X40 HPA and service partition

[Ravenheart]

I lately bought an X40 used and want to clone the disk. I think maybe a former owner has removed the HPA and service partition, if they were there, and so I can clone the disk normally with Norton Ghost or EZ Gig II.

I've come upon a table of bootup option keys online. On my X40, F11 does nothing, and the Access IBM and Enter keys both bring up a three-option BIOS setup menu--ESC to resume startup, F1 to enter the setup utility, F12 to choose an alternate startup device.

I have a 20GB hard disk and a file manager reports 18.63 (binary) GB total disk space. Does this mean no HPA, because there's no room?

Is there an easier way to tell for sure? Dare I disable the HPA in the BIOS? Is there any good reason I would want an HPA or a service partition?

[andyP]

You can disable the HPA in BIOS which will make it visible, but looking at the figures you've given I don't believe it is there, as you suspect.

[Ravenheart]

AndyP, thanks. How does the HPA show up in a drive mapping or file listing if present and disabled?