Quote:
I understand that you want to know if doing an Fdisk to repartition your
hard drive will prevent the recovery CDs from working with your unit.
there should be no problem with doing the fDisk. Here are
instructions on how to do this process:
First, we will need to back up all important data, because using the
FDISK utility will erase ALL data currently on the PC.
Next, we will have to remove any third-party devices attached to the
system. This is necessary for the recovery CDs to properly detect the
system.
The following steps will help you successfully perform a recovery at
this point:
1. Insert the recovery disk in the drive.
2. Power off the computer.
3. Remove or disconnect all added hardware (e.g. printer, scanner,
joystick, new video card, etc) from the computer.
4. Power on the system.
5. At the blue HP Expanding Possibilities screen, start tapping the
[F-1] key until the message "Entering Setup" appears.
6. At the setup screen, press the [F-5] then [Enter] key to reset all
data to factory defaults.
7. Then press the [F-10] then [Enter] key to save all changes and exit
the BIOS setup.
8. The system should boot to the recovery CD. At the first prompt, press
the spacebar to enter the recovery program.
9. Press the [Enter] key to proceed.
10. Click on the words "Advanced Options", located in the upper
right-hand corner of the screen.
11. Click on the words "Dos Shell".
12. At this point the system will exit to a DOS prompt. Type the
following at the cursor: FDISK Then press [Enter]
13. Now the system will ask if you would like to use large disk support.
This enables the system use the full storage space of the hard drive
installed. Press [Enter] at this point to select yes and proceed with
the FDISK program. The FDISK options screen should now be displayed
14. At the FDISK options menu, type #3, then [Enter.] The following
options will be displayed:
1. Delete Primary Partition
2. Delete Extended Partition
3. Delete logical DOS drive (s) in the extended DOS Partition
4. Delete Non-Dos partitions
These are the main options that will be used to remove the partition
from the hard drive
15. Press the [1] key to delete the primary DOS partition
16. Press [Enter] when it asks which primary DOS partition to delete (#1
is defaulted)
17. Enter the volume label exactly as it is seen above. If there is none
just press [Enter.]
18. Press [Esc] twice to go back to the DOS prompt At the end of these
steps, reboot the computer for the changes to go into effect within the
system. This can be accomplished by holding the [Ctrl] and [Alt] keys,
then pressing the [Delete] key twice. Once the system has rebooted, an
error stating that there are no partition (s) defined on the system will
be displayed. Follow the above step (item 12) to enter the FDISK utility
from the DOS prompt.
After doing this follow the steps below to recreate the partition.
1. Press [1] then [Enter] to create a dos partition.
2. Press [1] then [Enter] at the 2nd options menu to create the primary
partition. This is the partition in which the operating system (Windows
98) will be loaded.
3. A message will appear asking if you would like to use the maximum
space available for the primary partition. Type the letter [Y] and press
[Enter]. By doing this it will use the entire available space to create
the primary partition.
4. The total disk space available on the hard drive will be displayed,
along with the maximum space available for the primary partition.
5. At this point, the format and recovery must be completed. This can be
accomplished by pressing the [Esc] key until the DOS prompt appears
again. Once at the DOS prompt, turn the power off to the system for at
least 30 seconds to 1 minute. Be sure to leave the recovery CD inside
the CD-ROM drive as well. Turn the system back on. At this time the
recovery CD will be loaded and will automatically detect that the hard
drive is not formatted and begin to run an initial format for the hard
drive to hold data. Allow the format to complete, at which time the
system should boot to the recovery disk again.
6. At the main Recovery screen press the spacebar to enter the recovery
program.
7. Click on the word "OK".
8. Click on the word "Recover".
9. Click on the words "Recovery Only".
10. A confirmation page should appear, advising that running a recovery
of the system will erase any data stored on the system, Click on the
word "Yes".
I responded that I wanted to create more than one partition. They e-mailed this to me:
Quote:
You will need to make your first partition the C: drive, and make it
large enough to handle the Recovery Disk information. If you do that,
you should have no problem.
So. It can be done. Using the recovery disk.