The Notebook Review forums were hosted by TechTarget, who shut down them down on January 31, 2022. This static read-only archive was pulled by NBR forum users between January 20 and January 31, 2022, in an effort to make sure that the valuable technical information that had been posted on the forums is preserved. For current discussions, many NBR forum users moved over to NotebookTalk.net after the shutdown.
Problems? See this thread at archive.org.

    Safely recover hidden partition space on T400?

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by exhortjump, Dec 8, 2008.

  1. exhortjump

    exhortjump Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    129
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    i have heard that there is a hidden partition on the T400. if this is true, how might i go about unhiding it safely and using the space on it? i know its function of allowing the user to recover to a factory state, but i already imaged the drive and made backups anyways, so i don't really need it. i am just worried that if i simply wipe the partition, the bios might still think it's there or something and screw up my computer somehow. but i can't find any options in the bios to unhide the partition or disable it. any suggestions?
     
    exhortjump, Dec 8, 2008
    #1
  2. BinkNR

    BinkNR Knock off all that evil

    Reputations:
    308
    Messages:
    1,000
    Likes Received:
    8
    Trophy Points:
    56
    Have no fear. If you’re installing Windows feel free to delete the existing partitions, create a new one, format and install. If this is on an existing installation, you can do pretty much the same thing from within Disk Management, but, obviously, don’t alter your existing partition that contains your data. Of course, I recommend making a backup before you do anything on an existing system.
     
    BinkNR, Dec 8, 2008
    #2
  3. Renee

    Renee Notebook Virtuoso

    Reputations:
    610
    Messages:
    2,645
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    55
    The place i found is in the boot's Help. The partition is not going to 'still seem to be around' if its not around. If you give me a list Ill tell you which one its in. It seemed it was bootmaker or something like that. This was on a very late model t61p. I ended up putting 64bit Vista on it.
    Renee
     
    Renee, Dec 8, 2008
    #3
  4. exhortjump

    exhortjump Notebook Consultant

    Reputations:
    0
    Messages:
    129
    Likes Received:
    0
    Trophy Points:
    30
    here's my BIOS menu:

    Config
    Date/Time
    Security
    Startup
    Restart
    HDD Diagnostic program

    i read about an option in the bios that i need to unhide the partition before i delete it safely. sure, i can just forcefully delete it using special utilities but if i do this, it might lead to disastrous results, according to this article here:

    http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Hidden_Protected_Area

    i don't have any data on it and i've already imaged the drive, so that's not a problem. to be honest, even if the image fails, it's still not a serious problem considering all i have on the drive are the factory preinstalled programs and drivers (plus bloat) which i can easily redownload from lenovo's site anyways.

    note: i do not see "ibm predesktop area" under the immediate submenu of "security". under "security", i only see these:

    Password
    Security Chip
    BIOS Update Option
    Memory Protection
    I/O Port Access
    Computrace
     
    exhortjump, Dec 8, 2008
    #4