I want to completely wipe a drive
- Sylvus
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I want to completely wipe a drive
Long story short, I accidentally started installing Windows XP MCE from inside of Windows XP, some install files got copied to one of my partitions, and now I can't delete that partition.
I have no floppy drive.
I'm not 100% certain that there aren't all kinds of virii and whatnot on said computer, I would be happy to completely wipe the drive at the lowest possible level, boot records and whatever else I might be referring to incorrectly at this time.
I have no floppy drive.
Can anyone provide me the proper steps to accomplish what I'd like to accomplish, keeping in mind that I lack the ability to create your traditional bootable floppy? I have access to as many burned CDs as necessary and a USB Key that I can go nuts with. The computer in question has the ability to boot from CD and/or USB.
The route I was thinking of trying to go (after reading various google links) was to get something bootable, get delpart.exe on it, and delete my partitions from there, but for whatever reason the links I try aren't getting me a bootable USB Key. When it tries to boot from the key, it just gives me an "Error Loading OS" message.
Hook a brother up.
I have no floppy drive.
I'm not 100% certain that there aren't all kinds of virii and whatnot on said computer, I would be happy to completely wipe the drive at the lowest possible level, boot records and whatever else I might be referring to incorrectly at this time.
I have no floppy drive.
Can anyone provide me the proper steps to accomplish what I'd like to accomplish, keeping in mind that I lack the ability to create your traditional bootable floppy? I have access to as many burned CDs as necessary and a USB Key that I can go nuts with. The computer in question has the ability to boot from CD and/or USB.
The route I was thinking of trying to go (after reading various google links) was to get something bootable, get delpart.exe on it, and delete my partitions from there, but for whatever reason the links I try aren't getting me a bootable USB Key. When it tries to boot from the key, it just gives me an "Error Loading OS" message.
Hook a brother up.
"It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." - Barack Obama
Go Blue!
Go Blue!
It may be getting a bit in depth, and I'm not even sure if it can still be done, but I know an industrial strength rare earth magnet used to do wonders on cleaning any sort of rewriteable disk. It may cause more problems (read: you may or may not be able to use the drive again), as I've never done it, but someone else may know for sure. I do know the old floppy disks could be wiped with a magnet then just reformatted and they would work fine.
edit: On second thought, I would forget you read this. It's probably not a good idea unless the FBI is knocking on the door asking about all that kiddie porn.
edit: On second thought, I would forget you read this. It's probably not a good idea unless the FBI is knocking on the door asking about all that kiddie porn.
- Sylvus
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Unless you've started the install process and it copied some of the install files to said partition, then there appears to be no way to delete the partition the files were copied to from the Windows install process.Animalor wrote:Pop in and boot from any windows CD. You can delete and create partitions from the Windows install process.
That's what I had hoped to be able to do.
I guess I'll probably try a Linux distro and use disk druid (or whatever the current flavor of that is).
"It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." - Barack Obama
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- Aardor
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bootable cdrom secure wipe application:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
There are a ton of similar products around, I just happen to have used this one.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
There are a ton of similar products around, I just happen to have used this one.
- Sylvus
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That did a great job, thanks!Aardor wrote:bootable cdrom secure wipe application:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
There are a ton of similar products around, I just happen to have used this one.
"It's like these guys take pride in being ignorant." - Barack Obama
Go Blue!
Go Blue!