Recovery CD not creating HPA (T40)

[leesiulung]

The problem is I can't get the Recovery CD's to recreate the HPA even though the hd don't have the HPA.

I tried the following:

- destroy the original partition
- create a partition with maximum size
- activate the partition
- format the partition

after each of the steps above I ran the recovery cd to recreate the HPA, but it does not give me that option. When I upgraded my X31 to brand new 60GB drive, the recovery CD for X31 recreated the HPA. I don't understand.

Anyone have any idea...

[GomJabbar]

First check your BIOS settings for the predesktop area security (if the T40 has these settings). If you find the setting, it should be set to Normal.

The way I understand it, only some hard drives have the firmware that supports PARTIES.

See following pdf document for more info. IBM Hidden Protected Area

I have a T42, and it treats this area different than the T40. See if the above pdf has the information to get your problem resolved. I noticed in the above document a reference to fwrestor. This might be what you need.

See also following thread: http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=5846

[leesiulung]

Actually, the hd is the original one that came with the computer. Somehow the HPA area got unoperational and I couldn't fix it with the MBR tool. So I decided to use the recovery discs....

I looked into those two resources, but I don't think it should be that difficult. I didn't have to do anything like that on the X31??? How can I completely wipe out the hard drive clean as if it came straight to me in a retail box? Must be some trace of the HPA left on the disc and the recovery cds detect this....

[GomJabbar]

How can I completely wipe out the hard drive clean as if it came straight to me in a retail box? Must be some trace of the HPA left on the disc and the recovery cds detect this....

See the posts by dg1261 in the following thread: Format HDD with IBM Hidden Partition

[carbon_unit]

Don't create any partitions. Remove all the partitions and let the recovery cd's handle the partitioning. If they see any existing partitions they will not create a recovery partition.

[leesiulung]

I deleted all the partitions and it still caused the same problem. In case anyone else have the same problem, it turns out that the drive had to zero written out.

I used fdisk to delete all partitions including the HPA and Recovery CD did not re-create HPA, so I used a tool to overwrite the disk with zeros after I had destroyed all partition information and the disk works.... beats me....