Removing Master Boot Record on old disk

[John Smithe]

I have a spare disk which used to have Windows 98SE on it. I reformatted
the disk, as a single large 'basic' partition, by downloading the
manufacturers installation software and reformatting the disk with the
manufacturers installation software. I added the disk to my PC and ran
'disk management'. To my surprise 'disk management' is offering to let
me make the partition on the second disk 'active'. This disk does not
have an OS on it anymore. Device Manager - Properties - Volumes says
that the 'Type' is basic and the 'Partition style' is 'Master Boot
Record (MBR)'. Reformatting with 'disk management' produces the same
results. So, can the Master Boot Record be removed from this disk? If
so, how? Is this an issue? If this partition gets 'activated' will it be
an issue if there is not an OS on it? Does windows XP always make
'primary partitions/basic' 'master boot record' partitions? Norton
antivirus also sees two Master Boot Records in my computer as well as
three Boot Records!


OS Name Microsoft Windows XP Home Edition
Version 5.1.2600 Service Pack 2 Build 2600
Boot Device \Device\HarddiskVolume1
HAL Version = "5.1.2600.2180 (xpsp_sp2_rtm.040803-2158)"
Total Physical Memory 1,024.00 MB
Available Physical Memory 815.43 MB
Total Virtual Memory 2.00 GB
Available Virtual Memory 1.96 GB
Page File Space 1.90 GB
Page File D:\pagefile.sys


OS is here:---------------------------------------
Drive C:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed No
File System NTFS
Size 10.00 GB (10,733,957,120 bytes)
Volume Name Lassen

Drive D:-------------------------------------------
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed No
File System NTFS
Size 143.38 GB (153,952,530,432 bytes)
Volume Name Arches

second drive with MBR is here:---------------------
Drive E:
Description Local Fixed Disk
Compressed No
File System NTFS
Size 42.93 GB (46,100,242,432 bytes)
Volume Name Yosemite

 

[Li'l Roberto]

I have a spare disk which used to have Windows 98SE on it. I reformatted
the disk, as a single large 'basic' partition, by downloading the
manufacturers installation software and reformatting the disk with the
manufacturers installation software. I added the disk to my PC and ran
'disk management'. To my surprise 'disk management' is offering to let
me make the partition on the second disk 'active'. This disk does not
have an OS on it anymore. Device Manager - Properties - Volumes says
that the 'Type' is basic and the 'Partition style' is 'Master Boot
Record (MBR)'. Reformatting with 'disk management' produces the same
results. So, can the Master Boot Record be removed from this disk? If
so, how?

Delete any partitions you have created, then formatting it as an
extended partition should do what you want.

rgds
Li'l Roberto

 

[John Smithe]

Delete any partitions you have created, then formatting it as an

extended partition should do what you want.

Didn't work. The MBR was still there.

 

[grolschie]

Didn't work. The MBR was still there.

fixmbr?
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixmbr.mspx

 

[Anna]

I have a spare disk which used to have Windows 98SE on it. I reformatted
the disk, as a single large 'basic' partition, by downloading the
manufacturers installation software and reformatting the disk with the
manufacturers installation software. I added the disk to my PC and ran
'disk management'. To my surprise 'disk management' is offering to let
me make the partition on the second disk 'active'. This disk does not
have an OS on it anymore. Device Manager - Properties - Volumes says
that the 'Type' is basic and the 'Partition style' is 'Master Boot
Record (MBR)'. Reformatting with 'disk management' produces the same
results. So, can the Master Boot Record be removed from this disk? If
so, how?

Li'l Roberto responds...

fixmbr?
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/bootcons_fixmbr.mspx

John:
I'm assuming you're planning to use that second drive for storage and/or
backup purposes. Why don't you simply use XP's Disk Management utility to
format the drive? There's really no need to use the manufacturer's utility
for this purpose. The DM utility is a perfectly fine program to partition
and/or format your drive. Unless you have some special problem with that
drive, I don't think you have to "remove" the MBR with some special program.
Is there any reason why simple formatting of the drive is insufficient for
your purposes?
Anna

 

[grolschie]

Li'l Roberto responds...





John:
I'm assuming you're planning to use that second drive for storage and/or
backup purposes. Why don't you simply use XP's Disk Management utility to
format the drive? There's really no need to use the manufacturer's utility
for this purpose. The DM utility is a perfectly fine program to partition
and/or format your drive. Unless you have some special problem with that
drive, I don't think you have to "remove" the MBR with some special
program. Is there any reason why simple formatting of the drive is
insufficient for your purposes?
Anna

I screwed the MBR so bad once, somehow, that fdisking couldn't fix things.
Downloading Western Digital's software for my drive and writing 0's to the
entire drive allowed me to get it back to a working state.

 

[John Smithe]

Is there any reason why
simple formatting of the drive is insufficient for your purposes?
Anna

Tried that, didn't work.

 

[Anna]

Tried that, didn't work.

John:
When you say it "didn't work", specifically, in what way didn't it work? I
assume from your original posting that you're planning to use that drive as
a second drive for storage/backup purposes. Is that right? If so, after
you've partitioned/formatted it (using the Disk Management utility in XP)
what exactly is the problem? Does the system not recognize the drive? Do you
get some sort of error message(s) when you attempt to access the drive?

It would really help if you would provide more precise details concerning
the problem other than your concern re "removing the MBR" from the disk?
Anna