Compaq Partition

[Markoman01027]

Hey everybody,

I know that COMPAQ stores BIOS information on the D partition of the hard drive. So if you Zero-Fill the hard drive, you are basically screwed.

My question is. Aslong as you keep the D partition alone, and only format the C partition with like a brand new operating system, I am good to go right?

I only have used recovery disks with Compaqs, so I am not sure if it's safe to upgrade an OS or format the C partition and then install a newer OS(Lets say it has 98SE on it)

Thanks guys!

[GaryRouth]

Hi Matt

Not sure if the partition shows up as the D partition or not. I wish I had some hands-on experience to say for sure. glc, reboot, and Hal have all posted a few times about that: if I can find their advice (which is what most of my Compaq knowledge rests on) I'll put the links here or do cut and paste.

I think that on some of the Compaqs, the partition only shows up in fdisk, and is a "Non-Dos" proprietary format. That partition can be recreated on a completely clean drive: but only with the Compaq Recovery disk set (which I believe is often a floppy and cd set). I've also heard that this usually costs about $19 USD or so, if you don't have the original disks anymore.

I would imagine that as long as you leave the Compaq partition alone (wherever the darn thing is), you should be able to try whatever OS you like [Plug & Play and Power Management might be a little strange for some] . . . what the heck, with the recovery disks backing you up, the worst off is that you'll be back at square one with a working version of the original OS.

[. . .Maybe I should have the lab buy some used Compaqs for me to take apart . . . ]

I've tried to find more info over at the Compaq site from time to time on this question, but I get a little crazed dealing with their search tool - hit-o-Zilla = seems like no matter how much you try to limit the search, you get a Zillion hits of unrelated gobbledygook -- possibly my own fault, but I suspect I'm not alone
. . . Gary

[HAL9000]

It's usually a partition that doesn't show as an actual drive letter. If you run FDISK, you will see it as a non-DOS partition. This is the partition that you cannot delete, format, or zero fill. It's safe to format the C drive.

[Markoman01027]

Thanks guys!