NOTE: You, the customer, are solely responsible for data security. WinBook strongly recommends that you perform a backup of all personal data contained on your system prior to performing this procedure. Warning: WinBook will NOT be held responsible for any data loss incurred during this process.

There are two different BIOS versions available for the WinBook XL. If you upgrade your BIOS to a later version and you get an error at bootup related to HDPREPEZ missing or not present, then you need to get a newer version of the program.

You can tell what version of the BIOS you are running at boot-up. The third line down will say BIOS Date x/x/9x BIOS Version x

If the BIOS version is later than 1.00, then you are running HDPREP. Version 1.00 and before use HDPREPEZ. Do not reflash the system BIOS without talking to us over the phone unless you are running a version prior to version 1.00. An example of a version before BIOS 1.00 would be RC0.23W or RC0.25W. Only specific cases will need to be updated if you are running at least 1.00.

There are two versions of this program: HDPREPEZ and HDPREP. HDPREPEZ is the first release of it and customers will need to use HDPREP if their suspend to disk features stop working after flashing the BIOS to a new version later than 1.00. Some customers using partitioning programs to adjust the size of active partitions may receive errors because of the presence of the HDPREPEZ partition. It writes the partition 1 sector from where those types of programs are expecting it to be. They will then report a bad hard drive even though the hard drive is functioning and working properly. The second version of the HDPREP program is not compatible with BIOS versions that use HDPREPEZ, so you must also flash the BIOS in order to utilize it. It does however take care of the problem with partitioning programs reading the hard disk as bad.

This will concern few customers, and if you have questions after reading this document then please contact Technical Support at (800) 468-1225 or (614) 481-7465.

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Disclaimer: This information is being provided to you as a service from the Technical Support Department of WinBook Computers. It is intended to assist you in the resolution of your technical problems or questions. If you feel uncomfortable implementing any of the information or suggestions contained herein then you should e-mail the WinBook Technical Support Department. WinBook will not be held responsible for any loss of information, data or programming as a result of the use of this TechNote.