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

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.

Steve Turner wrote:
> 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.

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:35:30 -0700, "Steve Turner"
<stevezygote@ohnoyadont.com> wrote:

> 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.


--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

"Shenan Stanley" <newshelper@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:eEOg23vpIHA.4672@TK2MSFTNGP05.phx.gbl...
> Steve Turner wrote:
>> 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.
>
> --
> Shenan Stanley
> MS-MVP
> --
> How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
> http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Well I wanted to muck about with Ubuntu in a dual boot scenerio.

"Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
news:rd7414p9sjpq5c46tr6tob3poif8rpj0i6@4ax.com...
> On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:35:30 -0700, "Steve Turner"
> <stevezygote@ohnoyadont.com> wrote:
>
>> 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.
>
>
> --
> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> Please Reply to the Newsgroup

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.

Steve Turner wrote:
> 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 wrote:
> Some third party application. I cannot see the benefit of doing
> this, however.

Steve Turner wrote:
> Well I wanted to muck about with Ubuntu in a dual boot scenerio.

Great.

Download and install VirtualBox and then download an ISO image for Ubuntu
and run it inside a VirtualBox virtual machine.

No muss, no fuss - easy and safe with minimal effort and maximum gain.

VirtualBox
http://www.virtualbox.org/

Ubuntu
http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download
(Check the FAQs at VirtualBox to see what runs on it and what doesn't...)

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

On Sat, 26 Apr 2008 04:39:00 -0700, "Steve Turner"
<stevezygote@ohnoyadont.com> wrote:

> "Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
> news:rd7414p9sjpq5c46tr6tob3poif8rpj0i6@4ax.com...
> > On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:35:30 -0700, "Steve Turner"
> > <stevezygote@ohnoyadont.com> wrote:
> >
> >> 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.
> >
> >
> > --
> > Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
> > Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>
> 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.

--
Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
Please Reply to the Newsgroup

"Steve Turner" <stevezygote@ohnoyadont.com> wrote in message
news:e39HpI5pIHA.5096@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> "Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake@this.is.an.invalid.domain> wrote in message
> news:rd7414p9sjpq5c46tr6tob3poif8rpj0i6@4ax.com...
>> On Fri, 25 Apr 2008 10:35:30 -0700, "Steve Turner"
>> <stevezygote@ohnoyadont.com> wrote:
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>>
>> --
>> Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP - Windows Desktop Experience
>> Please Reply to the Newsgroup
>
> 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