Full Reformat Of A Hard Drive

BulletHeadBulletHead Join Date: 2004-07-22 Member: 30049Members
in Tech Support
<div class="IPBDescription">COMPLETE wipe</div> Aight, well, a friend of mine asked me to fix her computer...

I figured aight, so I put spysweeper on... it gets blocked out.

I'm like ooookay... I go in manually and manage to find 2 varients of the blaster virus 0o'

No big, I put on SpyBot and AVG... SpyBot freezes at the 500th file (presumably when it scans the Blaster) and AVG won't start....


Fine, I bring out the heavy artiliary. I reformat and upgrade her from XP Home to XP Pro


Only problem is, her HD is in 3 partitions... and WinBlows won't let me DELETE the partition with XP Home on it cause it had temporary files needed to install Pro.


Sure, I installed pro...

Now I can't reformat cause WinBlows doesn't want to write an older version on a newer one...


does ANYONE know a good way to 100% reformat (eg, CLEAN WIPE) a hard drive? I can't find much that is directly able to do it <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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Comments

  • BlueNovemberBlueNovember hax Join Date: 2003-02-28 Member: 14137Members, Constellation
    You don't need to complete-wipe it. If you boot from CD to install, windows can delete existing partitions (quick delete is fine) create new ones and install on those. I'd recommend you do that.

    Additionally safe-mode plus a blaster fix (<a href='http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=blaster+virus+fix' target='_blank'>google</a>) would have got rid of blaster.

    If you want a 3rd program, PartitionMagic is awesome. There's also free variants floating about that you should have no problem finding.
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  • BulletHeadBulletHead Join Date: 2004-07-22 Member: 30049Members
    No Go blue. WinBlows won't delete the partition it puts the temporary setup files on..
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  • RoverRover blargh Join Date: 2003-09-23 Member: 21139Members
    Err there's ANOTHER type of formatting they do when they create the drive... + - impossible to do for yourself tho...not sure what it's called... sorry <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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  • BulletHeadBulletHead Join Date: 2004-07-22 Member: 30049Members
    F-Disking I think... it IS possible...


    *picks up a big electromagnet*
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  • devicenulldevicenull Join Date: 2003-04-30 Member: 15967Members, NS2 Playtester, Squad Five Blue
    Have a knoppix disc? You can't modify ntfs partitions, but you can delete them easily. knoppix would be your best bet, or a boot disc ( www.bootdisc.com ) iirc
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  • BlueNovemberBlueNovember hax Join Date: 2003-02-28 Member: 14137Members, Constellation
    <!--QuoteBegin-BulletHead+Jul 25 2005, 08:54 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (BulletHead @ Jul 25 2005, 08:54 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> No Go blue. WinBlows won't delete the partition it puts the temporary setup files on.. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    ...
    Well, it will. You're booting from CD right, not running setup from an existing install of windows?
    You can definitely wipe any and all partitions that way. Well, I have done so with an XP Pro Corp CD anyway. :S

    Alternate soltuions:<ul><li>Recover console fdisk,</li><li>Boot floppy and fdisk,</li><li>Linux boot CD (LOL! Using linux boot CD to install windows... that's blasphemy, but has been suggest already, so the Tux god remains appeased with me. *Points and shouts "Infidel!" at devicenull <!--emo&:p--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/tounge.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='tounge.gif' /><!--endemo-->)
    </li><li>Mounting hard drive in another PC and wiping with that</li><li>Using parition magic to wipe partion.</li></ul>
    I still don't understand why Fdisk/format/deltree didn't work in the windows install you have currently. :S Have you tried that?
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  • ShadowShadow Join Date: 2004-09-01 Member: 31145Members, Constellation
    <!--QuoteBegin-Rover+Jul 25 2005, 04:24 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Rover @ Jul 25 2005, 04:24 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Err there's ANOTHER type of formatting they do when they create the drive... + - impossible to do for yourself tho...not sure what it's called... sorry <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    low level format?
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  • FireStormFireStorm Join Date: 2002-11-06 Member: 7390Members
    <!--QuoteBegin-Shadow+Jul 27 2005, 06:21 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Shadow @ Jul 27 2005, 06:21 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-Rover+Jul 25 2005, 04:24 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Rover @ Jul 25 2005, 04:24 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Err there's ANOTHER type of formatting they do when they create the drive... + - impossible to do for yourself tho...not sure what it's called... sorry  <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo--> <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
    low level format? <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
    yes.

    actually I think you can do it, I've seen a program that does it but it's not freeware... and perhaps you can download some programsfrom the HD manufacturer

    there's another type of "format": the zerofill, basically it sets all the bits of your HD to zero. I once got rid of a SMART error with that <!--emo&;)--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html/emoticons/wink-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wink-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->
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  • Lt_PatchLt_Patch Join Date: 2005-02-07 Member: 40286Members
    Low level formats are normally done either using the manufacturer's diagnostic, and repair tools, Norton Disk Doctor, or something like QT Pro. They're very much recommended against, as even the slightest problem with them will screw the hard drive up.

    Zerofills are used for data recovery dodging more than fixing SMART checks. Double Inversion tests are better for that, again, from QT Pro.
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  • BreakthroughBreakthrough Texture Artist (ns_prometheus) Join Date: 2005-03-27 Member: 46620Members, Constellation
    Windows 98 startup diskette FTW.

    FDISK, delete all partitions, create a "Primary MS-DOS Partition", reboot.
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