how to keep secret partition

[bluegirl]

Hey

i want to install ubuntu but keep retain the secret partition on my r40 in case i dont like it. I dont have the recovery disks or anything so this is why i need the partition.

I went as far as the manual partition table during the installation, and noticed 2 partitions showed up:
1) primary ntfs -- ~36 gb or so...
2) pri/log "free space" ~3.3 gb or so

Is partiiton 2 the secret partition? So if i install ubuntu on the primary one, then it would still allow me to access the ibm screen and reinstall windows if i wish right?

Thanks!

[christopher_wolf]

Welcome to the Thinkpad Forums

Well, just in case anything goes awry, you can make you own set of recovery CDs; I am not sure how exactly you get to the R&R program on the R40, but if you have a working Access IBM button then you should also have the required software to do this installed. For me, I just go to Access IBM under Program Files in the Start Menu and click on "Create Recovery Discs;" you get around 6 CDs I think, so you should prepare with 6 blank and fresh CDRs.

http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/ThinkWiki has some pretty good descriptions of installing Ubuntu on a Thinkpad, including the R40. You have to do some partition re-sizing if I recall correctly. I can't say for sure as I installed Ubuntu on the 2nd HDD in the Ultrabay.

[bluegirl]

hey thnx for the quick reply.

The problem is, I only have a cd/dvd reader, so im not sure how i can burn any cds. Also, i did hunt around the access ibm, but i cannot find an option anywhere that would let me do that. It has directions on how to recover using the recovery partition, but if i had a hard disk failure, it said to order a recovery cd from ibm. That is about it.

[Kyocera]

bluegirl, have you tried the ubuntu live cd, i have copies of the install cd and the live one, you can run it from the cd without installing it on your hd.

[bluegirl]

hey kyocera,
I have tried the live cd and thats why i want to install it instead. At the end of the year, ill be buy a mac laptop, and will be giving this to my brother who uses xp that is why i wanted to retain the partiiton. but its okay... ill just wipe everything i guess and worry about it later this year.

[christopher_wolf]

Actually, you might be able to get IBM to send the recovery disks to you free of charge.

[bluegirl]

hehe yah i read that on the thinkwiki....

I'm gonna try it tomorrow. ^^ but im not sure if it will work b/c i bought this laptop used. Well a few months used. I think the person had it registered already. HOpe that doesnt affect anything.

Thanx!

[icantux]

There's a better way yet! Without having to worry whether or not a linux install will break the MBR and make the hidden partition unusable...

There's a nice disk partitioning utility called "System Rescue" available for free which allows you to resize all types of partitions, including NTFS. It's a modified tiny linux-based utility qtparted that runs on a liveCD session.

When you run the utility it will show your current partition information and will show the hidden partition as well. If nothing was changed on your system since you received it, then you should be looking at two partitions. You may then resize the partition in which WinXP resides and then create an extended partition in the empty space - all without touching the hidden partition either (this resides at the end of the HDD as a primary logical partition). You can then create ext2, ext3, Reiser, swap, JFS partitions in the extended partition to suit your needs.

Voila! Your original WinXP (IBM-PRELOAD) partition is intact, albeit smaller; your hidden partition (IBM_RESCUE) remains intact as a primary partition and you get to install all the linux you want without any problems. You can even install GRUB in the MBR without worrying that the blue ACCESS IBM button would become unusable.

Using this procedure and a bit of tweaking, I've got the following set-up:
HDD 1 (100GB 7200rpm)
- Running WinXP exclusively
HDD 2 (60GB 7200rpm) in Ultrabay
- WinXP (IBM-PRELOAD) reduced to 7GB
- Gentoo Linux 2006.0 (3 partitions)
- Ubuntu Linux 5.10 (2 partitions)

I use F12 to select which HDD to boot from but I set my BIOS to default to boot my primary HDD just in case. If I boot into the ultrabay HDD, I still have full ACCESS IBM blue button functionality but also access to 3 operating systems via GRUB.

Oh, when you're done using linux and want to get rid of it, use System Rescue again, delete the linux partitions and resize the WinXP partition to full disk ... The contents on the drive is back to factory installed size and setting.

Cheers

[bl0tt0]

How is it that GRUB can now be put on the master boot record without affecting the Access IBM button? It took me forever to find a way to install Slackware on my system without making the Rescue partition unbootable. Trying with either lilo or grub on the MBR would make the rescue partition unbootable, and for some reason Slackware didn't like installing the bootloader to the linux partition and then marking it as active. Finally I discovered that something in the SUSE installation of the bootloader makes it boot from the partition and not the MBR, so I used that installation to fix the boot sector of the linux partition, and then reinstalled Slackware over it and everything worked fine. I still haven't found an explanation of the difference between the bootloader installation procees on these distros, but I'm mostly just happy that it worked the way I wanted it to.

[smugiri]

Change the Recovery Partition to""Secure" in the BIOS and you can install Linux however you like without worries.

[bl0tt0]

I tried that, but it isn't quite true. linux's partitioning programs still sees the partition, and is capable of reading and deleting it even when the secure option is selected in the BIOS. At least that's the case on a t42p. From reading on the thinkwiki site, it looks like the way the rescue partition works has changed a bit through the past few revisions, so I'm not sure if the BEER and PARTIES protocol is still followed. In any case, many of the older linux kernels just read the partition table through the OS rather than the BIOS, so it can see partitions on the disk that aren't supposed to be visible in Windows. I might be wrong though, it's just my experience.

[smugiri]

I tried that, but it isn't quite true. linux's partitioning programs still sees the partition, and is capable of reading and deleting it even when the secure option is selected in the BIOS. At least that's the case on a t42p. From reading on the thinkwiki site, it looks like the way the rescue partition works has changed a bit through the past few revisions, so I'm not sure if the BEER and PARTIES protocol is still followed. In any case, many of the older linux kernels just read the partition table through the OS rather than the BIOS, so it can see partitions on the disk that aren't supposed to be visible in Windows. I might be wrong though, it's just my experience.

Yes, you are right.

I did not read all your text in my rush to answer the question.

My solution (making the HPA secure) works perfectly for T40 series machines which is what I have. You are right about it not working for T42 series machines which have a different partition hiding scheme.

I apologize for giving you incorrect information.