Should I delete the hidden partition?

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seanc06 · #1 Post by **seanc06** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 4:35 pm

Hey everyone. Im not what you would call a computer expert so I apologize ahead of time if my questions dont sound valid.

I just recieved my t42p 2373-Q1U the other day, and after reading the manual I read about the hidden partition. Im not a big fan of having 4.5GBs of HD eaten up by this service partition, and plus I wanted to partition my drive, one being for WinXP and the other being for data. I was going to delete the hidden partition after creating backup recovery disks from the Rescue and Recovery option. It seems that I have two options with going about this: 1) Use a retail Windows XP to completely format my drive and partition how I want it and then reinstall the IBM software using the recovery disks. 2) Use Partition Magic to delete the hidden partition and create the new ones. Im not very knowledgable as to how to how to use Partition Magic so I dont know if that is the best course of action for me.

Has anyone had any success doing this or should I just leave the hidden partition alone? If I reinstall all of the software from the recovery disks, will it recreate the hidden partition? Does anyone have a better suggestion as to how to go about getting rid of this partition? One final question ... do you know if this breaches the warrenty by deleting the hidden partition?

Thanks for everyones help in advance!

seanc06 · #2 Post by **seanc06** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 4:57 pm

I have one more question...

Is it true that I can use Partition Magic to gain back 1GB from the hidden partition? If so, how do I accomplish this?

Thanks!

ian · #3 Post by **ian** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 6:10 pm

The Q1U was supplied with a 60Gb disk - just how much space DO you need? Only kidding - I realise it seems like wasted space, but I find it somehow reassuring that I can recover pretty much my entire system at the touch of the blue button...

As for Partition Magic - firstly, you'll have to 'unhide' the hidden partition in the BIOS before PM will have any effect - v.simple to do, just press F1 when she boots up and then select Security from the BIOS menu etc.

As to recovering 1Gb from the hidden partition - I suppose anything is possible - just sounds to me like you're recovering the bit that isn't actually being used. Why not - firstly create your recovery CD set (vital!) and give it all a try - personally I think I'd rather stick to my 2nd external HD if I need any extra space - let us know how you get on.

seanc06 · #4 Post by **seanc06** » Wed Dec 15, 2004 11:19 pm

ian wrote:As to recovering 1Gb from the hidden partition - I suppose anything is possible - just sounds to me like you're recovering the bit that isn't actually being used.

Yeah, I saw something on these forums about being able to recover anywhere from 500-1000 MB from the hidden partition using Partition Magic. I wanted to know if anyone knew the validity of this. Im still a little nervous about using PM since Ive never done it before!

I think I'm gonna just be safe and keep the hidden partition there. Ill probably eventually get a 2nd HD so that'll be my main data storage anyway. Does anyone know though that if I partition my HD that Ill forfiet my warrenty? I thought I saw something said about that in these forums...

Thanks again!

JohnDrake · #5 Post by **JohnDrake** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:27 am

Leave it alone. Very useful when used with Rescue and recovery, and if you ever need to restore the factory image. I would not touch it.

If you load R&R, it tucks a copy of WinPE in that area so you have a "backup" OS in case your primary OS is corrupted.

seanc06 · #6 Post by **seanc06** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:43 am

Yeah, Im pretty much set on not messing with it now. My only other concern now is partitioning my drive. Ive heard that Partition Magic has MAJOR problems dealing with WinXP. Something about an infamous "error 1513" that will completely lock up and leave XP inoperable. Can anyone shed any light on this?

Elhabash · #7 Post by **Elhabash** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:54 am

No idea about this error, but I did get the 3+GB back. It was not such a problem for me, since I don't use the IBM image, which was supplied in German, but the image from my university I got on DVD. It has some other software and utilities on it, and is in English. So for me, the recovery partition was less useful than for others.
Actually it felt like a present, having to decide which partition gets how much of the pie...

PM worked rather well, but I was not patient enough when redistributing the memory to the two partitions and aborted after a while, thinking it crashed. Well, no problem, because you SHOULD backup before such operations.

Steve007 · #8 Post by **Steve007** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 11:57 am

JohnDrake wrote:Leave it alone. Very useful when used with Rescue and recovery, and if you ever need to restore the factory image. I would not touch it.

What he said.

seanc06 · #9 Post by **seanc06** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 2:18 pm

One last question... I just want to make sure I get this right the first time!

If I use a retail version of XP (I have one lying around that I haven't used yet .. long story) to wipe the hard drive away and partition from there, will it wipe away the hidden partition as well? From there, when I need to reinstall the IBM software, do I just use the Rescue and Recovery CDs or do I need to copy the install files from another source? Also, if I use the CDs, will it automatically put back on the hidden partition?

Thanks again for everyones help!

MadeInJapan · #10 Post by **MadeInJapan** » Thu Dec 16, 2004 9:29 pm

Unhide the partition in the bios and then use a Windows98 boot disc or boot disc image, Fdisk, select using largest area possible every step of the way, and delete all partitions and make a large one. Then you can use your commercial WindowsXP installation CD and it will use all of the HDD, not making the hidden partition again....it will also make the single, large partition in NTFS. Good luck

Should I delete the hidden partition?

Should I delete the hidden partition?

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