How to Delete the Hidden Partition?

[kkurniawan]

Hi there,

I have T40 laptop and I want to delete the hidden partition that came on laptop hard drive. When I look at the Device Manager, I didn't see the hidden partition. I know there is a hidden partition because the size written 30Gb on the hard drive while on the OS the total size is only 25 Gb.

I searched this forum and have tried FIX MBR to reveal the hidden partition. I am still unable to see the hidden partition under Device Manager. I also tried GNOME PARTITION EDITOR and I now get 27.95Gb.

I think there is still 1.5Gb hidden partition. Is there anyway I can restore the whole partition? Can I use Rapid Restore Ultra to delete the hidden partition? I don't have the original CDs. Where I can download the Rapid Restore Ultra?

Thanks for your help.

Khiat

[GomJabbar]

I found the answer in this thread. dg1261 posts the solution.

Format HDD with IBM Hidden Partition

[kkurniawan]

I've read the article and follow all steps, but I still cannot recover 2Gb of space. What I've done so far:
1. Run Hitachi Feature Drive tool and change drive capacity from 28Gb to 30Gb.
2. Using LiveCD GPartEd, run CFDisk to maximize and write drive size to 30Gb.
3. Repair Master Boot Record.
4. Disabled IBM PreDesktop in BIOS.
5. Install XP OS. The interesting part is XP shows the size is 30Gb, but I didn't see hidden partition under Device Manager.
6. Using partition magic disk to check the size and it only shows 28Gb. However, on drive info, it shows the drive size is 30Gb.

Not sure what to do next.

[Geary]

Is it possible that you're just getting tripped up by the two different definitions of "gigabyte"? Take a close look at this calculation:

28 * 1024 * 1024 * 1024 = 30,064,771,072