Partitions that gparted cannot see

Ulysses_ · 03-31-2017, 05:07 AM

At the beginning of a boot on my laptop you can press F2 to see the UEFI settings, or F12 to select boot device, or F9 to restore the entire system to the manufacturers defaults which includes installing windows 8.1 and erasing everything else. But there is only a 300 MB partition on the hard disk that is labeled as Recovery Partition and then there is the 260 MB EFI partition and the rest is windows when you buy the laptop. 300 MB seems awfully small for windiws 8.1. Is it possible that they have hidden a larger partition so it cannot be seen by gparted?

business_kid · 03-31-2017, 05:58 AM

The short answer is yes, it's possible.

EFI & UEFI produced new partition types, which require software updates and bios can be battling you also as I discovered. I would expect unrecognised partitions to be listed as such. Have you gone about adding up the partitions and comparing them to disk size?

As for size, you do know what Windows stands for? Will Install Needless Data On Whole System 😀 I found 50G too small for a Vista Install. Everything fitted but it was a squash with no data. 8.1 is as big or bigger.

hydrurga · 03-31-2017, 06:12 AM

That 300MB partition is a WinRE (Windows Recovery Environment) partition containing tools to help you recover your Windows system (https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/.../hh825173.aspx). It doesn't contain the manufacturer's Windows 8.1 reinstall.

Some nice info on the partition layout for different versions of Windows in the answer provided here: https://superuser.com/questions/9152...-of-windows-10

It may be that you no longer have the partition with the manufacturer's vanilla operating system on it. What hardware do you have, and did you upgrade from Windows 8 to Windows 8.1?

Ulysses_ · 03-31-2017, 08:10 AM

Gigabyte P35W v3. It installed Windows 8.1 when first used. Disk size reported equals the sum of the partitions reported. But the disk is supposed to be 1 TB while it is reported as 953742 MB. Is this normal?

hydrurga · 03-31-2017, 08:30 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulysses_

Gigabyte P35W v3. It installed Windows 8.1 when first used. Disk size reported equals the sum of the partitions reported. But the disk is supposed to be 1 TB while it is reported as 953742 MB. Is this normal?

Marketing. When they say 1TB (using the SI basis of 1000 bytes), they don't mean 1TiB (using the binary basis of 1024 bytes).

So, 1000000000000 bytes works out to be 953674 MiB (mebibytes). Close enough. Scoundrels.

hydrurga · 03-31-2017, 08:37 AM

According to the Gigabyte web site, you should have a partition with the manufacturer's vanilla Windows install on it.

GParted should be able to see it (you can set a "hide" flag on a partition but that usually only hides it from the operating system i.e. Windows).

Ulysses_ · 03-31-2017, 09:49 AM

What do you mean, or what do you understand from the site? That I should have my normal updated windows partition plus a non-updated windows partition, plus the 300 MB of the RE tools, plus the EFI partition?

BW-userx · 03-31-2017, 10:17 AM

windows 10 three partition set up, recovery and hibernate and the OS itself ... hummm how can windows that takes at least 30gbs after install be kept on a 300MB to reinstall it?

Well it cannot unless it has a really good compression. I believe that it just keeps the needed items to set it back as a fresh install still using the already installed OS as a home base. that is only logical.

it is like replacing all of the config files in linux with new ones that have not been user modified and removing everything that is not installed at the initial install of the OS. placing it back into a fresh install state of being without any after factory applications and such. so it is not like they are hiding other partitions. you can do the math on the HDD and see that.

hydrurga · 03-31-2017, 11:04 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulysses_

What do you mean, or what do you understand from the site? That I should have my normal updated windows partition plus a non-updated windows partition, plus the 300 MB of the RE tools, plus the EFI partition?

That's how I read it, yes. You're missing a partition of several GB.

Have you tried contacting GigaByte technical support to ask them?

Ulysses_ · 03-31-2017, 11:16 AM

Yes I have and they say:

Quote:

F9 recovery system function is in hard disk boot up partition. If it is damaged, it can only be repaired by service center. When system is recovering (F9 function), it will delete operating system hard disk partitions and using recovery ISO to recover system.

Emerson · 03-31-2017, 11:32 AM

You could use smartctl to view the capacity. Even if the drive has deceptive firmware that hides something from fdisk (never seen that, although I hear some enclosures may do this), smartctl should print real numbers.

Code:

 smartctl -i /dev/sda
smartctl 6.5 2016-05-07 r4318 [x86_64-linux-4.10.1-gentoo] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-16, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 and 7200.7 Plus
Device Model:     ST380819AS
Serial Number:    5MR5HH57
Firmware Version: 8.04
User Capacity:    80,000,000,000 bytes [80.0 GB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA/ATAPI-7, ATA/ATAPI-6 T13/1410D revision 2
Local Time is:    Fri Mar 31 11:27:24 2017 CDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

Then compare it to fdisk printout, compare sector count, do some math (note, my fdisk supports GPT, yours may not):

Code:

fdisk -l /dev/sda
Disk /dev/sda: 74.5 GiB, 80000000000 bytes, 156250000 sectors
Units: sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disklabel type: gpt
Disk identifier: 75493944-F002-4A76-AD05-9B4D44832826

Device      Start       End   Sectors  Size Type
/dev/sda1    2048      6143      4096    2M Linux filesystem
/dev/sda2    6144    268287    262144  128M EFI System
/dev/sda3  268288 156249966 155981679 74.4G Linux filesystem

hydrurga · 03-31-2017, 11:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulysses_

Yes I have and they say:

Ok. Are you sure you didn't get a recovery DVD when you bought the machine (if not, which ISO are they talking about?). Their response indicates that the machine was supplied with one, and that there is, after all, no separate recovery partition containing the vanilla operating system.

It looks as if they're talking about the Win RE partition when they use the term "recovery system function".

The other option, and I've seen this before, is that it is incumbent on the purchaser to make the recovery ISO, perhaps being prompted to do so on first use of the computer.

BW-userx · 03-31-2017, 11:34 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulysses_

Yes I have and they say:

Recovery ISO that explains the how -- have you looked into that USB install for win10 so you can just not have to worry about that. it is what I got and it worked as I have the free upgrade. activation key thingy I got past it.

Are you still under warranty? if yes then I'd leave it until that is up and do my will on it.

Download Windows 10 Disc Image (ISO File)

Ulysses_ · 04-08-2017, 03:25 PM

Does anyone know of a good Windows forum to find out the necessary size for any unseen partition big enough to hold the installer of Windows 8.1?

BW-userx · 04-08-2017, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ulysses_

Does anyone know of a good Windows forum to find out the necessary size for any unseen partition big enough to hold the installer of Windows 8.1?

NO I do not BUT I put that Windows 10 USB Stick Installer on a 8GB stick which Installed a complete OS of Windows 10 onto my HDD taking up aprox 30GB

so I do not foresee 8.1 needing much more space.

is there a way for you to find out how big the installer file is? that would give you a good wild guess.