erasing hard drive a doozy

[Guest]

Read all sorts of posts here--tried several solutions--no go. Here's what I
want to do. I want to completely erase the hard drive because I am
installing it onto a new motherboard. If you have any idea how to do so, or
if you think i don't need to do this to install on new board let me know--I
could be approaching from the wrong direction. To complicate things even
further I have two hard drives but they both seem to be set as secondary
drives. Oh and I don't have a working floppy....

Here's what I HAVE tried:
1. Set the bios to boot from cd, thinking I could erase from that point on,
but it refuses to do so and keeps opening up to the windows user log on page.


2. Tried downloading several types of disk erasers (killdisk for ex), but
when it downloads it is saved as a winrar file and i do not have the license
for winrar anymore. So, tried uninstalling winrar and it won't let me
uninstall says the uninstall file is gone. And at any rate since I can't
seem to boot from a cd it doesn't matter. amazing how hosed a computer can
get if u have an idiot like me working on it!

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Read all sorts of posts here--tried several solutions--no go. Here's what I
want to do. I want to completely erase the hard drive because I am
installing it onto a new motherboard. If you have any idea how to do so, or
if you think i don't need to do this to install on new board let me know--I
could be approaching from the wrong direction. To complicate things even
further I have two hard drives but they both seem to be set as secondary
drives. Oh and I don't have a working floppy....

Here's what I HAVE tried:
1. Set the bios to boot from cd, thinking I could erase from that point on,
but it refuses to do so and keeps opening up to the windows user log on page.


2. Tried downloading several types of disk erasers (killdisk for ex), but
when it downloads it is saved as a winrar file and i do not have the license
for winrar anymore. So, tried uninstalling winrar and it won't let me
uninstall says the uninstall file is gone. And at any rate since I can't
seem to boot from a cd it doesn't matter. amazing how hosed a computer can
get if u have an idiot like me working on it!

Why can't you boot from a CD? Life becomes much harder
if you can't!

Here is a quick way to erase everything on your disk:
- Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com).
- Run delpart.exe (http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm)
End of story!

 

[Squire]

Go back into your BIOS and set the CD drive to boot before the hard drive
does.
Insert your XP CD and reboot.
Watch the screen closely and it will tell you to hit any key to boot from
the CD drive.
Go through the motions to install XP and it will ask you where you want to
install it.
Delete all partitions to delete everything on the partitions.
Create new partitions of the size you want, and let the install do its
thing.

 

[Roberto]

You have two choices here
1. install the HDD in the "new system" make sure it is jumpered
correctly and do a repair install over your existing windows
2 as above but delete all partitions on the HDD, create new ones to
your liking and do a bare metal install

Place your XP media in the optical drive and then restart, watch for
the message "press any key to install windows" else even though you
have set the CD as first bootable device,
it will continue on and load windows as you have seen.

Read this MS article ID: 315341 for how to do a repair install, most of it
applies to a fresh install also
Doing option 2 will delete all your data so do backup any important
files before commencing, I would even back up if doing the first
option, just in case....

rgds
Roberto

 

[Frank]

Read all sorts of posts here--tried several solutions--no go.
Here's what I want to do. I want to completely erase the hard
drive because I am installing it onto a new motherboard. If you
have any idea how to do so, or if you think i don't need to do this
to install on new board let me know--I could be approaching from
the wrong direction. To complicate things even further I have two
hard drives but they both seem to be set as secondary drives. Oh
and I don't have a working floppy....

Here's what I HAVE tried:
1. Set the bios to boot from cd, thinking I could erase from that
point on, but it refuses to do so and keeps opening up to the
windows user log on page.


2. Tried downloading several types of disk erasers (killdisk for
ex), but when it downloads it is saved as a winrar file and i do
not have the license for winrar anymore. So, tried uninstalling
winrar and it won't let me uninstall says the uninstall file is
gone. And at any rate since I can't seem to boot from a cd it
doesn't matter. amazing how hosed a computer can get if u have an
idiot like me working on it!

For about $10, I would get a floppy drive that works. The HDD
manufacturers
have utilities that will write zeros to the HDDs. This is really the
best method
to have a _clean_ install. This will make the HDDs the same as they
were
shipped from the factory.

 

[Alias]

Why can't you boot from a CD? Life becomes much harder
if you can't!

Here is a quick way to erase everything on your disk:
- Boot the machine with a Win98 boot disk (www.bootdisk.com).
- Run delpart.exe (http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm)
End of story!

Note that the OP wrote, and I quote:

"Oh and I don't have a working floppy...."

Alias

 

[Pegasus \(MVP\)]

Note that the OP wrote, and I quote:

"Oh and I don't have a working floppy...."

Alias

I overlooked that little detail - thanks for pointing it out! However . . .
if the OP has neither a working floppy disk drive nor a bootable
CD drive then she is pretty well stuck, especially when it comes
to loading a new OS. Here are her options:

- Temporarily install the hard disk as a slave disk in some
other PC, then format its partitions, or
- Fix up her floppy disk drive and her CD drive.

 

[Ron Sommer]

What do you mean by secondary drives?
The jumper settings are master, slave, single, cable select.

 

[Richard Urban]

In most cases you have to press a key, when instructed, to boot from a CD.
Any key will do but the space bar is large and easy to press quickly.

--


Regards,

Richard Urban
Microsoft MVP Windows Shell/User

Quote from George Ankner:
If you knew as much as you think you know,
You would realize that you don't know what you thought you knew!

 

[Guest]

I can't boot from cd because it wont let me--read my post.

 

[Guest]

I know I need to get the cd drive working. It does work--machine doesn't boot
from it and cannot figure out why. Read the post.

 

[Guest]

Thats what weird...i can get to the screen where it says boot from cd... and
then it doesn't! It loads as usual.

 

[Guest]

Thank you so much!

You have two choices here
1. install the HDD in the "new system" make sure it is jumpered
correctly and do a repair install over your existing windows
2 as above but delete all partitions on the HDD, create new ones to
your liking and do a bare metal install

Place your XP media in the optical drive and then restart, watch for
the message "press any key to install windows" else even though you
have set the CD as first bootable device,
it will continue on and load windows as you have seen.

Read this MS article ID: 315341 for how to do a repair install, most of it
applies to a fresh install also
Doing option 2 will delete all your data so do backup any important
files before commencing, I would even back up if doing the first
option, just in case....

rgds
Roberto

Read all sorts of posts here--tried several solutions--no go. Here's what
I
want to do. I want to completely erase the hard drive because I am
installing it onto a new motherboard. If you have any idea how to do so,
or
if you think i don't need to do this to install on new board let me
know--I
could be approaching from the wrong direction. To complicate things even
further I have two hard drives but they both seem to be set as secondary
drives. Oh and I don't have a working floppy....

Here's what I HAVE tried:
1. Set the bios to boot from cd, thinking I could erase from that point
on,
but it refuses to do so and keeps opening up to the windows user log on
page.


2. Tried downloading several types of disk erasers (killdisk for ex), but
when it downloads it is saved as a winrar file and i do not have the
license
for winrar anymore. So, tried uninstalling winrar and it won't let me
uninstall says the uninstall file is gone. And at any rate since I can't
seem to boot from a cd it doesn't matter. amazing how hosed a computer
can
get if u have an idiot like me working on it!

 

[Guest]

It is hooked up wrong--it will work, don't know how to make it do so so I
gave up that.

 

[Guest]

Finally figured out to set the CMOS to cdrom instead of auto--seemed to work.
Thank for your help!

 

[Squire]

Hi, Jennifer,
Remove one of the hard drives by disconnecting all the cables.
Be sure the one you are keeping has the jumper set to master.
Then give it another try.
You can add the second hard drive later and if it is connected to the same
cable as the first one, be sure the jumper is set to slave.

 

[Plato]

Read all sorts of posts here--tried several solutions--no go. Here's what I
want to do. I want to completely erase the hard drive because I am

Use a zero fill utility. There are about a dozen free ones if you look
for them.

 

[Steve N.]

It is hooked up wrong--it will work, don't know how to make it do so so I
gave up that.

Try reversing the ribbon cable on the floppy drive. Very common in my
experience.

Steve N.