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| Thread ID: 37275 | 2003-09-02 10:59:00 | Recovering Partitioned Hard Drives | jxsmith (4504) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 172572 | 2003-09-02 10:59:00 | I'm trying to recover a friends hard drive. It was partitioned sometime ago (not very well) using FIPS20. I have formatted each partition using FORMAT but am unable to use FDISK, which claims an error reading the drive. I have used a diagnostics program which says there are no physical problems with the drive. I tried using the WinXP set up to format the drive but it says that it can't access the drive. I have attached it to my WinXP Pro system. Device Manager can see it, but Windows Explorer and Disk Management can not. How do I completely wipe the drive so I can install a fresh OS? |
jxsmith (4504) | ||
| 172573 | 2003-09-02 11:23:00 | Sounds a bit screwy!! Two suggestions - try Partition Magic or fdisk from Linux (say using the CD-ROM version Knoppix). John |
JohnD (509) | ||
| 172574 | 2003-09-02 11:35:00 | try replaceing/repair mbr or an app called killdisk which should wipe everything off. | tweak'e (174) | ||
| 172575 | 2003-09-02 12:42:00 | Not screwy at all. In the Volume Boot Sector of your drive (an area that contains "headering" information including partition info) there is a 2-byte (I think) section in which is stored an identifying code for the programme that performed the partitioning. MS-DOS, Seagate's Disk Wizard and Partition Magic etc each has its specific identifier and I presume FIPS20 has one too. MS-DOS Fdisk, as far as I know, will not work with partitions created by a different utility, because apparently different utilities may store the partion info in different formats. 3 options come to mind - 1. Something like Partition Magic (suggested above) may be smart enough to identify the partitioning utility and unpick its work. I think there is a free demo version of PM but it may not be full featured and may not do what you want. 2. Killdisk (above) sounds as though it might ride roughshod over anything that is on your disk and clear it for repartitioning. 3. If you have access to FIPS20 use that to undo the partitions then start again. Others may have alternative suggestions. HTH. |
Robin S_ (86) | ||
| 172576 | 2003-09-02 12:46:00 | I have a little progra I have writen that will clear the boot sector and partition tables. email me if you want a copy. robsonde @ hotmail |
robsonde (120) | ||
| 172577 | 2003-09-03 01:08:00 | Robsonde, does your prog clear only the Master Boot Record (where the partition table is stored)? IIRC the code bytes that I mentioned are stored in the Volume Boot Sector not the Master Boot Record hence if your prog only deals to the latter presumably it will not change the code that is probably causing the problem. | Robin S_ (86) | ||
| 172578 | 2003-09-03 01:21:00 | IBM give away a little programme called zap.exe. A search for that in pressF1's search will bring up the link ... it's been posted here a few times. It kills the first couple of tracks on the drive. | Graham L (2) | ||
| 172579 | 2003-09-03 01:21:00 | I dont know for sure but I think it will. it writes 0's to ALL of the first sector of the drive. removes all boot loaders and fixes every fault I have seen in a patition table problem. |
robsonde (120) | ||
| 172580 | 2003-09-03 13:11:00 | Just for the record: Killdisk failed, but robsonde's program worked like a charm!! Thanks very much! |
jxsmith (4504) | ||
| 172581 | 2003-09-03 13:17:00 | thats what I wrote it for :-) | robsonde (120) | ||
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