Abhi1405241549

I was going to mention Darik's Boot And Nuke.
I used it once when my boot sector died and I was trying to wipe the hard drive. Just install it to a floppy disk and boot from it. You can choose your type of wipe, one of them takes like 6 hours but it completely gets rid of everything.

It took me a while to find a shop that sold floppy disks and that was over a year ago so I imagine you'll have more trouble finding them now and since people don't have floppy disk drives anymore, it might be harder.

I had downloaded DBAN in both floppy and CDRW format. Since itâs not my system which was wrecked, itâs my cousinâs. So the next Sunday weâll see whether this software will successfully erase the hard disk or notâŚ.

Thanks to Firefox, sten, Xboxrules and to everyoneâŚ..

Comments on this thread:

 

1. I have used Power Quest Partition Magic for more than a decade. That is the best choice, if your can get it. Unfortunately, they were bought out by Symantec and shut down, because their Drive Image product was the strongest competition to Symantec's Ghost. You may be able to get a copy of it off Ebay or some other reseller. Do that if you can. It'll be around $70, and worth it.

 

2. I have also used Knoppix, and like it. However, you have to be fluent in Linux commands to use it. "Free" comes with a learning curve.

 

3. An alternative I've used is Bing (Boot-It Next Generation) by TeraByte. It costs $35, and does a lot more than format drives, but, again, you need to know something about Master Boot Records. That is a smaller learning curve than Linux, but it'll still take a day or two of reading. Terabyte also has a Forum with people who can help you walk through the reformatting process.

 

My advice is: Get PM if you can find it. If not, try Bing. Some time in the future when you don't have an immediate problem, learn Linux. Knoppix is a good place to start, because you can run it off a CD without touching your hard drive!

Thanks for your suggestion. Here in India, its better to spend $35 for a new 120GB hard disk rather than buying software. But thanks a lot for your suggestion.

I suggest you use a real parition program, like partition magic. The one coming with the Windows XP cd isn't very good, where as partition magic has provided me great service for many years, I was very young when I started using it. If you have the multi boot program called hyperos it includes partition magic on it's cd. If not you can get it and put it on a floppy drive.Read a tutorial online and you should find out how to use it.

When I bought XP cd. The delear had given me only the bootable CD. Except that I didnt get nothing. Pls help in in any easier ways guys.....

The first thing that comes to mind is to use a Knoppix live CD to wipe out the offending partition.

In what way does Knoppix live CD helps me out.....
How to use this software.....
Pls explain me in detail... I am little bit confused coz I'm in a hurry?????

put your Windows XP into your CD-rom and restart your PC after that when you boot it you get options...you need to go to the step before you choose where to install Windows where you can arrange your Partitions...you can delete(with "L"),or create new ones...delete C: partition and than recreate it,after that choose install partition of your windows(with ENTER key)i hope this helps!

I already done what you said but its not working in this way. When I tried to del d,e,f partitions. It was done smoothly. But when deleting c it gives me a message that "some files are needed to format XP which are in C drive, so it cannot del the c drive" but there nothing in the c Drive. I had deleted everything forcibly. Any other way.....

When I tried to install XP as a fresh copy. I couldn’t able to format my C drive at the starting of the installation. So I installed XP in D drive and after that I forcibly deleted all the contents from C Drive. Now when I try to format C drive, its not getting formatted. I need to format my C drive coz there is a lot of virus in it. The C drive shows nothing in it but when I see the properties it takes 1.76GB as used space. Please any method or software’s to delete the C drive or format it. I'm ready to re-format my whole PC. Please any help.....

Thanks a lot guys. Now I have to check it out through WeaponX method. Since I dont have my 80GB hard disk with me right now. I gave it to my cousin to get it formatted.Now this is another problem that, if the hard disk is working fine then I could format it. But when the hard disk is corrupted I cannot format it in my PC. It gives me a message "Format not complete" or similar to that.

I'll always format in NTFS partion and what is the method to disconnect it if it refuses to quit. Normally I just plug it off. If I do that, from the next time it doesnt open. Actually I click on the desktop toolbar which show "Safely Remove USB Drive". Since I have a Motorola Motorizr Z3 and Canon A540 which works on USB settings. They are working fine.I suppose the problem is with the hard disk only.But in some other systems it works excellent.

I have an external 80GB laptop hard disk. When I connect it to my PC, everything goes fine. The problem occurs when I tried to disconnect it form my PC. It shows an message like "Cannot remove now, some programs are using the Hard Disk". Next time I connect it to my PC and try to open it. It shows me "Disk is corrupted or unreadable". It says format the Disk. When I do that, it says "the Disk connot be formatted". This hard disk is working on some PC's and in some others PC's it shows me the same message again.Pls Hepl me.........At present, I taking that Hard Disk to my friends house and getting it formatted and copy any stuff that I needed form my friend's PC. When I connect it to my PC. It works for the first time and while disconnecting it, evrything blows up.I'm going mad with this hard disk. Whether the problem is with my hard disk or with my PC.