[MIKEp]

My friend has a hard drive that is so full of viruses it takes it 40 minutes to start up. I was wondering if anyone knows how to format the drive by connecting it to another computer. Whenever i would format a drive i would just start the computer in dos and type "format c:" or whatever.

Any Ideas?

 

[jp11801]

I would try to find fdisk or gdisk on the web put it on a floppy and that will wipe and format the drive. I'm not a big computer guy but the last time I got jammed up fdisk did the trick my computer savy friends say gdisk is better at completely wiping the drive

 

[Oink1]

Format it from within the BIOS...

 

[MrSlacker]

if you have Windows XP CD, boot from it and delete all partitions.

 

[IGNGcubeman]

Quote:

Originally Posted by jp11801 I would try to find fdisk or gdisk on the web put it on a floppy and that will wipe and format the drive. I'm not a big computer guy but the last time I got jammed up fdisk did the trick my computer savy friends say gdisk is better at completely wiping the drive

This would be the thing to do in this case. Since the only thing that's causing the problem is that the troublesome files are there in the first place, just deleting them with a format will do just fine. Unless it has sensitive files you want to get rid of, you don't need to use any kind of exotic wiping software.

 

[Stephonovich]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oink1 Format it from within the BIOS...

I've never seen this implemented in any BIOS. Enlightenment?

Safest (very, very rarely, low level utilities can bork a drive) would be to get the proper utility from the drive manufacturer. Seagate, Maxtor, and Western Digital all make such toys.

The problem with merely deleting/creating a new partition is that nothing is actually destroyed, it just doesn't have any pointers to it. For example, with some filesystems (XFS and JFS come to mind) you can't expand the partition size once it's created. So instead, you can delete the partition, and create a new one with the start block as the same as the old one, but that extends further. All your data will be intact upon mounting the new one.

To counter this...

Google It.

 

[MIKEp]

thanks i think ill just give him the hard drives from my old computer (I have no use for them). Now the tough part is finding drivers for his wireless network. The dumb ppl dont even keep the software that comes with their stuff.

The linksys website doesn't even have the right one

 

[PinkFloyd]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oink1 Format it from within the BIOS...

Low level format Oink?

 

[Oink1]

Quote:

Originally Posted by PinkFloyd Low level format Oink?

What i was thinking...

 

[wallijonn]

Download Bart's PE, update the Mcafee anti-virus module, boot off the BartPE cd and run it overnight to clean the viruses.

Just cleaning the viruses is not going to work if he keeps using an account with admin privs.

 

[riffer]

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Disconnect any drives you don't want erased.

Will do DOD, RCMP and a few others.

 

[Snake]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Stephonovich I've never seen this implemented in any BIOS. Enlightenment? Safest (very, very rarely, low level utilities can bork a drive) would be to get the proper utility from the drive manufacturer. Seagate, Maxtor, and Western Digital all make such toys. The problem with merely deleting/creating a new partition is that nothing is actually destroyed, it just doesn't have any pointers to it. For example, with some filesystems (XFS and JFS come to mind) you can't expand the partition size once it's created. So instead, you can delete the partition, and create a new one with the start block as the same as the old one, but that extends further. All your data will be intact upon mounting the new one. To counter this... Google It.

But not in Microsoft OS's. The OS senses the deleted partition table and forces a format - which overwrites the data with zero's. If you select "Quick" FORMAT does not check for damaged sectors, which it does by default during the format via cycled read / writes during the wipe.

Start the XP installation routine, delete the partition, recreate the partition size of your choice, reformat when asked.

If you wish to do it on another machine you must mount the new drive in the system using Disk Management in the Computer Management Control Panel. Once mounted as a drive letter you can right-click on the drive in a Windows Explorer window and select FORMAT or FORMAT from a Command Prompt window, your choice.

 

[The_Mac]

Quote:

Originally Posted by riffer http://dban.sourceforge.net/ Disconnect any drives you don't want erased. Will do DOD, RCMP and a few others.

FRIGGEN SWEET!

 

[hero zero]

http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/

[too bad autoclave is gone]

 

[ServinginEcuador]

The Boot n Nuke is the way to go. It is widely reported about how a simple fdisk and format won't rid your drive of personal info. There was a whole 20/20 investigation or something on this, and they talked about people having their personal info stolen when they donated a computer they thought was wiped clean. Even installing Windows onto the newly formatted drive won't erase everything.