[ltp] Re: Remove hidden partitions

[Noah Dain]

On 8/19/05, Andr=E9 Wyrwa <a.wyrwa@gmx.de> wrote:
> On Fr, 2005-08-19 at 12:25 -0400, James Knott wrote:
> > Bret Comstock Waldow wrote:
> >
> > > Who knows (for sure)?  However, CDs means IBM has to take the steps t=
o ensure
> > > the CDs with your serial number go out the door with your Thinkpad, s=
o it's a
> > > lot more than just the cost of the CDs.  Incrementing a few bits in t=
he drive
> > > image can be done automatically, coordinating physical items means pe=
ople,
> > > checklists, sign-offs, reports, etc.
> >
> > Do the CDs actually have the serial numbers?  Or, when one uses the CD,
> > do they have to manually enter the product key?
>=20
> No, the recovery CDs contain an Image. This image is already validated.
>=20
> Andr=E9.

I haven't quite read the entire thread, but everyone here does know
that there are hidden partitions used by oem's and then there's the
pre-desktop area which IBM mostly uses, right?

The two are not the same.  The latter uses an area on the disk which
is not a parition in the normal sense, but is actually hidden by the
harddrive hardware itself - thus why you cannot get to it normally
with tools like fdisk, dd, etc.

On boot, the kernel will actually detect this and tell you the size,
and then print something like "... but only X gigabytes are
available".

If you are sure you will never need to reload windows, then you can
disable the predesktop area in the bios and then partition and use it
as normal.

oh, and if you would like your windows key number, I recommend using
the magic jelly bean key finder.

http://www.magicaljellybean.com/keyfinder.shtml

--=20
Noah Dain
noahdain@gmail.com