hidden restore partition

[gillejw]

Hey,

I know many of the computers today come preloaded with a hidden restore partition from companies like dell and hp. I was wondering if anybody knew how to create a personalized hidden restore partition so I can restore a computer by just pressing something like F10 at boot time. I would like to be able to have my own restore partition so I can load an unattended windows installation onto it so I don't have to carry any CDs with me.

Thanks,

James

[Dumpy Dooby]

It's a pretty complicated process, actually.

For me, I had to do it by using a win98 boot disc and using debug to compile a file that could load either partition 1 or 2. I used eMachine's method, however, where the restore option is located in boot.ini so the user just has to repeatedly press the down arrow key while the system is booting. Once they choose to restore, it would copy over a ghost image, but that could easily be changed to load up UAWXP Install.

I can't think of a different way to do it, unless your FS is FAT32. If you have FAT32, then the whole process is rather easy. But FAT32 is inferior, so I chose the harder route.

[Thinkster]

Acronis has a program called True Image 8 that will do this. It will create a 'Safe Zone' (hidden partition) to put your image and give you an option to modify your boot file to add the "Press F11 to Enter recovery mode".

I haven't actaully tried the recovery yet but I successfully made an image in the Safe Zone. And that image is not seen from Windows Explorer.

[jaclaz]

Have a look here:

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=37939

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=47206

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=26185

http://www.msfn.org/board/index.php?showtopic=43610

jaclaz

[redjoy]

The person running the website Inside the Dell PC Restore Partition has a very good explanation of how things work on a Dell PC. I have asked him if my assumptions to create my own CTRL+F11 key stroke sequence on a non-Dell PC.

(I will be trying this out as soon as I install my new harddisk on my old PC.)

Follow the above mentioned link and use the quote to extrapolate information on how to set up your Harddisk for a DELL like restore.

At 01:51 PM 6/14/2005 -0500, you wrote:

> I upgraded to XP PRO only one week after receiving my notebook and did

> not know about the CTRL+F11 feature. I then tried to create the Media

> discs but was no longer able. Thanks to your tool (DSRFIX) I was able

> to restore my factory image and start over. I am now more careful and

> made a full harddrive image using Acronis TrueImage 8.0.

Hi, Michael,

Thanks for the dsrfix log file.  It looks like the I9300 is completely consistent with all the other Dells I've been looking at.

> When you were investigating the partions, did you find out what

> version of symantec Ghost was used to generate the *.gho file?

> If so, would I be able to make a *.gho of my c-drive and replace the

> one on the partition marked "DB"?

VERSION:

I'm using Ghost 2003.  I believe Ghost 8 would also work, but I haven't tried it--I think Ghost 8 is basically Ghost 2003 with extra bells and whistles.  I think Ghost 2002 used the same file format as v2003, so it may work, but I don't know if it supported NTFS partitions properly.

Ghost 9 will not work.  As you probably know, Ghost 9 is not really even Ghost, it's PowerQuest's Drive Image 7 rebranded and repackaged, so shares no common code with Ghost 2003 and uses a completely different file format.

CREATING FI.GHO:

Image only the Windows partition.  DSR is scripted to do an image-to-partition restore to partition #2--nothing more, nothing less.

DSR does not restore the 1st or 3rd partitions, which is why dsrcheck.exe goes to such great lengths to block the restore if those two partitions aren't already there and intact.

Here's the technique I use:

(1) grab the DOS version ghost.exe file off the Ghost 2003 CD and copy it to floppy or CD.

(2) boot from DOS floppy, use ptedit to change the Restore partition from type 'DB' to '0C', and change it to be the active partition.  (BTW, when I say DOS floppy, it could just as easily be a DOS bootable CD or bootable USB flash disk.)

(3) reboot from DOS floppy so the Restore partition is recognized as drive C:.

(4) load a mouse driver, launch ghost.exe, and create a new image of the 2nd partition to c:\img\fi.gho.

(5) use ptedit to change the partition table back--Restore to type 'DB', 2nd partition active.

Note this roundabout procedure is necessary because normally Ghost wouldn't see the Restore partition as a volume it could write to.

> I was thinking if there is a way to generate the three (or more)

> partition solution to my non-DELL computers, i.e., make my current

> computer have a utility, c-drive, and restore partition and using the

> files from my DELL partitions?

I haven't tried it, but technically, I see no reason it wouldn't work.

Bear in mind, though, that the DellUtility partition is booted by the Dell bios, so without a Dell bios the DellUtility partition would just be a waste of disk space and a partition table slot.  As for the Restore partition, that's booted by the Dell MBR, but I don't believe the Dell MBR looks for anything in the bios, so it should work on any computer.

However, there are some restrictions on getting the Restore partition to work--one of which is that there must be an existing DellUtility partition (although it could be empty, it just needs to exist).  If you're willing to sacrifice a partition table slot and a few MBs of disk space for a useless DellUtility partition, I think the PC Restore partition could be made to work.  Of course, you'd need to supply your own fi.gho file, per procedure above.

Hope this helps.

Dan

you might need more files that are not mentioned in Inside the Dell PC Restore Partition.

Let us know if you get it to work. Email your system info and partitions if you are successfull. I would like to keep track of the success rate of this procedure.

[jaclaz]

VERY interesting find.

Thanks.

I am wondering if there is any OpenSource "one-sector" bootmanager that could be customized to this effect.

The only one I found is Partita, here:

http://www.pedrofreire.com/crea1_en.htm

that, though freeware, is NOT Open Source.

I haven't enough knowledge of assembly to make a new one.

Should any willing programmer be interested, there is this "base":

EXTIPL

largely used in Linux and BSD projects:

http://www.tsden.org/ryutaroh/extipl/extipl.html

which is released under a GNU license.

jaclaz

[BrandonS_Mil]

I use Ghost to make an image, then used gdisk to hide. With some simple code, it will unhide the ghost partition, delete the "c" partition, remake the "c" partition, robbot (part 1) then restore the ghost image, then hide the ghost partition.

All of this is from a floppy, but it works very nice....

I have used it on many of my costomer machines.