Re: What is the "EISA Partition" ???

On 6/20/2009 9:00 PM, Barry Watzman wrote:
Ok, Toshiba A135-s4457.

Factory setup.

It has a 1.46GB "Eisa Partition" on the hard drive (no drive letter,
invisible).

What is it?

Google search turns up LOTS of people asking this question, lots of
speculation (most of it I believe wrong). Does anyone know?

It is NOT a "restore partition"; it's too small. The system has a 120GB
drive and with NO additional software installed, it's using 34GB. Ok,
there is a lot of "crapware", but even using compressed files, it takes
about 3GB to 5GB to setup a restore configuration for Vista Home
Premium, this is WAY too small to be a restore partition.

So, to repeat the question: Anyone know what it is? Apparently,
whatever it is, it is quite common (on other Toshiba models as well as
on other brands of laptops).

Hi Barry,

As I recall Compaq and a few other manufacturers about 8 years ago would hide extensions to the BIOS on an EISA partition.

As I recall the laptop was a Presario 1800xl???. It was strange and the only reason I figured out what they were doing was because the machine had some additional hard disk functions (mainly for testing) and when I wiped the partition (by accident of course . . . <LOL>) some of the BIOS functions wouldn't function.

I put the re-image disk in and ran it. No joy, I still couldn't get the BIOS functions to work. I contacted Compaq, and they sent me a CD I ran the CD, and the partition re-appeared and my BIOS functions suddenly worked again.

Unfortuantely for years now both hardware and software manufacturers have been placing things on our hard disk with not even mentioning them. They claim to do this so that they can automate processes that the end-user might find difficult. In doing so, it allows them to have far more control over our systems then I would prefer.

.

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    ... Factory setup. ... It has a 1.46GB "Eisa Partition" on the hard drive ... Google search turns up LOTS of people asking this question, lots of speculation. ... Ok, there is a lot of "crapware", but even using compressed files, it takes about 3GB to 5GB to setup a restore configuration for Vista Home Premium, this is WAY too small to be a restore partition. ...
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