What is the "EISA Partition" ???

Ok, Toshiba A135-s4457.

Factory setup.

It has a 1.46GB "Eisa Partition" on the hard drive (no drive letter,
invisible).

What is it?

Google search turns up LOTS of people asking this question, lots of
speculation (most of it I believe wrong). Does anyone know?

It is NOT a "restore partition"; it's too small. The system has a 120GB
drive and with NO additional software installed, it's using 34GB. Ok,
there is a lot of "crapware", but even using compressed files, it takes
about 3GB to 5GB to setup a restore configuration for Vista Home
Premium, this is WAY too small to be a restore partition.

So, to repeat the question: Anyone know what it is? Apparently,
whatever it is, it is quite common (on other Toshiba models as well as
on other brands of laptops).

The bottom line is it's not solved at all. As you note "all sorts of
explanations here", and most of them are definitely wrong, in fact most
of them discuss the issue without ever answering the question at all.


GG WILLIKERS wrote:
> Barry Watzman wrote:
>> Ok, Toshiba A135-s4457.
>>
>> Factory setup.
>>
>> It has a 1.46GB "Eisa Partition" on the hard drive (no drive letter,
>> invisible).
>>
>> What is it?
>>
>> Google search turns up LOTS of people asking this question, lots of
>> speculation (most of it I believe wrong). Does anyone know?
>>
>> It is NOT a "restore partition"; it's too small. The system has a
>> 120GB drive and with NO additional software installed, it's using
>> 34GB. Ok, there is a lot of "crapware", but even using compressed
>> files, it takes about 3GB to 5GB to setup a restore configuration for
>> Vista Home Premium, this is WAY too small to be a restore partition.
>>
>> So, to repeat the question: Anyone know what it is? Apparently,
>> whatever it is, it is quite common (on other Toshiba models as well as
>> on other brands of laptops).
>
> All sorts of explanations here:
> http://forums.techguy.org/windows-vi...-notebook.html
>

Barry Watzman wrote:
> The bottom line is it's not solved at all. As you note "all sorts of
> explanations here", and most of them are definitely wrong, in fact most
> of them discuss the issue without ever answering the question at all.

It's a diagnostic utilities partition. Plain and Simple. Dell uses them
as well.

AJL wrote:
> Barry Watzman <> wrote:
>
>> The bottom line is it's not solved at all.
>
> How about this?
>
> http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/0...tion-in-vista/

The key is not to tamper with this partition until your warranty is up.
Dell makes you go through the diagnostic hoops when you call in.

I'm sure there is probably some warranty void clause attached to it.

On 6/20/2009 9:00 PM, Barry Watzman wrote:
> Ok, Toshiba A135-s4457.
>
> Factory setup.
>
> It has a 1.46GB "Eisa Partition" on the hard drive (no drive letter,
> invisible).
>
> What is it?
>
> Google search turns up LOTS of people asking this question, lots of
> speculation (most of it I believe wrong). Does anyone know?
>
> It is NOT a "restore partition"; it's too small. The system has a 120GB
> drive and with NO additional software installed, it's using 34GB. Ok,
> there is a lot of "crapware", but even using compressed files, it takes
> about 3GB to 5GB to setup a restore configuration for Vista Home
> Premium, this is WAY too small to be a restore partition.
>
> So, to repeat the question: Anyone know what it is? Apparently,
> whatever it is, it is quite common (on other Toshiba models as well as
> on other brands of laptops).

Hi Barry,

As I recall Compaq and a few other manufacturers about 8
years ago would hide extensions to the BIOS on an EISA
partition.

As I recall the laptop was a Presario 1800xl???. It was
strange and the only reason I figured out what they were
doing was because the machine had some additional hard disk
functions (mainly for testing) and when I wiped the
partition (by accident of course . . . <LOL>) some of the
BIOS functions wouldn't function.

I put the re-image disk in and ran it. No joy, I still
couldn't get the BIOS functions to work. I contacted Compaq,
and they sent me a CD I ran the CD, and the partition
re-appeared and my BIOS functions suddenly worked again.

Unfortuantely for years now both hardware and software
manufacturers have been placing things on our hard disk with
not even mentioning them. They claim to do this so that they
can automate processes that the end-user might find
difficult. In doing so, it allows them to have far more
control over our systems then I would prefer.

Ok, of what use is it and how does one get into it?

GG WILLIKERS wrote:
>
> It's a diagnostic utilities partition. Plain and Simple. Dell uses them
> as well.
>
>

Yet another article that really doesn't tell what the partition is or
how to use it:

" ... special EISA partition either in FAT or NTFS file system that
contains system recovery utility to rollback to factory settings and/or
diagnostic tools"

Yes, well .... which is it? Oh, either this or that or possibly even
both? Do you want to try for "neither"? Well thank you for being so
specific.

And, also, this is just wrong or, really, BS:

"All OEM computers, desktop or notebook PCs from Dell, HP, Lenovo, IBM,
Acer, ASUS, Sony, Fujitsu, Toshiba and many more probably comes with
special EISA partition"

Oh, I love that .... "ALL of them PROBABLY come with ....."; such a
definitive statement. Well, most Toshiba laptops do NOT have a
partition like this, but this particular one does.

The article does give an approach (not the only one, by any means) for
getting rid of it (that is the least of my interest, however .... "ZAP"
will get rid of EVERYTHING). I think that partition magic could get rid
of it also (if the drive is installed on another machine running XP).

But my interest is in what it is, not how to get rid of it. And,
finding that out, how to use it.

[I SUSPECT that it may be a diagnostic partition; it is, as I mentioned
earlier, too small to be a factory restore partition.]


AJL wrote:
> Barry Watzman <> wrote:
>
>> The bottom line is it's not solved at all.
>
> How about this?
>
> http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/0...tion-in-vista/

I'm dealing with junk laptops bought on E-Bay as "parts or repair";
warranty is definitely not an issue.

But that misses the point. I don't want to remove it, I just want to
know what it is and, knowing that, how to use it for whatever purpose it
was created to serve.

GG WILLIKERS wrote:
> AJL wrote:
>> Barry Watzman <> wrote:
>>
>>> The bottom line is it's not solved at all.
>>
>> How about this?
>>
>> http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/0...tion-in-vista/
>>
>
> The key is not to tamper with this partition until your warranty is up.
> Dell makes you go through the diagnostic hoops when you call in.
>
> I'm sure there is probably some warranty void clause attached to it.

Compaq did use to do that: They put the BIOS on a hidden partition, and
the actual ROM [BIOS] in the machine loaded the "real" BIOS into RAM
from that hidden partition. It was elegant but impractical: If
anything happened to that partition, you could end up with a boat anchor
(aka "brick"), because the machine did not function without the full
BIOS (the one loaded from the hard drive).

I'm pretty sure that is not what is going on here. First, because in
this case the partition is to BIG for that (1.46 GB? The machine will
run with only 256MB of RAM), and, also, I THINK that the machine will
work if I take out the factory hard drive, install a brand new, blank
hard drive and install Windows (XP or Vista) from scratch using retail
media.

Again, my interest here is not at all practical, it's theoretical: I
want a clear, concise yet complete and accurate answer as to what this
partition is and how to use it for whatever purpose it fulfills.
Removing it isn't the issue, I know many ways to do that, but I have
little interest in doing so at this time.

One other question, what does EISA stand for? Back in the 1980's it
stood for "Extended Industry Standard Architecture", an architecture of
a new system bus designed by Compaq and Zenith and a few others to
compete with the "Micro-channel" architecture from IBM. It never was
commercially successful and it died more than 20 years ago. So why is
this partition called an EISA partition?


C.Joseph Drayton wrote:

>
> Hi Barry,
>
> As I recall Compaq and a few other manufacturers about 8 years ago would
> hide extensions to the BIOS on an EISA partition.
>
> As I recall the laptop was a Presario 1800xl???. It was strange and the
> only reason I figured out what they were doing was because the machine
> had some additional hard disk functions (mainly for testing) and when I
> wiped the partition (by accident of course . . . <LOL>) some of the BIOS
> functions wouldn't function.
>
> I put the re-image disk in and ran it. No joy, I still couldn't get the
> BIOS functions to work. I contacted Compaq, and they sent me a CD I ran
> the CD, and the partition re-appeared and my BIOS functions suddenly
> worked again.
>
> Unfortuantely for years now both hardware and software manufacturers
> have been placing things on our hard disk with not even mentioning them.
> They claim to do this so that they can automate processes that the
> end-user might find difficult. In doing so, it allows them to have far
> more control over our systems then I would prefer.
>

Barry Watzman wrote:
> Ok, of what use is it and how does one get into it?
>
> GG WILLIKERS wrote:
>>
>> It's a diagnostic utilities partition. Plain and Simple. Dell uses
>> them as well.
>>
>>
If you would have bothered to read the whole thread I linked to, you
would have your answer.