The name and partition type were never significant issues .... just
curiosities. You are more off on a tangent in that regard than I ever was.

However, the fundamental questions:

-what is it
-how do you use it

are still unanswered.


dg1261 wrote:
>
> Barry,
>
> The gist of Adrian's answer is don't get sidetracked by focusing on
> "EISA"--it's probably just a masquerade to throw you off the scent.
> It's not uncommon for computer makers to "hide" their own custom
> utility, diagnostic, or recovery partition by simply changing the
> "partition-type" code in the partition table, which causes operating
> systems like Windows to think it's something foreign when it's really
> not.
>
> For instance, Dell's utility partition is a plain old FAT16 partition,
> but Dell changes it to the EISA type-code in the partition table to keep
> Windows from tampering with it. It's not an EISA partition, but Windows
> thinks it is because that's what the partition table says. But when you
> select the option to boot the utility partition, the bios changes the
> partition table descriptor on the fly back to FAT16, and voila! An
> ordinary FAT16 partition boots to a DOS environment.
>
> There are tools around that will look into the partition's boot sector
> to reveal what the partition type truly is, despite what the partition
> table might have you believe. I use Mikkelsen's Findpart
> (www.partitionsupport.com) for this purpose, but I'm sure there are
> others as well.
>
> If Findpart says it's really FAT32 or NTFS, I'd try temporarily
> "correcting" the partition table descriptor manually, making it active,
> rebooting, and seeing what it boots to. (Ptedit and ptedit32 is the
> easiest way to fiddle with the partition table.) Given the size, my
> guess is it may be a FAT32 or NTFS partition that boots to a WinPE-based
> repair or recovery environment (although the actual recovery image or
> content may reside on CD or DVD).
>
> That might give you a clue as to what it is, but not how you're normally
> expected to get to it. Manufacturers have used various methods of
> unmasking the partition when they want to use it, such as a customized
> bios option, or magic keystrokes at POST or boot time, or a customized
> diagnostic/recovery CD that you boot from and when it boots it runs a
> utility that unmasks the partition.
>
>