Anyone Know How To Wipe RedHat From A HDD?

[neroe]

I want to format a HDD that is currently running a version of RedHat.
I have tried hooking it up as a slave drive to a Windows 2000 machine with a view to formatting it by right clicking on it through Explorer and selecting "Format" but Windows does not pick up on the fact that it is attached.

Any idea's guys . . . any help gratefully received.

Regards,

Neroe

 

[smah]

This utility will do it.

http://downloads-zdnet.com.com/3000-2094-8838570.html?tag=lst-0-1

Make sure this drive is set as the primary master.

 

[braddds]

Do you have a boot disk (win98?). Boot up with it and use fdisk to remove any partitions and create a new one, goto dos and format or boot to XP and format from there!

Cheers

Thx for all comments and advice given

 

[smah]

I should add, don't use this if there is anything else on that drive that you want to save.

 

[shmoes]

If linux isn't your primary partition, fdisk will not remove it.

you need a program called delpart.

http://www.russelltexas.com/delpart.htm

~Shmoes

I lay claim to nothing and everything. My words may be wisdom or disaster. In the end you make a choice. Noone is perfect.

 

[neroe]

Rapid replies or what!!

Thankyou for the advice . . .

Regards,
neroe

 

[braddds]

thx Shmoes

Didn't know that! Learning all the time!

Cheers

Thx for all comments and advice given

 

[wolluf]

neroe - did you look in disk management in 2k? (run diskmgmt.msc). That's 2k's partitioning tool - should let you remove linux partition(s) and create new ones.

 

[neroe]

Thanks for the tip Wolluf, but . . . Win2K doesn't even see the drive. The drive is holding the entire Red Hat OS therefore is not partitioned.

Just about to run an app called KillDisk to see what transpires.

 

[wolluf]

neroe - if 2k disk management can't see the drive, you've got a problem. All operating systems install on partitions (even if whole drive is one partition - and last Red Hat I installed set up 3 partitions) - and even if there were no partitions on the disk, it should appear in disk management as unpartitioned space. If its not appearing at all in disk management, it suggests either something wrong with drive, mobo/bios/controller or the bios/drive (jumper) settings.

 

[shmoes]

I wouldn't read to much into it just yet.


Delpart is an old tool, tried tested and true, for deleting NON-MSDOS partitions. I still say use that first.




~Shmoes

I lay claim to nothing and everything. My words may be wisdom or disaster. In the end you make a choice. Noone is perfect.

 

[neroe]

Thanks for the advice guy's but somewhere along the line this thread became confused.

This was my original message;

I want to format a HDD that is currently running a version of RedHat.
I have tried hooking it up as a slave drive to a Windows 2000 machine with a view to formatting it by right clicking on it through Explorer and selecting "Format" but Windows does not pick up on the fact that it is attached.

What I was saying here was that I had one HDD (NO PARTITIONS) with one OS on it. I could not format it because Windows 2000 could NOT see the drive when I attached it as a slave drive.

Schmoes and Smah put me on the road to beating this problem by suggesting a utility that I could use.

Both of there suggested software solutions did not work.

I ended up using a piece of software called "Kill Disk". It runs from within an MS DOS environment and then does its thing once you point it at the drive in question.

Its fantastic and did the job.

This is first time I have posted a problem at Tek-Tips and I have received some usefull responces but may I point out that some were complete nonsence (though I'm sure well intended) due to the fact that the original posting had not been read properly.

What I'm saying is think before you act.

neroe

 

[wolluf]

neroe,

Complete nonsense? Like, 'The drive is holding the entire Red Hat OS therefore is not partitioned'.
Yes it is.

As you don't clarify, I don't know which posts you're referring to - but win2k SHOULD see a linux formatted partition in disk management. However, it will NOT be visible in explorer (so you can format it).

So, may I suggest you read the replies more carefully too.

 

[shmoes]

neroe,

I'm just curious, did you run delpart in an MSDOS enviroment? copy it to a bootdisk, boot up and use it there.

If it doesn't see the hard drive, are you sure it's partitioned at all?

you can't have an OS on a hard drive that's not partitioned... it's not possible.

what are you trying to create a new partition with?

~Shmoes

I lay claim to nothing and everything. My words may be wisdom or disaster. In the end you make a choice. Noone is perfect.

 

[shmoes]

Does Fdisk see the partition as a non-msdos partition?



~Shmoes

I lay claim to nothing and everything. My words may be wisdom or disaster. In the end you make a choice. Noone is perfect.

 

[neroe]

It seems that a use of terminology is causing some grief here, and if I am to to blame then I apologize.

I believed that a partitioned disk was one that was split into two or more divides.

I did not run DelPart in MSDOS environment I ran Kill Disk. The procedure was exactly as you envisaged - Shmoes.

Wolluf - With regard to diskmgmt.msc being able to see the problem disk, it could not . . . hence the reason I originally seeked advice.

Again, thanks for any advice and apologies for any confusion.

Regards,
neroe

 

[shmoes]

Well, I'm glad you got it figured out, anyways case closed

yay.

NEXT =)



~Shmoes

I lay claim to nothing and everything. My words may be wisdom or disaster. In the end you make a choice. Noone is perfect.

 

[cdogg]

"[blue]I believed that a partitioned disk was one that was split into two or more divides[/blue]"


neroe,

You are correct. Every hard drive that contains an OS, contains a partition. The first sector of the hard drive contains the boot sector, or MBR (Master Boot Record). This section is kept separate from the rest of the drive which must contain at least one logical partition for storage. Therefore, it is safe to say that the drive contains at least two or more parts. Hence, a single partition!




~cdogg

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
- A. Einstein

 

[smah]

FWIW, I just re-downloaded the 'wreck disk' link that I posted above. When I originally found this, I used it and it worked flawlessly. Now, I see that they are not allowing a free use of this shareware because people have been not registering it. Anyway, if you don't mind paying a few bucks, it does work very well.

 

[neroe]

No problem, thanks for the info. I think I mention it in an earlier post that I used Kill Disk in the end. Excellent piece of software available from download.com

Regards,

neroe