FAT32 to NTFS Conversion in W2K Missed My Hidden Partition???

[rpr]

I just converted my C drive from FAT32 to NTFS. Everything went fine with the exception that a hidden partition on my C drive was not converted (it is still showing up as FAT32). I believe the hidden partition contains pre-installed system recovery files (it is an IBM ThinkPad). How do I rectify this?

 

[Tiger]

Do you mean hidden folder or partition?
If folder then simply unhide it before using the conversion tool. If partition I probably wouldn't mess with it.
It's too bad manufacturers do crap like that.
If you've got a 2000 CD you could just flush the drive and start over.

 

[JW310]

yeah.... it's best that you leave the hidden partition alone. It's the recovery partition for your thinkpad laptop, and if you mess with it, chances are you won't be able to run the restore at all in the case that you would want/need to. In fact, if it is the recovery partition, I believe it needs to be a FAT/FAT32 file system, otherwise you won't be able to run the restore at all... I'm not sure if the OS that's run when you tell the system to boot from the recovery partition needs to have the partition as FAT32 (or at least one that Windows 98 can read) - depending on what was originally installed on the laptop.

It's too bad manufacturers do crap like that.

I agree... While it is convenient to have the restore info on the hard drive in case one wants/needs to restore the system to the way it was when you first bought the system, in many cases the only reason to run the system restore is if the drive crashed. In that case, having the restore partition be on the hard drive isn't a good thing.

JW