[ltp] T41 Recovery CD

[Eben King]

On Wed, 22 Sep 2004, Jan Kokoska wrote:

> R40, 2722, Czech Republic.
> 
> I sent them a single e-mail asking for CDs because in order to install
> Linux I dd'ed the whole disk with zeros (I prefer my hdd clean and
> tested). Unfortunately, I hit the HPA (Host Protected Area) and was
> *not* able to disable it in BIOS (i.e. disk size changed when viewing it
> with cfdisk/fdisk, but all write attempts to those sectors fail filing
> up my S.M.A.R.T. log), which I consider a major fault and would still
> like the 4 GB back.
> 
> What is your experience with disabling HPA/using full disk capacity?

Well, when I created a partition with the SuSE installer, it extended onto
the HPA.  An unpatched kernel would not read this partition (although
SuSE's kernels would), so I'd guess that SuSE could dd over the HPA where
some systems could not.  Also, if you erase the current partition table
with fdisk (or maybe write a new one?), that may fix it.  Dunno; mine's 
still unfixed.

-- 
-eben    ebQenW1@EtaRmpTabYayU.rIr.OcoPm    home.tampabay.rr.com/hactar
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