Teach you how to completely remove hidden partitions on your hard disk

Remove a normal hide recovery partition

One-click restores of Dell's notebooks, ThinkPad X31 's previous ThinkPad notebooks, and many other notebooks are in the form of hidden partitions that put data from the recovery system on the hard disk. One-click Recovery for this type of notebook hidden partitions are easy to remove, as long as you right-click My Computer (Windows XP) or computer (Windows Vista) in the Start menu of Windows Xp/windows Vista, select management → storage → Disk Management, select the hidden partition in the hard disk partition diagram, and click the right mouse button to choose "Delete disk Partition".

Figure 1 Removing partition operations

You can also use the Windows Xp/vista installation CD to choose to remove hidden partitions at installation time; If you are accustomed to windowed mode of operation, you can also use the hard disk partitioning tool such as PQ magic to remove the hidden one-key recovery disk partition.

Remove Leos from Lenovo notebooks

A new generation of Lenovo notebooks using the "LEOS" of a key recovery technology to backup and restore the hard disk data, the implementation of this function by integrating in the BIOS of a program and Windows interface software with each other to achieve, that is, the hard disk to create a non-implied partition, Perform a backup of the primary partition (that is, the usual C-disk) to facilitate a key recovery when the file system is compromised. Normal operation could not modify the area before C disk (approx. 5GB). To remove it, it is not difficult to restart the computer, in the presence of the Lenovo interface in the upper right corner of the keyboard "restore/Custom" button, there will be a simple recovery of the interface. At this time there are only two options, one is System recovery, the other is software and drive recovery, then press "Shift+b", enter the password "Lenovo", there will be a key to restore the standard interface, this interface to choose to uninstall backup. If the above methods are not resolved, you can use the Windows 98 boot CD/Flash boot system to DOS, run Leos management software, type "leostool/db" to turn off the backup function, and then type "Leostool/dleos" to delete the Lenovo backup system.

Remove HPA Protection Area

Because ordinary hidden partitions are more vulnerable to damage, the ThinkPad X31 's ThinkPad model, some Lenovo, founder notebooks and other branded notebooks start using HPA (Hidden Protected area, hidden protection Zone) to save system Recovery files. This technique brings a lot of difficulty in removing hidden partitions, and many notebook users are helpless to face this situation. In fact, the problem to be solved is not difficult.

Hint: What is HPA?

After the ATA-5 agreement was established, the hard drive introduces the "Hide protected area" technology (i.e. HPA), which protects the area of the rear part of the hard drive directly by using the ATA command, not only the operating system cannot see the zone, but even the motherboard BIOS cannot read the "hidden Protected area" under protection. If a 120GB hard drive has a 10GB "Hide protected Area" Set, then only 110GB can be detected in the BIOS. Since the protection of HPA is much higher than the "hidden partition." As long as the "Hide protected area" is not opened with a special command defined in the ATA protocol, it is not possible to read and write this area in a common way, and the ATA protocol also defines a number of commands for locking protected areas, password protection, and further enhancing the reliability and security of the HPA. The area where the hard drive is unprotected can be read, written, partitioned, formatted, or even low-level formatted without any effect on the data in the hidden protection area.

1, delete the ThinkPad HPA

At present, most of the HPA is notebook manufacturers using Phoenix Firstware recover software built. The HPA, established using the Phoenix Firstware recover, is naturally removed by the Phoenix Firstware component. For the ThinkPad Series notebook, this component--fwdelete in the recovery directory of the first recovery CD. To remove the HPA, you must first make a setting in the BIOS. Enter the bios of the ThinkPad notebook, select "Security" and "Predesktop area", and set "Access IBM predesktop area" to "Disable" (Figure 2). Then use CD-ROM or flash memory to guide the notebook to Dos, in the DOS interface input "Fwdelete drv=0 all" and return (Figure 3), you can remove stubborn hpa. After you repartition, you can use all your hard disk space.

Figure 2 "Access IBM predesktop area" set to "Disable"

Figure 3 Entering "Fwdelete drv=0 all" in the DOS interface and enter

2. Remove the HPA of Lenovo Notebook

Some Lenovo notebooks need to use Lenovo's hidden partition Uninstall tool Hddfunc/hpatool Uninstall, Hddfunc use is relatively simple, the system with CD-ROM or flash memory boot to DOS mode, and then run in DOS mode "HDDFUNC/D" command to uninstall the hidden hard disk backup data area. For Hddfunc can not delete the HPA partition, you need to use the Hpatool, in DOS mode type "HPATOOL/CLR", can all the module records clear.

3, delete the same side notebook of HPA

The same side of the notebook through a "First aid center" software to establish a system HPA recovery partition, usually occupy the system 8GB~10GB hard disk space. For the same-side notebook, you can remove the hidden HPA partition using the ULOCKHPA software after uninstalling the first Aid center software. The method is to boot the system to DOS mode with CD-ROM, and then run the "ulockhpa-d" command in DOS mode to remove the hidden hard disk backup data area. Then restart the notebook, using the Pqmagic partition software to use the hidden partition.

Tip: When the USB port in the system is plugged into a flash or USB removable drive, the ULOCKHPA software will fail, so this operation cannot be performed using the Flash boot system to DOS.

4. Universal HPA Deletion method

In addition, the HPA can also be used MHDD hard disk tool "NHPA" command to delete (click to download), if your laptop with the previous method can not remove the HPA, you can try the MHDD nhpa command. The method is also very simple, as long as the running MHDD, the main interface Press "SHIFT+F3" to select the hard disk, will appear hard disk list, select a good hard drive (usually the hard drive is the main IDE channel the first IDE device, select "1" Can), and then enter "NHPA", press "Y

Figure 4 MHDD using the interface

Bianhouyu: Delete the system's own recovery partition, whether it is a hidden recovery partition or HPA protection zone is a certain risk, may damage the system data, recommend the reader before the operation of the best data backup work. After releasing the system recovery partition, you also need to use partition tools such as Pqmagic to create a new partition before using the released hidden partition.