[ltp] Backing up the Predesktop Area?

[Wolfgang Rether]

Hi,

I just disabled the "hide" option of the Predesktop Area in the BIOS
of my T41p. Now i wonder if it's possible to backup (or at least read)
the formerly hidden partition?

Under WinXP PartitionMagic says "Unknown Filesystem" and "Primary
Partition".

On Debian 'testing' I get various errors when trying to mount /dev/hda2
like:
> mount: error while guessing fs type
> FAT: bogus number of reserved sectors
> VFS: Can't find a valif FAT filesystem on dev hda2

When trying to force vfat or msdos, I get a
> mount: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock

Has anybody of you managed to read that partition? Would it be
possible to back it up with "dd" like this?
dd if=/dev/hda2 of=/tmp/ibm_predesktop.bin bs=512 conv=notrunc,noerror

TIA,
 Wolfgang