iisbob
12-02-2001, 08:38 PM
Ok, i've been seing this bandied about for several years, and quite a bit on this forum; so now it's time to put this rumour to rest.
First off-true, on original older model Compaq's ( with harddrives <8GB's )they did have a hidden section of the harddrive with a small 8-30k BIOS file on it-mostly for 8gig drives so that their older systems would recognize the larger harddrives. But they still had a BIOS chip on the system board with the standard BIOS setups, this small file on the HD was their version of a drive overlay.
With the advent of >10gig drives that was no longer feasible since their BIOS was manufactored with the Interrupt 13 (like most modern BIOS ) that allowed it to recognize drives >2gigs. Now the " hidden " partition ( or usually the D: drive ) is nothing more than the cab files from your restore disk-so if you lost the restore disk you would still have a way to do a factory restore.
Basic lesson on the BIOS here; it's a ROM, which means read only-no data can be added to it once it's programmed, now the CMOS-which contains drive info/time&date, is included on the BIOS chip-didn't used to be in the old days. You can flash today's BIOS, but that's a bit of detail we wont be concerned with right now.
The point is, is that the BIOS ;when you first power on and it wakes the CPU ; tells the system that it has a harddrive, therefore you can't have the BIOS residing on a piece on a piece of equipment that the system doesn't know it has yet! Kinda like egg before the chicken thing-except in this case you can't have the egg without the chicken there to lay it!
I have successfully upgraded the drives on Compaq PC's ( at work and personal models of people )with newer/larger drives-only some of the older ones did i have to use the manufacturers' Drive overlay program in order for the older Compaq's to recognize the larger drives.
Go here (http://web14.compaq.com/falco//detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ3466) for a little FAQ on restoring the C: drive on a Compaq-notice the line about using the " system save d: " partiton-this is your so called "hidden partition ".
So please, in the future let's not refer to this partition as "hidden " when in fact it's right there in full view as the " D: " drive, or "system save " with nothing more than the restore disk(s) cab files.
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iisbob
""I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know."
Mark Twain
[This message has been edited by iisbob (edited 12-02-2001).]
First off-true, on original older model Compaq's ( with harddrives <8GB's )they did have a hidden section of the harddrive with a small 8-30k BIOS file on it-mostly for 8gig drives so that their older systems would recognize the larger harddrives. But they still had a BIOS chip on the system board with the standard BIOS setups, this small file on the HD was their version of a drive overlay.
With the advent of >10gig drives that was no longer feasible since their BIOS was manufactored with the Interrupt 13 (like most modern BIOS ) that allowed it to recognize drives >2gigs. Now the " hidden " partition ( or usually the D: drive ) is nothing more than the cab files from your restore disk-so if you lost the restore disk you would still have a way to do a factory restore.
Basic lesson on the BIOS here; it's a ROM, which means read only-no data can be added to it once it's programmed, now the CMOS-which contains drive info/time&date, is included on the BIOS chip-didn't used to be in the old days. You can flash today's BIOS, but that's a bit of detail we wont be concerned with right now.
The point is, is that the BIOS ;when you first power on and it wakes the CPU ; tells the system that it has a harddrive, therefore you can't have the BIOS residing on a piece on a piece of equipment that the system doesn't know it has yet! Kinda like egg before the chicken thing-except in this case you can't have the egg without the chicken there to lay it!
I have successfully upgraded the drives on Compaq PC's ( at work and personal models of people )with newer/larger drives-only some of the older ones did i have to use the manufacturers' Drive overlay program in order for the older Compaq's to recognize the larger drives.
Go here (http://web14.compaq.com/falco//detail.asp?FAQnum=FAQ3466) for a little FAQ on restoring the C: drive on a Compaq-notice the line about using the " system save d: " partiton-this is your so called "hidden partition ".
So please, in the future let's not refer to this partition as "hidden " when in fact it's right there in full view as the " D: " drive, or "system save " with nothing more than the restore disk(s) cab files.
------------------
iisbob
""I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know."
Mark Twain
[This message has been edited by iisbob (edited 12-02-2001).]