HELP: How to UNLOCK a LOCKED FAT file partition and meld it into an XP Partition.....

[Steve Turner]

I have an HP Pavillion 514N. It came with a factory OEM version of Windows
XP Home, which has gone through many patches issued by Microsoft. The manual
says that given my circumstances I could very easily remove the FAT file
partition. If I do so I won't have the factory restore and will have to do
it from the System CD Disks that the HP provided software created for me:
all 8 of them. The machine dates to 2003. It is a Celeron 2.2Ghz processor
with 512MBs of RAM on a 60 GIG HDD, with a 5 GIG FAT partition that is
locked. How do I unlock and meld the FAT partition into the rest of the HDD?
Thank you ahead of time.

 

[Shenan Stanley]

I have an HP Pavillion 514N. It came with a factory OEM version of
Windows XP Home, which has gone through many patches issued by
Microsoft. The manual says that given my circumstances I could very
easily remove the FAT file partition. If I do so I won't have the
factory restore and will have to do it from the System CD Disks
that the HP provided software created for me: all 8 of them. The
machine dates to 2003. It is a Celeron 2.2Ghz processor with 512MBs
of RAM on a 60 GIG HDD, with a 5 GIG FAT partition that is locked.
How do I unlock and meld the FAT partition into the rest of the
HDD? Thank you ahead of time.

Some third party application. I cannot see the benefit of doing this,
however.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I have an HP Pavillion 514N. It came with a factory OEM version of Windows
XP Home, which has gone through many patches issued by Microsoft. The manual
says that given my circumstances I could very easily remove the FAT file
partition. If I do so I won't have the factory restore and will have to do
it from the System CD Disks that the HP provided software created for me:
all 8 of them. The machine dates to 2003. It is a Celeron 2.2Ghz processor
with 512MBs of RAM on a 60 GIG HDD, with a 5 GIG FAT partition that is
locked. How do I unlock and meld the FAT partition into the rest of the HDD?
Thank you ahead of time.

You can not, at least not with native Windows facilities.

However, in my view, you would be better off *not* doing this, and
keeping the restore partition. It's extra insurance, and it doesn't
use a very big part of your hard drive. But if you do want to do it,
read below:


Unfortunately, no version of Windows before Vista provides any way of
changing the existing partition structure of the drive
nondestructively. The only way to do what you want is with third-party
software. Partition Magic is the best-known such program, but there
are freeware/shareware alternatives. One such program is BootIt Next
Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial, so you
should be able to do what you want within that 30 days. I haven't used
it myself (because I've never needed to use *any* such program), but
it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

Whatever software you use, make sure you have a good backup before
beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a problem, things
*can* go wrong.

 

[Steve Turner]

You can not, at least not with native Windows facilities.

However, in my view, you would be better off *not* doing this, and
keeping the restore partition. It's extra insurance, and it doesn't
use a very big part of your hard drive. But if you do want to do it,
read below:


Unfortunately, no version of Windows before Vista provides any way of
changing the existing partition structure of the drive
nondestructively. The only way to do what you want is with third-party
software. Partition Magic is the best-known such program, but there
are freeware/shareware alternatives. One such program is BootIt Next
Generation. It's shareware, but comes with a free 30-day trial, so you
should be able to do what you want within that 30 days. I haven't used
it myself (because I've never needed to use *any* such program), but
it comes highly recommended by several other MVPs here.

Whatever software you use, make sure you have a good backup before
beginning. Although there's no reason to expect a problem, things
*can* go wrong.

I'm obsessive compulsive about backing up so that's no problem. I wanted to
do a dual boot with Windows XP and the new Ubuntu 8.04. But now I'm having
second thoughts. As someone else pointed out, the FAT partition isn't taking
up a lot of space. As it currently sits, with all the programs I want
loaded, I have 32GIG left over. Thanks for you pointing me in the direction
of some programs.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

I'm obsessive compulsive about backing up so that's no problem. I wanted to
do a dual boot with Windows XP and the new Ubuntu 8.04. But now I'm having
second thoughts. As someone else pointed out, the FAT partition isn't taking
up a lot of space. As it currently sits, with all the programs I want
loaded, I have 32GIG left over. Thanks for you pointing me in the direction
of some programs.

You're welcome. Glad to help.

 

[Patrick Keenan]

I'm obsessive compulsive about backing up so that's no problem.

You do need to be aware that many backup utilities will not produce bootable
drives; they require a running OS install to be of any value.

The recovery partition you are probably talking about is probably what will
help you get that running OS install.

I wanted to do a dual boot with Windows XP and the new Ubuntu 8.04. But
now I'm having second thoughts. As someone else pointed out, the FAT
partition isn't taking up a lot of space. As it currently sits, with all
the programs I want loaded, I have 32GIG left over. Thanks for you
pointing me in the direction of some programs.

Get another drive for Ubuntu. Drives are cheap, and you will only need to
play with a boot loader rather than partitioning utilities. This is much
safer and easier.

HTH
-pk