> I have the imression (but I'm not sure, unable to produce a positive > proof) that Windows installs not only a MBR and related things at the > beginning of the HD, and these are in a way protected against > overwriting.
If they're protected, that's only within Windows; LOCK C: might override that protection, or might not. Outside of Windows (DOS or any other OS) they'll be open for overwriting. > But there is a smaller region at the very _end_ of the > HD's range which seems to be occupied by "secret" Windows files too. Hmm, I haven't noticed anything like that. Win3.1's swap file used to live at the end of the disk, about the 4/5ths mark or thereabout. Certainly there's nothing in the partition, since Partition Magic can shrink partitions (which would lose that data); I haven't noticed anything at the end of the disk itself either since I can create partitions right up to the last cylinder without affecting Windows. I suspect it's some sort of recovery partition or BIOS stuff specific to the machine(s) in question; Compaqs used to have that, and my Dell laptop has something in a recovery partition that I've never had time to investigate properly. A BIOS might try and stop you deleting that data, but anything that talks to the disk controller directly (so pretty much any modern OS) ought to bypass that. Regards, Ben A L Jemmett. (http://web.ukonline.co.uk/ben.jemmett/, http://www.deltasoft.com/)
