Load a "hidden" partition from a live CD?
 

Good morning LQ!

It's really been a while since I've trolled these forums (in the good way!). I've got a question that I hope someone can answer.

I'm trying to recover a friends' laptop. It has a hidden partition that is used to recover Windows. But for some reason, there's no option to boot to it in the BIOS.

I know there is a way to add the partition to grub in Linux after it has been installed. However, I'm really trying not to do this. Is there a way to boot to the partition with a live CD?

I figure I can run a command directly in the boot: prompt but I'm a bit rusty on this side of booting Linux.

A frosty mojito to the one that can save me an install.


EDIT:
I was able to get the partition to boot by actually modifying the flags. I booted the laptop with a Live CD (Ubuntu 11.04 for the curious) and ran gParted. I noticed that the flag on the partition was set to DIAG so I switched it to BOOT. Rebooted the machine and it booted to the restoration partition. Still be curious to know if I could have done this directly from the boot menu.

Nice you got it sorted and posted the solution too. Please use the thread tools and mark this thread as [SOLVED] .

Usuall to boot a recovery partition you press an "F" key at startup and it brings you to a boot menu. My Dell is F12 to get the boot menu and F2 to get the bios.