3-4 gb short of what it should be. I think occurrences of weirdness plus people complaining about not being able to reclaim the 3-4gb of storage it takes up caused them to switch to just having a normal restore partition with the next revision of the T4x series.