HELP: a newbie in the world of PARTITION

[o'bluetouring]

Hi,

I found the thread in the WindosOS sub-forum about extracting Windows XP Pro out of the pre-installed files on my Z60t and I formatted the drive and did a clean install of Windows. Everything runs great. But I also read that I can go into BIOS when computer starts up and "disable" predesktop and that will allow me to see the hidden partition (about 5GB or so). I went into BIOS several times already and did the process everytime I started the computer, but I still don't see the hidden partition in MY COMPUTER. Did I do it correctly? Thanks a lot for any help.

sincerely,

dK

[Dngrsone]

The partition is typed as a FAT32 (hidden) partition... it would take a specialized program to get Win to actually let you look at it.

The way I deal with it is to use a Linux Live! CD like Knoppix or DSL to view the contents of the hidden partition or whatever.

Knoppix is good, but heavy with features which my significantly slow down an older machine, but the 50MB DSL runs up fast and has the tools you need to view the hidden partition or repartition the hard drive.

[GomJabbar]

I went into BIOS several times already and did the process everytime I started the computer, but I still don't see the hidden partition in MY COMPUTER.

You need to go to Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Computer Management > Storage > Disc Management - to see the partition.

As far as viewing any files in the partition, I have not tried to do that, but you might be able to do that if you are booted into SAFE MODE. Either that or use Linux as the previous poster suggested.

[snessiram]

I used Ext2IFS to make my linux partition appear in my windows xp and while running through the wizard, I could make my IBM partition visible too. I don't however know if you can edit files etc. on the "new drive", but it is visible in "my computer".

[christopher_wolf]

I would recommend using a Live Linux CD to look through the partition. Again, if it is set to anything other than "disabled," it will be nigh unto inaccessible to anything other than the RnR software which is the only thing that is cleared to write to it on the "Secure" setting. You can even dd out and copy everything in it to another partition or drive (but be very careful with that though).