Okay so the issue I have come across is this. Have a newer samsung notebook, bought second hand, with the hidden partion still there. Some how the previous owner has made a backup image of his account in windows and saved it over top of the original restore image. When using the factory restore feature it replaces the old users files, accounts and his passwords. Even phoned Samsung about this and they cant fix it. I need to find a way to remove his backup image and use the original image file to restore this unit back to factory conditions to resell. Anyone know how this is possible?
ty for the quick replies, I am looking to fix the hidden partition so the next person to own it can use the restore partition to reload windows.
I am here only for the advertisement ;-): use Parted Magic (sorry, I cannot post a link yet, so search for it) for your partitioning (there is a nice ISO 9660 image that you can burn). GNU Parted lets you create partitions with sector accuracy easily, which is great for image recovery scenarios. As for your problem... If the manufacturer cannot (or will not) fix it (such as by sending you a recovery CD/DVD to restore the partition), I am afraid there is little else we can do... I am afraid that you will have to live with the extra space and rely on CD/DVD recovery from now onwards.
Seriously, id us Windows Easy Tranfer to copy your current profile and personal files.. do a full restore and during the setup delete all the other paritions and format... install windows and then use Windows Easy Tranfer to copy them back
What samsung model is it? I have loads of Acronis images of saved systems where I have saved the recovery partition as well.