Removing a BIOS-enforced DCO partition
Posted: 2008-12-29 05:47pm
Hey guys, first post here. 
Been a long-time lurker, thought it'd finally be time for me to join everyone else. Unfortunately, it's not on a light note...
One year ago when I first bought my computer, I decided to install a program my motherboard manufacturer (GIGABYTE) provided, which allowed me to image my operating system into a special partition on the hard drive. Not too long after, I decided to stop using it, thinking buying Ghost would be a better option. Now, when I tried to search for the partition where XpressRecovery2 (the program) installed itself, I couldn't find anything. Windows reported the hard drive as having a much lower capacity than it should have!
Doing some further research (and attempting to create a partition in the free space using a LiveCD), I found out that the missing space was related to a DCO lockout. Did a test using hdparm on the LiveCD to see if it was an HPA that was causing it, but hdparm gave me a negative on that (process of elimination is what led me to the DCO conclusion). I then downloaded a tool called HDD Capacity Restore, and it reported missing space on the drive; however, when I attempted to use it to restore the space, it stated that it encountered an error. SpinRite came right after this, and it gave me a shocking (not really...) report: the BIOS itself may be enforcing the DCO, as it could not read the entire sector span of the partition.
I am, well, disappointed...at GIGABYTE.
Why they would use this method to install their imaging software is strange, but meh. Interestingly enough, when I tried to format the partition as FAT32 under Windows, it reported 137K (!) bad sectors on the partition, which I know for sure isn't bad because I haven't had a single bad sector occur on the drive yet.
Anyone have any thoughts? It seems I'm at a wall.
Been a long-time lurker, thought it'd finally be time for me to join everyone else. Unfortunately, it's not on a light note...One year ago when I first bought my computer, I decided to install a program my motherboard manufacturer (GIGABYTE) provided, which allowed me to image my operating system into a special partition on the hard drive. Not too long after, I decided to stop using it, thinking buying Ghost would be a better option. Now, when I tried to search for the partition where XpressRecovery2 (the program) installed itself, I couldn't find anything. Windows reported the hard drive as having a much lower capacity than it should have!
Doing some further research (and attempting to create a partition in the free space using a LiveCD), I found out that the missing space was related to a DCO lockout. Did a test using hdparm on the LiveCD to see if it was an HPA that was causing it, but hdparm gave me a negative on that (process of elimination is what led me to the DCO conclusion). I then downloaded a tool called HDD Capacity Restore, and it reported missing space on the drive; however, when I attempted to use it to restore the space, it stated that it encountered an error. SpinRite came right after this, and it gave me a shocking (not really...) report: the BIOS itself may be enforcing the DCO, as it could not read the entire sector span of the partition.
I am, well, disappointed...at GIGABYTE.
Why they would use this method to install their imaging software is strange, but meh. Interestingly enough, when I tried to format the partition as FAT32 under Windows, it reported 137K (!) bad sectors on the partition, which I know for sure isn't bad because I haven't had a single bad sector occur on the drive yet.Anyone have any thoughts? It seems I'm at a wall.
Damn you GIGABYTE!