How to erase HDD in BIOS?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
D

DarthTengil

Distinguished
Nov 26, 2009
170
0
18,690
Can´t use Windows 7. I need to compleatly erase my 2 HDDs (not just Format them). Need to do it in BIOS, but can´t find any menue that leads to that kind of stuff. Are also going to clear BIOS with move that small pin on the motherboard. Want to do this to make my HDDs new like it was when I bought them.
 
Low level formatting(Write ZEROs) normally will erase data and make the drive like new. It takes forever as it writes 0's to the entire drive.

just never do this to an SSD drive.

You can get many disk wiping utilities. and again, it is going to take a LONG time to erase a drive.
 
I do not believe any BIOS I have seen has the ability to erase/format a harddrive, I don't think it is something it "knows how" to do, you need a piece of software/an OS to tell it what to do with your HDD's.
 
Yes there's no point in doing what you're asking, it won't make them perform better or faster. Even a low level format won't do any good for a HDD as nukemaster said, just do a quick format instead and it will get the job done. The only way to "erase" them from the BIOS would be to disconnect them from the PC and reconnect them later, but as I said I don't understand why you want to do this, there's no point or no advantage whatsoever. Maybe if you start by telling us what is the problem exactly or why you want to do this in the first place we could guide you better.
 
While you won't find that kind of functionality in the BIOS on any motherboard I've seen (BIOS = Basic Input Output System, limited functionality just to get a computer able to boot to something else), there are utilities you can use to do a HDD "erase" (literally writing 0's to every bit on the drive). I'm not sure what you hope to accomplish by doing so as Windows 7 install disks all include the ability to remove partitions and fully reformat any healthy HDD prior to installation.

Anyway, the easiest tool I know of to do such a thing is the Western Digital Data Lifeguard Diagnostic. I'm pretty sure the link I've included there is the specific utility that I have used. It should allow you to create a bootable CD that will give you functionality to test a HDD's functionality, write zero's to a drive, and reformat a drive.
 
Oh yeah, I didn't think about that, maybe he wants to get rid of the disks and destroy them before. DBAN is a free tool I used in the past to rewrite all sectors to 0's more than once (5 times is usually safe) but it takes a long time (the larger the disks, the longer it takes or course).
 
Excplean: I´ve lost my mind and done some insaine. No sound of my PC. Have problems a long time. Want to use Realtek "sound program". When Windows new installed I installed the Realtek driver from the MB DVD as usually. I updated it, but then no sound. Restored the first one. Then Windows is updating I automatically get hid-crap and the sound was pulled to the hid. Now no sound. Have done everything a user can do not even the data store could came to any answer. To get it right I wanted to deleted my STRIPE Raid system disk and deleted my array and tryed to make a new array. Could not do it because I happended to plug in my backup SSD insteade of my HDD2 disk. Can´t see that in BIOS only HDD 1. Ctrl + I or F4 don´t pop up the array settings. What to do now when I can´t do a new array? Help!
 
If it is Intel raid, you can put the 2 disks into any Intel raid ready board and rebuilt it from Windows and even do a format while at it. A quick format is MORE then enough to ensure you are starting clean if you are just reinstalling windows.

Breaking the recreating a raid volume in the Intel matrix storage manager will also start things over(control + i and not 1 on most boards).

Both of these are far faster then low level formatting a drive, but you only do that if you want the drive to be hard to recover(lets say you are selling it or something.).

When installing windows you should also be able to use the Custom(advanced) install option to format the drive/partition just before installing windows.
 
My RAID STRIPE is 2 HDD as system disk where windows is installed. My SSD disk is a backup with all my photos,music and other stuff. When it was impossible to get the right driver to work when windows insisted of using HID I wanted to start it all over again and reinstall windows. To be sure that anything of missing shortcuts or data left in my PC could reame to exist and interfere in every possible way I first hit CNTR+I when booting and got to the raid array meny. I deleted (what I thought) the array and that did got well. When trying to create a new STRIPE I got the message "not enough room (or something like that) to create a array". Then I discovered I had put in my SSD instead of HDD number 2 of the STRIPE into the SATA slot... 12 years of experiens and happened to do this insane thing. ashamed of myself!!!

What I did was delete the array on HDD number 1 but not HDD 2. Now the command CTRL+I or F4 is numb. the array meny dont popup at all. HDD 1 is showing in BIOS but not HDD 2. Its the same thing in boot setup. Tried to insert windows CD to see if the basic data thats reads to the PC before the meny "install windows" would install the basic drivers so I might could get the array meny up again. but it doesnt worked at all. When trying to install windows it couldnt find any HDD disc to install on at all.

What I can imagen HDD 2 is still in a array or something like that. Then I decided to try to delate everything I can think is existing to delate and erase, clear BIOS and erase/format my HDDs as much I can do. Cant of not couse do this in windows when that was installed on my HDD array. Have plAyed around with RAID. AHCI. IDE and the other choises but nothing still dont exist. only HDD 1 is showing. Its nothing physical wrong with HDD 2. it just dont wpork. HELP!
 
Ok first thing you have to do is REMOVE the SSD from the system to avoid loosing data on it. Always remove file drives when messing with a system.

If you have a second computer, I would check the SSD to ensure you have not lost anything SSD's very quickly erase blocks to keep performance high if data was removed.

Now you should try each HDD one at a time to ensure they both boot. The bios setting should be RAID. With one drive only you should see a missing drive error. as long as both work by them self, then try both, if one does not show up, check the sata cable to ensure it is not the issue.

post back and let us know how it goes.
 
To make it clear I use Intel i7 CPU socket 1366 and Asus Sabertooth X58 MB. The HDDs is Western Digital VelocyRaptor SATA 2. the SSD is from Corsair.
 
Have unplugged the SSD as soon I discovered this. Have also set BIOS in raid. Will try to chek if both HDD will boot one at a time to see if they work. Am also thinking of use another SATE slots to see if the one I use have some IRQ problems. Coming back later. Thanks all for being so SUPER!!!
 
Your board also has 2 SATA controllers the Intel(black) one and the Marvel(grey) one. So make sure you are using the same one that you setup raid on(I am guessing the Intel one) to begin with. Not all third party controllers show up in the bios(but the drives can be used and selected for booting still).

If you happen to have a drive on each, you would run into some interesting issues.
 
Booted one at a time and both work. RAID is still on main screen menyes. Boot settings is still my WD Raptor. but since I got this problem it only shows WD Raptor 740. Dont get it. both are 74 GB each. CTRL+I is still numb. dont get to the array settings.
 
Are going to try to format both discs with a friend. Am sure I can plugin and do it on hes win 7. Comming back on monday with report. If my BIOS still is complaining I will clear Cmos/BIOS with that jumper. Stay tune 🙂
 
You have to ensure they are broken from RAID as well. even a single on on non raid Intel systems shows up as a broken raid volume. I know because I wanted to scan sine drives for errors and dropped one at a time onto a H55 board and they showed as a broken raid volume. I used a third party controller for the scanning and then placed them back in the first system. They still remained it raid and all that good stuff..

Even if you connect them both on another system(any modern Intel chipset with RAID), you can break and recreate the raid volume.

The bios does not hold the raid info, it is placed on the drives or something(I moved from system to system and carried along the same raid volumes from 975x -> P35 then later -> X58. Never even had to rebuild).
 
So you could move your RAID array from one system to another with another MB? Impressing! Have been to a friend and tried to format both discs, plugged in one at a time. As I thought the first was de-arrayed and allready empty of data and is clear to use again, and the other is still in a array and think it still have data and space that is the sum of both my HDD (2x74GB), and shows it still have 120GB filled with data. When I tried to click on it in the system administrator tools I could not initiate it and therefore not a chance to format it. If I dont can format it in Windows and are not able to get into DOS (where I still dont feel I belong) from my PC the only thing that remains to do is to go to my PC store and let them format it for me. Tragic and phatetic that I cant solve my problem on my own and that it was years ago since I was forced to let a store do it for me, but sometimes one has to throw in the towel. Have think of going to the police office and ask them how to erase a disc but can imagen they would put me into a madrased cell and throw away the key... I'll be back (I hope) later 🙂
 
Time to break out some Linux if you want it erased.

Gparted is your friend. It can be run from a CD or flash drive and should allow partition removal from almost any drive. I would recommend you connect the drive to a non Intel controller if you can(Asmedia/Marvel/Promise). Many boards have an extra controller for SATA6(older boards) or just extra ports. IF not, See what the Intel ports do. I have never had to erase a raid volume this way.

For your own good, unplug ALL other hard drives while doing this. We do not want to erase the wrong one. Also, after you tell it what to do, you have to click the green check-mark to start the process. Partition removal is fast.

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php
 
Thanks for the link. Went to the PC store and they did format it for a cheep cost. Have now everything back and running, got access to the array menu and did a new stripe. Thank god all my backup was still on the SSD disc. Thus, a funny thing is that it suddenly thinks its in a RAID mode by itself! Well, it works just fine so I have nothing to complain about. Would be interesting if you can clue it out why the SSD is behaving like this. I will give you the golden star but hold this thread open a little bit longer. Take care / Darth
 
Intel writes a small bit of data to the drives in an array(this lets you move the drives from board to board without breaking the array. Great for data recovery), That is why they have to be cleared before the drives show up as single again.
My H55 even shows a single drive from a raid volume as the full array(funny part is the board does NOT even support raid.).

You may see the SSD in the RAID bios, this is normal and will cause no issues at all. RAID and non RAID drives will show up in the list on boot as well as in the Intel Rapid Storage Technology control panel.
 
Hysterical funny with that H55 thing 🙂 Well. Now my PC is up and running again and the data on my SSD was still on it. Thus I suddenly feel anx of the fact that I have my backup on a SSD disc, that is so easy to erase and sencetive for example if a thunder lightning hits the PC. That happened on a former computer I had and it fryed every single circuit there was inside, the only thing that still worked was my HDD, that I used on another PC. Perhaps I should buy a extern HDD to have backups on, would work fast with the new USB 3 plug. Thanks so much Nuke, your super!!!
 
Since I dont are able to close this thread with a big golden star to you Nuke I at least have given all your posts a thum up! Now this thread is solved and "closed". Have a nice day to you all out there ;-)
 
Any time.

I personally have an external drive for my file backups as well(E-SATA, USB 3 did not exist when I got the enclosure) Thinking of getting a second one for my media center. It has lots of data that should be backed up as well. They are cheap and at least have a decent chance to survive a computer issue. If lightning is a worry, disconnect it from both power and USB when not in use.

So for your inability to select an answer, This may have been set as a discussion thread and not a question thread. Only a mod can change that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom