Cloning IBM Hidden Partition

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phillyd2 · #1 Post by **phillyd2** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 5:55 pm

I'm about to try this the 1st time with Acronis True Image on my X31 (40 gig HD ===> 100 gig HD) and have read as much of this forum as possible but I can't find if / how the hidden partition is cloned to the new larger drive. Is this done automatically or do I need to do a extra step? I understand that I need to use the "-1b" switch in Ghost 2003, anything like that in Acronis True Image?

BlueDevilTide · #2 Post by **BlueDevilTide** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 10:43 pm

When you're selected what to copy, all partitions on the drive should show up. I remember my partition was greyed out a bit and was marked hidden. It's still on there now on the new HD. It should work out okay, but you should also know it's being copied before the process is officially under way (ie, before you click the final button).

Ken Fox · #3 Post by **Ken Fox** » Tue Apr 03, 2007 11:26 pm

phillyd2 wrote:I'm about to try this the 1st time with Acronis True Image on my X31 (40 gig HD ===> 100 gig HD) and have read as much of this forum as possible but I can't find if / how the hidden partition is cloned to the new larger drive. Is this done automatically or do I need to do a extra step? I understand that I need to use the "-1b" switch in Ghost 2003, anything like that in Acronis True Image?

My limited experience with Acronis True Image indicates that you simply have to indicate that you are copying the whole disk (not just a partition) and it automatically copies the entire thinkpad boot sector. With Ghost 2003 you have to click on the 3rd or 4th tab under "options" (do this before you image the drive) and there is a box to check indicating "Image Boot," or otherwise known as -ib (not -1b, and yes I have made that same error in posts here on thinkpads.com).

If you forget to image the boot sector with ghost 2003, all is not lost. There is an IBM Master boot sector repair utility you can find a link to either by searching the Lenovo site or by doing a search here under "MBR" which should pull up some threads with the link in them. So, if you forget to image the boot sector you can repair it that way. The important thing is to image the WHOLE disk, which will include the service partition, rather than just the windows partition, which will NOT.

shalliday · #4 Post by **shalliday** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:30 pm

Like you, I have read many of the posts on this forum regarding copying the hard drive hidden partition. Since I had easy access to Ghost, I first gave that a try. After several unsuccessful trys (user errors I'm sure) I gave up and decided to buy Acronis True Image instead.

This program makes it extremely easy to make a complete copy of your hard drive, including the hidden partition. So far I have cloned three different IBM laptop hard drives without issue. Each hard drive cloning operation worked the first time and the cloned hard drives were all bootable and included the hidden partition.

Pretty sure I selected the cloning option available with Acronis True Image 10 which is under Hard Drive Management option. Without having the software in front of me, thats the best I can remember.

Sure glad I purchased it. Great product!

rek · #5 Post by **rek** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 12:44 pm

Maybe I'm missing something here, but don't the Product Recovery CDs re-create the hidden partition when you restore off them?

I remember just before selling my Z61m (on which I had swapped the hard disk over from what it was shipped with), using the recovery discs to restore the system to its out-of-box state -- and it restored the hidden partition as well.

mazzinia · #6 Post by **mazzinia** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 3:05 pm

Maybe I'm missing something here, but don't the Product Recovery CDs re-create the hidden partition when you restore off them?

Well, I've a set of X31 recovery cds (XP sp1 english, 4 cds) and when I used them on a brand new blank unformatted hd they didn't recreate the hidden partition.

But I've been told that another release of the same recovery cds should instead do the trick...

boon · #7 Post by **boon** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:00 pm

I tried acronis true image but it never showed the hidden partition and the 20gb hd was shown only 16gb when i use clone. Maybe I miss a step on cloning but I find using transfer HPA by using IBM method worked well to me.

shalliday · #8 Post by **shalliday** » Wed Apr 04, 2007 6:44 pm

Hi Boon,

What version of True Image were you using. I know with version 10 it asks if you want partitions cloned too. I think you also have to unhide the hidden partition before you can clone it. Once cloned you can then set it back to hidden.

phillyd2 · #9 Post by **phillyd2** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 12:52 pm

shalliday wrote:Hi Boon,

What version of True Image were you using. I know with version 10 it asks if you want partitions cloned too. I think you also have to unhide the hidden partition before you can clone it. Once cloned you can then set it back to hidden.

This is the first I'm hearing of this. Can somebody please expand on this? Do I really need to "unhide" the hidden partition before cloning. If so, how?

I assume that my X31 (40g HD) has the hidden partition (but I can't see it) and since I'm moving to a 100g HD I want to keep the hidden partition just in case I ever need to restore to scratch.

shalliday · #10 Post by **shalliday** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 3:39 pm

I am unsure whether you need to unhide the hard drive before cloning but I do remember when attempting to clone drives using Ghost, the tech at my office told me it was. It may be totally unneccessary but to play it safe, I used the instructions I found in the following thread to hide and unhide the hidden partition before and after the cloning operation:

missing disk space

which states:

if you're using Win XP, you need to go to "Tools" --> "Folder Options" --> "View" --> check "Show hidden files and folders" and uncheck "Hide protected operating system files (Recommended)"

Hopely someone can reply and provide a more definitive answer as to whether you need to unhide your hidden partition before cloning.

phillyd2 · #11 Post by **phillyd2** » Thu Apr 05, 2007 4:36 pm

Thanks but I've already do that for the Folder View Options which shows system files but NOT the IBM hidden partition.

floz23 · #12 Post by **floz23** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 3:03 pm

http://www-csl.csres.utexas.edu/users/b ... inkpad.pdf

These directions work. Follow them step by step.

And yes, the -ib option or switch (ghost 2003) worked for me.

-Adam

boon · #13 Post by **boon** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 4:38 pm

I have 10.0 acronis image. I set the hidden partition in bios for normal. I didn't tend to try set to unsecure as I afraid the hidden partition would be erased and can't be set back to normal/secure. That's probably why true image couldnt see the hidden partition.

phillyd2 · #14 Post by **phillyd2** » Fri Apr 13, 2007 5:48 pm

Acronis True Image 10 Home truly failed to deal with the hidden partition on both my X21 & X31.

All methods were tried with no luck. At the end of the day I did both without the hidden partition being cloned.

The X21 was harder since I ended up with two partitions on the new HD. Read all about it:

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/showthread.php?t=171067

The X31 issues can be seen here:

http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.php?t=40615

Clearly the software needs to fix this issue but otherwise it worked good, just took too long to get to where I wanted to be.

mrobo · #15 Post by **mrobo** » Sun Apr 15, 2007 7:21 am

boon wrote:I tried acronis true image but it never showed the hidden partition and the 20gb hd was shown only 16gb when i use clone. Maybe I miss a step on cloning but I find using transfer HPA by using IBM method worked well to me.

probably some setings in bios dor ibm predesktop are could resolve your problem with seeing this HPA
or HDD utility from manufacter of that HDD which turn on or off the whole size of HDD
try and tell your results

Cloning IBM Hidden Partition

Cloning IBM Hidden Partition

Re: Cloning IBM Hidden Partition

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