> If I want to upgrade my IDE Hard drive by my self, how can I > restore that kind of data on other diferent PC?
So the content of the HPA should be limited to program which are special: a boot loader is position dependant and you do not want to copy it blindly to another hard disk with maybe another size or other characteristics - because it will not work - you just want to re-install it on the other HD on the other PC. If this HPA contains more than a bootloader, it has to be organised like a real filesystem (or even a real device image with a partition table) to be accessed by emergency tools like mtools (you can specify a big offset to the device to access a FAT partition at the end of the device). This FAT filesystem can be considered logically like a big floppy. Maybe one day this system can use the SAORAB IDE feature - read the spec to understand that sentence. If you are really recovering a disaster and want to get the HPA content but are locked by the bootloader blocking this access, I'll give you the trick (that is a secret - do not repeat it!): plug in your IDE disk after boot using an USB/IDE adapter. > HPA should not exist, there are a lot of other ways to store > restore or diagnostics apps, Hibernation and Quick Restores > should be handled in other way, I have once an omnibook (earth > unplugged) and I can only reinstall Linux, because the host > protected area does not allow me to install The Original OS, > in other PC with the porper hardware and back it to the laptop. HPA and all the other "extended" IDE command exists on all hard drives used these day: anything more than 8 Gb has the complete set (but maybe SAORAB). > This HPA should be optional, but never by default, I once need > to have them disabled (where is the specifications from the > manufacturer to reproduce them in a new hard disk media). My bootloader can be installed in any standard partition and if the disk does not contains a B.E.E.R. sector (see http://www.t13.org/project/d1367r3.pdf ) you will not get the HPA set or frozzen. Security freeze is still done in all cases. Etienne. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/