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Question

OEM Partition (DATA, not system) how to change the status

Aug 8, 2017 3:20AM PDT

HI everyone,
I get Windows 7, a question on one SATA disk of 1.5TB.
I formatted it as GPT with GPARTED (standalone) with many partitions NTFS on it, some hidden, some not..
This is NOT a system disk.
When I reload windows 7, EVERY partition is loaded and assigned to a letter.

Some with the status OEM (and then they appear twice on the disk management of Wondows) some normally as a "main partition"
2 questions:
- why an OEM partition and how to change that status to a normal one
- What is curious is that I do not get the same satus on the same partitions when I put my disk on a SATA port inside my computer and when I put my disk on an USB station for external sata disk.

ANY Idea on how to handle that problem.

My ultimate goal is to choose which partition is hidden or not (I tried that with Gparted, but it does not change anything)

THANK YOU

Discussion is locked

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Answer
This can upset those that want to tinker like that.
Aug 8, 2017 4:53AM PDT

If you want to know why the internal and USB differ you have to know Windows NT history and the discussions about the SCSI shim implemented to support IDE and SATA drives. It's a long story and not one I will get into except that is why internal and USB shall differ from Windows NT all the way up to 10. Can't speak past that.

Now this will upset those that want it to do something else than what Microsoft supported.

Try this the other way. Don't create partitions before the OS install. Let the Windows installer setup the drive then shrink and create your other partitions after the install with GPARTED. It should be different but given you do not control mounting and display of drives in Windows (not open source, etc.) the usual end of the discussion is usually with the OP flaming everyone.

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What is an OEM partition on a DATA Disk
Aug 9, 2017 12:02AM PDT

Thank you,
-1- yes I wanted to know why Internal SATA and USB of an external reader of SATA disk differ, but this is not the most important (I'm going to ask that later on on another question, it looks like more complicated than what I thought)

2- my real question has NOTHING TO DO with the windows Installer (or I miss something). Windows 7 IS installed on another disk and works, more or less (as usual with windows) fine. BUT this is a SEPARATE HDD.
Do you mean I should reformat my HDD within Windows, but then I have the problem of migration of this HDD back and forth to a LINUX system (this is a done to be a removable HDD to go to different computers ????

3- I'd like to understand WHAT is an OEM partition on a DATA disk??

Thank you for anyone who can answer those questions

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Re: data disk
Aug 9, 2017 12:17AM PDT

3. An OEM partition on a data disk is a remnant of a previous life. If you don't like it, delete it.
2. Linux can perfectly read and write to NTFS and FAT32 partitions on an external hard disk. So I don't see your problem.

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OEM Partition in a GPT disk between Linux and Windows
Aug 13, 2017 4:41AM PDT

Thank you, but this means that OEM partition is a flag somewhere, a flag can always be edited, where?
My question VERY precise and I'm looking for a precise answer...

I cannot just delete a partition, i would loose data (Or have you got an Idea, on how to delete a partition, then recreating it WITHOUT loosing data?).
Today I redefined the parttion with Windows as different volumes, and I have copied the data to new parttions, it takes a lot of time, but this is better than nothing.

But the question is still open for me

2. My problem is not LINUX, even if it depends on which Linux you are using, but the full capacity of Linux to recognize ALL the partition created under Windows (on a GPT disk I jmean).
As Windows does NOT recognize proprely partitions created under Linux, I suspect the opposite can be true

Thank you for anyone with a full answer

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Not exactly true
Aug 13, 2017 6:08AM PDT

If your Linux is 64 bit version, then it shouldn't have any problem seeing FAT32 and NTFS partitions under Legacy/CSM or UEFI, that is older MBR bios and UEFI versions.

Did you install a 32 bit Linux under Legacy, MBR bios mode?

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Linux and partition
Aug 14, 2017 1:43AM PDT

may be this is the reason hy I have no problem seeing the partitions within Linux,but This was was not my real question, WHAT IS AN OEM PARTITION within Windows?

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why don't you just use GPARTED?
Aug 13, 2017 6:11AM PDT

....in Linux? It should see all partitions, and it's certainly easy to remove or change partitions with it, that's what it's for.

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GPARTED and OEM parttion within Windows 7
Aug 14, 2017 1:44AM PDT

This is exactly what I did at first, BUT then windows declared some of my partitions as OEM partitions, and on them tehre are a lot of things that I cannot do within Windows

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Re: OEM partitions
Aug 14, 2017 1:51AM PDT

"On the OEM partitions are lot of things that I cannot do within Windows".

Can you explain what things are on those partitions that you can't do within Windows? I mean, I partition contains files and I never "did" a file. So it's totally unclear to me what your issue is.

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GPARTED and OEM partitions
Aug 14, 2017 1:01PM PDT

Thank you, but it does NOT explain where are the flags that make that Windows declare the partition as OEM.

The first thing is:
- Once I came back to windows each OEM parttions appeared twice, and I couldn't hide it, couldn't take out the letter that windows gave to the partition.
The data are not lost, but I cannot manage the partition, it is not a volume, it is "I don't know what" that I cannot extend.
On the disk manager I just have access to "help"
A real concern is that I do not understand the concept behind, and so I have choosen another way to store my data.
BUT my fear is that once I'll move (in the future) to LINUX I'll get some surprises,

Regards

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Not what I'm seeing (partition support in Linux.)
Aug 13, 2017 7:57AM PDT

However I see that's been noted by JD.

As to the OEM partition if it's broken the only fix I've found that works everytime is to factory restore the machine.

As to loss, there are few that don't understand we only lose what we don't backup. And there is an issue with OEM partitions. I have yet to see anyone backup just the OEM partition, restore it without breaking the OEM factory restore feature. The files are not lost but the function is lost.

At least with Windows 10 this is a non-issue today as I pull out the W10 USB recovery and install stick and can repair and install again.

HOWEVER, what you are trying to do may be beyond what Microsoft will support and I've seen folk tinker like that and you have to let them climb out on that limb and fall until they figure it out.

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WHAT IS an OEM partition, WHERE are the flags that design it
Aug 14, 2017 1:50AM PDT

Stil not the answer I need.
My OEM parttion does NOT come from any manufacturer, it arrived after I designed a NEW HDD as a GPT disk and set a few (10) partitions on it with GPARTED.
When I came back to Windows 7, this one decided to see the disk as if there were OEM partitions on it....
Then where is written (precisely) the status "OEM partition"

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Re: OEM partition
Aug 14, 2017 2:06AM PDT

If you're sure you made it yourself with GPARTED, I recommend studying the GPARTED documentation in http://gparted.org/documentation.php
If it's not in the documentation, it's a good question for their forum (link at the bottom on that page). Or, since it's open source, find the answer yourself in the source.

Can you tell the answer once you found out?

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OEM partition
Aug 14, 2017 1:05PM PDT

ok, I'll do that the next weekS,
It not on their documentattion, and I do not want to spend too much time on this subject

Thank you anyway

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So this is ONLY from Windows identification
Aug 14, 2017 11:14AM PDT

You already know from GPArted what it is. Therefore since Windows changed over recently to using UEFI with GPT instead of MBR partitioning system, I'd simply accept that any partition that windows doesn't recognize as part of their system will be labeled OEM in the future. Obviously it's NOT from the manufacture, and NOT from GParted, but something WINDOWS has come up with to describe a partition it's not using and not recognizing. In other words, making an unfounded assumption instead of doing as in past of "unknown partition".

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OEM partition and Windows
Aug 14, 2017 1:07PM PDT

This is a possibility..... Thank you for the idea

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I worry that you are out on a limb here.
Aug 14, 2017 1:13PM PDT

Someplace unsupported or doesn't result in the setup you want. As Microsoft is being in the brew I think you are stuck now. I know that my choice is to start with a clean HDD, let Windows 10 partition and if I want Linux resize partitions for space and then install Linux (a current version that understands the current Microsoft scheme.)

It works for me so I don't have much work to do now.

HOWEVER if someone wanted to created a partition setup and have it work a specific way, they might go down in flames over Microsoft's handling of those Linux partitions.

Are you on fire?

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setting harddrive
Aug 12, 2017 2:41PM PDT

Really?
If you are setting your driver for windows and linux.. only option is fat32.
It is just more stable than others. I have windows 7 and linux Astra. Tried with NTFS.... never worked.
I just dont`t get it, why even suported here to use NTFS. WEAAAAARD!

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LINUX WINDOWS and NTFS
Aug 13, 2017 4:43AM PDT

Hi,

I do not know anything about linux astra, I know that some people cannot read NTFS parttion with some version of linux.
Until know I do have this problem, but I'm using very little linux, so thank you for your remark, I have some more test to do