Gaming Need help with completely whiping a HD

[DCG]

My dad has got a problem with his laptop (XP). he needs to format/whipe his C disk but the system doesn't let him do it.

his disk is set up in NTFS (if I am correct, the placing of the word's can be different but it starts with NT)

 

[Rydian]

How EXACTLY is he trying, and how EXACTLY is it failing?

Please be EXTREMELY DETAILED TO THE MAX, seriously.

 

[Brian117]

Format the drive with something called, DBAN. Which stands for, Darins Boot And Nuke.

It erases everything completely. After it's done, just reinstall XP.

 

[Rydian]

Format the drive with something called, DBAN. Which stands for, Darins Boot And Nuke.

It erases everything completely. After it's done, just reinstall XP.

Woah there, let's not jump the gun. If their disc is damaged or something that will leave them without an OS to use at all, so let's make sure we know they can reinstall after wiping first.

 

[DCG]

he has one disk that is devided into C and E. my dad already reinstalled XP to the E.
The E partion works fine but the C partion has blue letters and thinks it is full.
If you try to format it the normal way it says it is being used and aborts the action.
If you try to format it trough the dosprompt it also says it is being used and aborts.
Both partions have been set up as NTFS.

ps. he doesn't care about the information on the pc, everything can be erased. completely.

 

[soulfire]

use a magnet

(not recommended)

 

[steve-p]

that's a stupid hidden-recovery partition.
bastards like dell do that!

you need to delete the partitions.
you can use a Linux livedisk, or a bootable version of gparted - as used on the Linux disks.
or dban but that's slow & extreme.

 

[Rydian]

... you need to boot off the XP disc in order to format, you know that, right? You can't wipe windows from within windows, that's like trying to each yourself until there's nothing left.

http://pcsupport.about.com/od/tipstricks/ht/bootcddvd.htm

 

[BlackDave]

that's a stupid hidden-recovery partition.
bastards like dell do that!

you need to delete the partitions.
you can use a Linux livedisk, or a bootable version of gparted - as used on the Linux disks.
or dban but that's slow & extreme.

Asus does something better with partitions

I have a 500 hdd on my asus laptop Split into two partition

116 GB for the OS

And a clean empty partition for installing games and programs on it so that the OS has space to run on.

I used to have a disk that would let you boot your computer from it and clean a partition. I just can't remember the name

 

[Rydian]

Possibly GParted.

 

[Dangy]

Whip it good.

 

[BlackDave]

Possibly GParted.

Gparted is what I'm using now. It was a different one

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Or you could just boot a windows 98 DOS disc and do a low level format. That would completely wipe the drive including the boot sector, killing any partitions too.

 

[DCG]

well. we just tried the 98 disk..... the bloody thing cant boot disks anymore!!!!!!!!! GD.
maybe a usb will work....


edit. can anyone give me a link to a file ready to be put on a usb to make it boot?
I am not that experienced with USB booting

 

[bRKcRE]

he has one disk that is devided into C and E. my dad already reinstalled XP to the E.
The E partion works fine but the C partion has blue letters and thinks it is full.
If you try to format it the normal way it says it is being used and aborts the action.
If you try to format it trough the dosprompt it also says it is being used and aborts.
Both partions have been set up as NTFS.

ps. he doesn't care about the information on the pc, everything can be erased. completely.

if the C partition is the active system partition, then you will need to change the setting so that the new windows install on E is the main bootdisk from startup....you should then be able to format the C partition with no issues..

 

[DCG]

the system is already on E

 

[steve-p]

you cant use dos, win98 or any other microsoft junk to delete this mess, trust me.
and you cant low-level format - you couldnt do that for years - modern drives wont let you.

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Have you tried enabling your CD ROM drive as your first boot device in your BIOS settings?

 

[Rydian]

If you can't boot from disc then don't try any other suggestions to wipe, as you need to be able to boot from disc in order to reinstall windows after the wipe... unless you can boot from USB, then you can try to install windows from it, but you'll need to do some work to set that up beforehand.

http://www.vandomburg.net/installing-windows-xp-from-usb/

 

[bRKcRE]

the system is already on E

but is the E partition setup as the master boot partition?? or is it still booting from the C partition??? that was my question, not do you you have windows on the E partition..