Hello;

I have a problem with some type of disk manager on a notebook hard disk drive.

The notebook is a Sager, Model 2200C. It came equipped with Windows Millennium, and a suspend-to-disk partition.

When the notebook boots, at the end of the BIOS phase, there is a loud tone, and two lines of text are displayed:

“Suspend-to-disk partition not found”
“Please run ovmakfil.exe”

I do not want the suspend-to-disk feature. Thinking that there was some type of boot manager on the first track of the first sector of the hdd, I decided to nuke the entire disk. For this, I used Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction. I used a DOD wipe.

The nag is was still there.

Then I tried Disk Manager from Ontrack, Inc. Version 9.53. Using their utilities, I tried to Low Level format the drive. The Disk Manager utility claimed there was a failure, and could not proceed.

Then I tried Maxtor’s Power Diagnostic Utilities (PowerMax v 4.21) There is a Low Level Format, Quick or Full. They claim the quick option is most useful for removing a computer virus, or you are rebuilding the information on your hard drive, and you need a quick erase of the operating system without taking the time involved to perform a full LLF. The quick LLF overwrites a pattern of zeros to the first 300 megabytes, and the last 100 megabytes of the drive. The full LLF overwrites a pattern of zeros to all sectors on the drive. I did both.

The nag is was still there.

I tried “The Troubleshooter” 6.60a, self-booting diagnostics. They have a low-level format. This utility failed also, claiming that “A reserved hard disk type had been detected”

What I need, is a utility that will overwrite and nuke ALL of the first sector, to destroy any type of previous disk manager or overlay file.

Any suggestions?

ETA-That message is being displayed by the bios that is looking at a partition to use as suspend-to-disk space. The reason you are getting it is because you have wiped the disk and it can't find it.

Unfortunatly, there are several laptops that do this. You will either need to find an option in the bios to turn it off. If that can't be done, try finding a newer version of your bios that has that feature. Or last, use the utility to put that partition back on. Usually it will let you select the partition size (default to the same size as your memory).

Laptop vendor suspend to disk is teh suk!

-Foxxz

Foxxz is right


if the option isn't there to turn it off in the bios now .   a good bios flash could very well fix it

Quoted: Foxxz is right if the option isn't there to turn it off in the bios now .   a good bios flash could very well fix it

I don't like your answer!
But I think what both of you say makes some sense.

I'm doing this job for a friend, and he doesn't have any of the original software or manuals. Furthermore, the Sager website is the pits! They don't even list this model in their tech section!

Might try calling Sage. Im sure they will be glad to send you the original cd's


have you tried reloading any OS on the laptop.  Does it get past that message

edit to say, i read your post more carefully.   if you tried to lowlevel format the HD and its giving your error messages are you sure the drive is good.    did the diagnostic test pass ?  

Quoted: Might try calling Sage. Im sure they will be glad to send you the original cd's have you tried reloading any OS on the laptop.  Does it get past that message edit to say, i read your post more carefully.   if you tried to lowlevel format the HD and its giving your error messages are you sure the drive is good.    did the diagnostic test pass ?

Thanks for reading my messages and trying to help.

It turned out to be a BIOS problem. It was part of a power-saving feature that i paid scant attention to. Now every's okay.

Cheers!