Thinkpads Forum

has anyone been able to find a way to remove the HPA from t61p? the option to reclaim space does not show up on BIOS, so how do we do it? on my xp system I was able to use partition magic to reclaim after making it visible, but now such luck with this software on vista business. does anyone have any suggestion? TIA

Felipe

Please see this thread.

I looked at the post and it also one that i originally started but never got a final clarification on. so here goes again, if a clean install is needed to remove partition, then will the recovery disks help me do this, (from reading the previous thread it seems like the answer is no because it recreates it, unless i am wrong)? Will a full retail version of vista business do this or can it be done with upgrade? TIA

I am not familiar with the newer service area of the T61, but if there is no BIOS setting, I believe all you should need to do is use any Windows install CD from W2K and upward to remove all existing partitions and create just one partition (or more if you like). Alternatively, you could also use a low-level formatting tool such as one of the following.

Hitachi Drive Fitness Test

Fujitsu Diagnostic Tool and Erase Utility

Samsung HUTIL

You probably have to do this from a CD or floppy drive, because when booted into Windows there is probably a filter driver to prevent modifications to the service area.

Normally the Product Recovery Disc set will automatically create a service partition on your hard drive, so you could not use these to remove a service partition.

May I suggest that you backup your system or any important data and then boot with a windows installation CD/DVD and use the custom installation option (that allows one to create partitions and delete partitions) to delete only the partition that you find that is about 4.5 GB in size. Then exit the windows installation program, (don't actually install windows or delete the main partition) boot into Windows normally and go to Computer management and see if you can not grow your partition to recover the free space on your drive.

so by using installation cds/dvd it will clear up, but will it let me stop the installation after starting the deletion of partions?

diaz1023 wrote:so by using installation cds/dvd it will clear up, but will it let me stop the installation after starting the deletion of partions?

We are talking about a Microsoft Windows installation CD or DVD, not the IBM/Lenovo Product Recovery Discs. It might be possible to do this with the Product Recovery Discs, but you would have to know at exactly which point to interrupt the automated process. I do not recommend trying this with the Product Recovery Disc set.

diaz1023 wrote:I looked at the post and it also one that i originally started but never got a final clarification on. so here goes again, if a clean install is needed to remove partition, then will the recovery disks help me do this, (from reading the previous thread it seems like the answer is no because it recreates it, unless i am wrong)? Will a full retail version of vista business do this or can it be done with upgrade? TIA

Yes the recovery CDs will reinstall the service partition. My experience is the service partition is moved and created as a last step, so if you interrupt the process at 95% you should see a second partition, X that you can delete.

Yes a full retail version of vista can be used to delete the partition, at least it will on my T60p. I also believe that if you have access to a Windows XP installation CD it also can delete the partition. Note these are retail CD or DVD and not Lenovo recovery CDs.

• Insert the Windows XP CD-ROM into your CD-ROM drive or DVD-ROM drive Start your computer
• Your computer should automatically detect the CD, and a message "Press any key to boot CD" will be displayed for 5 seconds.
• Press a key and the CD will begin to load files that are needed to begin the installation. This make take a few minutes.
• At the Welcome to Setup page, press ENTER.
• You will be presented with the End User Licensing Agreement. Press F8 to accept and continue or press F3 to cancel the install.
• If an existing Windows XP installation is detected, you are prompted to repair it. To bypass the repair, press ESC.
• All the existing partitions and the unpartitioned spaces are listed for each physical hard disk. Use the ARROW keys to select the partition that is the smaller of the two listed, it should be about 4.5 GB. Press D to delete the partition. When you press D to delete an existing partition, you must then press L (or press ENTER, and then press L if it is the System partition) to confirm that you want to delete the partition.
• Once you have deleted the partition simply shut off your computer. (by pressing and holding the power button down) Do not install. And do not create a partition. You can add the free space to the existing partition in Vista. Remove the CD and boot into Vista as you normally would.