How do I USE the "HIDDEN" Partition for Recovery Purposes?

[bobohead]

Hi, I would like to restore my T42 back to factory settings using the hidden partition. I don't have the recovery cds so I'm hoping someone here can help me. I've done a search on this forum and couldn't find how to use it. I did a web search and I mostly found people wanting to DELETE it to save the 5gb of space rather than to USE it to restore to factory settings.

So far, I read that the 1st step was to get into the BIOS Setup screens, which by pressing the ACCESS IBM button will do. Then 5 selections are available: CONFIG, DATE/TIME, SECURITY, STARTUP,RESTART. I believe SECURITY is the one, then I selected IBM PREDESKTOP AREA. This brought me to either selecting SECURE, NORMAL, or DISABLED. Originally I see it set to NORMAL mode, which describes " CHANGE ALLOWED; CONTENTS HIDDEN FROM OS". If I'm guessing correctly, selecting DISABLED would allow me to access the hidden partition cause the description says " NOT USABLE. VISIBLE AND RECLAIMABLE" (although it says NOT USABLE?? ) . SECURE says " NO USER OR SW-INITIATED CHANGES."

So if selecting "disabled" was correct.. now what? What's the next step? I booted back to windows, and im now completely lost as to what to do to make it work. I thought during reboot, it'd ask me if I wanted to use the hidden partition or not, but i guess not? Am I suppose first "create" recovery cds BEFORE attempting to access this recovery partition? If so, how do I do it? If it doesnt matter, then what should the next step be after selecting "disabled?" Or if that's even the correct mode to select in the first place? Most ppl in forums just vaguely say "go to BIOS and unhide it and set it to factory settings" , but HOW? I'm ignorant atm. lol. HELP!

( oh and thank you for those who helped me with my LCD issue, i bought a new LCD with all its parts on Ebay and installed it so it works perfectly now! )

[killer]

Reading the 'Help' facility can, believe it or not, really help you if you are unsure what to do.

Neither have I had a problem with IBM Rapid Restore, nor with Lenovo Rescue & Recovery.

My view is that if you have a space problem then get an external HDD rather than destroying your recovery area. I do weekly backups and more often if I do significant changes. I then copy the backups to my external HDD.

But if in doubt, RTFM.

[craigmontHunter]

Your hidden recovery partition has been removed. if it was still there, when you pressed the Acess IBM button, it would start a program with a desktop-like appearance and you could choose an option (forget what it is exactly, lost the partition on my t41 a long time ago), and just let it run. Since you do not have that any more, what I would reccomend doing is looking on your C: drive for a folder labeled i386, which is the windows install files, and use nlite to burn it to cd (easier than any of the command line tools), and you may want to use a key finder to locate the install key that was used on the computer, since if it is the IBM key, instead of the one on the bottom of the laptop, it will not need to be activated.

There is also a drivers folder and possibly an IBM Tools folder, both of which have the tools and drivers for the system, or you can download newer ones online (basing everything I say on that this was a default install and the partition got deleted afterwards)

Another thing to try may be try to install Rescue and recovery and see if there are any options for reloading to factory configuration that work, since it may install and not see the partition. the last thing is make sure it is set to anything but disabled. you may also want to see how big your hard drive is, see if you are loosing 5ish gb off of it. (if it is a really odd number, than you probably are)

If you have any more questions post

I hope that I have not confused you more

[sktn77a]

Sounds like you have a hidden partition but there's nothing in it! Otherwise, as the previous poster says, it should be a recovery screen as soon as you press the access IBM button. As a rule, you should set everything to "Normal".

[bobohead]

After selecting Disabled in Bios, and letting it restart, i press ACCESS IBM again, and it takes me back to the bios setup again and not to that special screen u folks are talking about..... so i guess its really.. GONE??

In XP, when right clicked on C:'s properties, it says total 40gb, then on the side of it says 37.2gb. Used Space is 3.39gb, free space 33.8gb. THis means about 3gb is somewhere... must be the hidden partition? Is the hidden partition really 5gb? Or just a round off from 3gb or is diff with other systems?

Based on the 2 above posts, is it even possible to have an "empty" partition? The T42 was given from my old work but i have no idea why someone would have deleted the HIdden partition but not let the system use the complete 40gb, but instead leave 3gb hangin around for no reason.

[sojourner]

After selecting Disabled in Bios, and letting it restart, i press ACCESS IBM again, and it takes me back to the bios setup again and not to that special screen u folks are talking about..... so i guess its really.. GONE??

You CANNOT select disabled in BIOS and have recovery work. Reset BIOS to NORMAL. You asked if partition is REALLY gone ... maybe!

In XP, when right clicked on C:'s properties, it says total 40gb, then on the side of it says 37.2gb. Used Space is 3.39gb, free space 33.8gb. THis means about 3gb is somewhere... must be the hidden partition? Is the hidden partition really 5gb? Or just a round off from 3gb or is diff with other systems?

I'm having difficulty knowing exactly what you are doing from your post. Is this drive bootable? Are you looking at its properties from another PC (drive being used as an accessory) or are you booting from this drive and looking at its properties from within windows? If the latter then the 3.39gb used space is your OS and you do NOT have a recovery partition! If you are pulling this drive in and out of your laptop to look at it we need to know.

Based on the 2 above posts, is it even possible to have an "empty" partition? The T42 was given from my old work but i have no idea why someone would have deleted the HIdden partition but not let the system use the complete 40gb, but instead leave 3gb hangin around for no reason.

I've never seen an empty partition, but it is entirely possible to have a partition and it be 'non-accessable' via ACCESS-IBM (I currently have that exact situation on an R51). In a situation like this the Boot-Sector is the problem.

[Ed E.]

Don’t know if this applies to a T42 but on my T43 use the blue IBM Access button (next to the Esc key on the T43). After it comes up click on Protect and Recover. Then click Recover Your Computer Data. Then click the Recovery Overview for all your options. The Preinstalled-software recovery section sounds like what you are looking for. If you do that you will lose all your data and applications/programs that you installed after delivery. I think you can also use the recovery tool to create Rescue & Recovery disks you are missing. Good luck

[craigmontHunter]

Unfortunately the partition is gone. 37.2gb is the useable size of a formatted 40gb hdd. I have one hooked up right now to my computer, and it has no hidden paritions or anything. If you are interested, a google search will bring up lots of web pages about the formatted size of disks. Unfortuanately, if you want to recover your system, you either need to find a set of recovery cds or burn an install disk from the i386 folder on your hard drive. If you do not know how to do that, post back, and take note that you will need to find all the replacement drivers, but they are easy to get from lenovo.

[IBMau]

Hello guys!
I'm a thinkpad laptop newbie.
I bought a used T42 reported to be brougth with the presence of "hidden partiton".
Any attempt to access this partiton failed. And i noticed that neither in My computer there was a hidden partition (obviously), nor in Disk Management.
The vendor said it's correct: none of Windows utilities permit to show the hidden partition presence. Only IBM/Lenovo special programs is supposed to do this.
I think he's kidding me.
Anyone can confirm this suspicious?

Thanks a lot!

[archer6]

Hello guys!
I'm a thinkpad laptop newbie.
I bought a used T42 reported to be brougth with the presence of "hidden partiton".
Any attempt to access this partiton failed. And i noticed that neither in My computer there was a hidden partition (obviously), nor in Disk Management.
!

You cannot "see" the hidden "Rescue & Recovery" partition. There are two ways to access it. Upon booting the computer, immediately after you see the splash screen push the blue "ThinkVantage" button and a screen will appear with the Rescue & Recovery menu. If this does work (I've seen a few that don't) then shut down and start over. This time after you boot the computer, repeatedly tap the F11 key and this will take you to Rescue & Recovery without fail. Finally the only exception to this is if indeed the partition has been removed. Try the instructions provided and let us know the result.
.
Cheers...

[IBMau]

Thank you for the reply.
As I said before any attempt to access hidden partiton failed. Neither "thinkavantage" (in my case is "Access IBM") blue button permit me to access hidden partition, nor F11 button.
I want to know if it's possible to determinate the presence of this partition by the Disk Managment features.
This beacuse of two possibilities. Something wrong with the access procedures or the complete absence of hidden partition.

[winston.oyy]

I want to know if it's possible to determinate the presence of this partition by the Disk Managment features.

It is possible to see the hidden partition in the Disk Management facility within Windows. You will see a partition in the HDD that is greyed out/shaded that does not allow you to access, and it is approximately 5GB.

So if you can't see it in Disk Management, the partition is gone.

So it helps.

[IBMau]

...
So if you can't see it in Disk Management, the partition is gone.

So it helps.

Thank you very much! So it is! The vendor is kidding me.