T41p Access IBM Protected Area Problem

[akhavan]

Hi,

Several months ago I upgraded my 60GB 7200RPM IBM hard drive with Critical firmware upgrade - everything worked fine ( including "Acess IBM Predesktop Area") till the drive died a week later.

I applied the same upgrade to my backup 60GB 7200RPM which I bought from Bill. After the upgrade I could no longer access or see the "Acess IBM Predesktop Area" (about 2.5 GB is taken from the hard drive). At the startup when I push "Acess IBM" the only thing I can get is BIOS window i.e. F1, to change BIOS etc.

I have changed the security of the "Acess IBM Predesktop Area" in the BIOS from "Normal" to "Secure" to "Disable". No luck.

Somebody else had the same problem and posted it in old ThinkPad forum. We were give a link to fix it

http://www-3.ibm.com/pc/support/site.ws ... MIGR-46025

But it did not work for me because it was for T40.

Now anybody know where I can get "Predesktop Administrator Utility - Access IBM " for T41P? or any third party utility that I can use to delete the hidden protected area?

On another note I have 2 sets of CD recovery for my T41P. One set is a 4 CD sets and the other which I got latter is a 5 CD sets (thanks Bill). The difference between them is 166MB in the predesktop area.

I remember people were asking if they are the same. So the answer is NO. But I do not know what that 166MB difference is for. I just ghost my hard drive and did not use the recovery CD.

By the way this is my third 60GB 7200RPM IBM hard drive. The other two malfunctioned! I hope this one would last longer than couple months.

Sepehr

[akhavan]

Anybody??

I really like to find a way to access the T41p Access IBM Protected Area Problem.

Sepehr

[Zeitgeist]

Not really a solution, but if I had the problem and enough time I would do the following:

1. Save all data.
2. Unhide the hidden partition in the bios
3. Delete ALL partitions with e.g fdisk, neither create new ones nor format the hdd
4. Change the boot order in the bios,CD first.
5. Run the (original IBM) recovery CDs.

[akhavan]

Zeitgeist,

I use the drive for backup so saving the data is not important.

The problem I have is after the firmware of the drive I lost access to the hidden partition. So as you can read from my original post I have tried the BIOS and I can not unhidden the partition (Its basically frozen).

Since its frozen(hidden) I can not format/delete it.

Anybody else?

Sepehr

[Zeitgeist]

So as you can read from my original post I have tried the BIOS and I can not unhidden the partition (Its basically frozen).

Since its frozen(hidden) I can not format/delete it.

Sorry, I overlooked this.

I have good experience with the IBM email support, may be they can help. Of course you thought about it, but is it possible to "roll back" the firmware update?