Hidden directory or Recovery CD's creating custom install?

[daMacroGuy]

Last summer, my boss brought in his son's T30 (2366-81U) and asked me if I could determine what was wrong with it. His son had graduated from UNC-Chapel Hill and the laptop was acquired from the school when he first enrolled. From the looks of it, it had definitely not been "gently used" if you get my meaning.

I quickly ascertained that at a minimum the system board was fried, but there could be more damage and I wouldn't know for sure until I could get it to boot up. My recommendation was to sell off the HD, RAM, optical drive, WiFi card, battery and AC Adapter. He told me his son had already purchased another laptop so I could do whatever I wanted with the T30. I stacked it on top of the rest of my Ebay-destined parts and forgot about it.

A few weeks ago, I purchased an identical barebones T30 off of Ebay and installed the HD from the fried T30, along with some of the other parts, and got the replacement up and running in no time. I reformatted the HD using the Recovery CD's from the fried T30 and XP Pro was reinstalled without incident. However, I noticed that the process had created 2 partitions instead of one and the boot partition was labeled "UNC..." The desktop wallpaper also had the UNC logo.

Using a Windows 98 CD, I went back and Fdisk'd the drive and then performed the install again using the Recovery CD's. This time I watched as towards the end of the process the Product Key box popped up on the screen with its contents already filled in. When the process was complete, I again had 2 partitions and the same custom settings from UNC.

The recovery CD's are all geniune IBM media (1 bootable + 3 non-bootable), so I'm wondering if the partition instructions and UNC settings are coming from a hidden directory on the HD that I couldn't see with Fdisk. If so, how can I rid myself of it so I can do a clean install with just one partition and none of the UNC warm fuzzies?

[jdhurst]

Try starting with the genuine recovery CD's, and at the first stable opportunity, exit. That leaves you at X:> or X:\recovery (if I remember correctly). Go to X:\recovery and run FDISK from there (instead of booting with Windows 98). Delete all partitions, and then run FDISK /mbr. Shut down and try recovery again. This process has always returned me to an accurate and proper preload that will be complete and not require any kind of activation. ... JD Hurst

[daMacroGuy]

Any suggestions on a "stable opportunity" and what keystrokes to use to return to the "X" prompt? I just reinserted the recovery CD's and tried EXIT when the Setup screen came up and all it did was restart the PC. I also tried CTRL-Break without success.

[jdhurst]

Try pressing Escape. I know you don't exit normally (that restarts as you note). I recall when the first question came up, I pressed Escape, and then maybe F3. I am going from memory here, so sorry for the fuzziness. ... JD Hurst

[daMacroGuy]

ESC and then F3 was the right combo. Unfortunately, even after performing the steps you suggested the recovery process outcome was the same: a boot partition labled "UNC Preload" and a second partition labeled "Data" along with the UNC warm and fuzzy programs.

I also noticed this time that the XP Product key that was already populated during the recovery process did not match the key that is affixed to the fried T30. Now, I'm wondering if UNC struck a deal with IBM and had a custom image put on one of those CD's along with their volume XP license.

I was contemplating using an XP CD from another PC and use the key affixed to the T30 just to see if the partitioning and UNC apps issue is originating from the recovery CD's.

Thoughts from anyone out there?

[jdhurst]

If your recovery CD's are true Blue IBM, then try deleting all the partitions first with a Linux (Knoppix) boot CD or a Barts PE Windows boot CD. Unfortunately, these take time to download and build, but the latter should be able to get rid of all partitions.

You can also try first going into the BIOS and unhiding the Hidden PreDesktop Area and then deleting it. That may help.
... JD Hurst

[daMacroGuy]

Thanks for all your help JD. I'll let you know how I make out.

Before I sign off, do you know if Partition Magic would reveal any hidden partitions? If it did, I was thinking I might be able to use the program to delete it, reclaim the space and merge it with my other two partitions.

On that note, I did notice in one of the recovery CD's that there is a license.txt file for PowerQuest who was the original manufacturer of PM before Symantec acquired it. There is also an ini file with references to naming a partition "Data", which so happens to be the volume label for the second partition.

[alagregg]

in my expierence partition magic can unhide the IBM recovery partition, as i have used it myself for this purpose.

Althougth this was about 4 years ago, so i am assuming current version of partition magic should still be able do this.

- Al