Erasing a Hard Drive...?

  • Thread starter Thread starter johnnypraze
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johnnypraze

johnnypraze

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I have a problem. One of my PCs has been used without me monitoring it (checking up on it and maintnancing it) and it was pretty muched wrecked by viruses.

Norton was installed, but way out of date, so I installed AVG and it found all the infected files. Well alot of the files were in the registry and windows operating folders, so once AVG finished and restarted, I got the "Virus found in" message and that windows needed to be re-installed.

Heres the thing, I lost my Windows ME disk. I have ME and XP for my recording PC but both are designed for my PC specifically. (ie: compaq disk and XP upgrade cd.)

Id like to have the computer running until I find the windows disk.

I have Linux Red hat that I could install, but it wont install with windows being wrecked like that.

Is there a way I can erase the Hard drive, or is there an easier way to fix this problem..?
 
Why wouldn't Redhat install with Windows being wrecked ?

Part of the redhat install includes an format of the drive. That should erase any data that's on the drive.
 
Can you set the computer so it boots from the CD-ROM, and then boot the Red Hat install disk? That ought to do the trick.
 
The only way the Red Hat disk will boot, is if the HD is unplugged, but I cant plug it back in, because during installation it doesnt read the hard drive.

How can I get it to boot from CD-Rom...?
 
johnnypraze said:
How can I get it to boot from CD-Rom...?
Click to expand...
Depends on your BIOS. Most BIOS setup programs have a setting for "boot order", or several "boot device" settings, or something similar. In my BIOS (Phoenix/Award) I have to set "1st boot device" to CDROM and all other boot device settings off. You get to the BIOS setup program by pressing a certain key (often Delete) while the computer is cold-booting. If you're not comfortable changing BIOS settings, it might be best to get some local help (kid next door, etc.).
 
Take the drive out and install as a second drive in the XP sustem. Then you can use Norton on the XP system to access and/or fix the drive with virus prlblems.

Ed
 
I never thought of that, but Im not sure how that will work, cuz theres really no repairing as Windows needs to be reinstalled.

I already have 2 HDs installed in this PC, but If I hook that one up, how can I get into it to wipe it out/reformat it?

I have maxblasts software, I think I may be able to do it with that...
 
boot from a start-up disk and after it runs through its set up type "format c:/s" it will tell you what to do next. you'll get a C: prompt. type setup and your os should set itself up if it will run in dos. if you want xp, set your bios to boot from cd-rom(advanced settings). restart again and xp set up will begin. It will detect your drives and you can delete or partition drives and setup from there. its eaiser than any other way : to me at least.
 
OK, you need a bootable floppy disk that has fdisk and format on it... If you have a box with Windows 98 you can get one pretty easy. Or you can download diskWizard from www.seagate.com and make a boot disk with that. Then you need to repartition and reformat the disk. Don't even have to move the drive!
 
I think you can give Microsoft your SN and they will send a disk for $10. As far as erasing the disk, you could install it in another computer and set it as slave using jumpers. Then, reformat it by right clicking the drive in my computer.

Chuck
 
Waht version of Windows do you want to reinstall, and what CD media do you have to work with for this task?

Ed
 
oneArtist said:
I think you can give Microsoft your SN and they will send a disk for $10. As far as erasing the disk, you could install it in another computer and set it as slave using jumpers. Then, reformat it by right clicking the drive in my computer.

Chuck
Click to expand...


If you want to format thats the easiest way. I had this problem like a month ago and thats exactly what I did. Then when its re-formatted just run your maxblast for the drive and partition again.
 
For what ever reason the serial # isnt on the PC. Its my girlfriends computer actually. I want to get this fixed so all our roomates arent trying to use my recording PC for surfing and email...

- ME was originally installed in the PC.
- I dont have a windows disk to re-install at the time
- I do have Maxblasts software and Linux Red Hat as a temp OS

I have XP on this Computer so I cant make a boot disk from here currect?

I downloaded a DOS bootdisk from http://www.bootdisk.com/

Is this what I need?
 
If your still interested in installing Redhat, Disk 1 of the install has a utility for creating a boot floppy (since you cant boot from CDROM) called rawwritewin in the directory dosutils\rawwritewin.

Install that on your working windows PC. You have to tell it what image to use for booting. Select images/bootdisk.img from Disk 1, make sure that the A: drive is selected as the floppy drive then click on write. This will give you a boot floppy for installing Redhat.
 
I went ahead and tried the boot disk from http://www.bootdisk.com/, and It did exactly what I needed it to.

Fdisked, deleted the only partition, and redhat installed with no problems after the restart...

Thanks guys...
 
Cool.

Is this your first time using redhat ? What do you think of it ?
 
Yeah, its my first time...

I really like it, but Ill probably end up putting windows back on eventually. Im just way too familiar with windows, and dont really have time to learn linux and its functions.

I know its pretty simple and somewhat similar to windows, but I can tweak and troubleshoot windows much easier and everythings "right at my fingertips", so to speak.

I also have debian and Knoppix, and I play around with that knoppix more then anything, cuz I can do that on my own time without having to install linux, or run a dual boot system.

My old neighbor swore by linux, but it hasnt really persuaded me to jump ship yet...
 
Yup, Linux sure has developed over the past few years. It's getting much more user friendly than it used to be.
 
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