low level format

[inuyasha320]

how do i low level a dell inspiron 8600.

i cant get my ethernet card to work on it (the one built on to the laptop)


i tried to install the drivers but it wont work
i know it has viruses in it because it is my friends laptop
i tried everything and the laptop does not have a flopy disk drive. how do i delete everything on the hard drive.


and i will like to add, how do i do to the tech tv's thescreensaavers message board. i cant find it ever since they merged with G4

 

[mrmonsoon]

If you have removed everything you want from the drive, there are a couple of choices.
One, do you have a restore disk for the computer-this will distroy ecerything on the disk and reload it like new.
Two, if no restore disk, put a win98 boot disk on cd and make it bootable-Nero is great for this.
let me know if this helped.

 

[inuyasha320]

thanks, it helped because while i was doing that i came across some info that i cauld just use fdisk and i am doing that right now. it works

 

[mrmonsoon]

Glade I was able to help, but like most things it comes with a price. As you read posts, you are now required to answer or help when you can-who says all costs are too high.

 

[Crashman]

put a win98 boot disk on cd and make it bootable

LMAO that's the SILLIEST thing I've heard since the last guy gave similar advice! The 98SE CD IS BOOTABLE, YOU DON'T NEED THE FLOPPY!!! XP CD is bootable too! BOTH allow you to delete/make partitions and format.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[mrmonsoon]

It is true you can do it that way, he stated he had virus's on the computer. By booting to f-disk he could distroy partion(s), create new and format-hopefully fully removing virus(s). Depending on how bad the machine was, it may or may not have been able to start loading windows. We don't know what os he is using, suggest 98 boot disk becouse it is good old standby. In reguards to your sig-don't you mean an EGO as big as yours.

 

[Crashman]

Yes, well, not all of us have a 98 CD lying around, but most of us do. Just boot off it and type "fdisk". Format on the other hand is located in the Win98 directory on the CD.

And I'm fairly certain the XP CD allows you to errase a partition at the time you choose what partition to instal to.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>

 

[4Ryan6]

You would need a manufacturers diagnostic disc for the name brand HDD in the machine to do what they call a Low Level Format, which basically is rewriting the entire drive with 0s, which wipes out all previous boot records, partitions, and information on the HDD, and restores the HD to the way is was shipped to you.

Diagnostic disk creating executable files can be downloaded from your HDD manufacturers website, you download the file to My Documents, put a formatted 3 1/2 Floppy in the Floppy drive, find the file you downloaded, execute the file and direct its writing to the Floppy drive.

Some Diagnostics disks are self booting, some have to be executed from the DOS A:\> prompt, I believe Western Digital is one of those.

Two points to leave you with is that first not all the Diagnostics disks will allow a direct LLF, unless it finds errors on the drive itself during the diagnostics scan, the Maxtor PowerMax will allow a LLF I know that for sure, I've done it many times.

Second is that make absolutely sure a LLF is the way you need to go, because you will not recover any files with any File Recovery programs like PC Inspector or programs like that, after you do it at all.

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[_WW_]

FYI, WD "Data Lifeguard Tools" diskette does have an option to write their disks to all 0s. If you don't have this diskette, you can download the tools from their website and create your own.

....WW (5.0)

 

[4Ryan6]

Thanks thats good to know.

<A HREF="http://forums.btvillarin.com/index.php?act=ST&f=41&t=2541" target="_new">My Rig</A>

 

[lunitic]

The Win98SE CD for new PCs is bootable, but the update version is not (dutch language version of Windows; I don't have experience with other language versions).

The Win98 version of fdisk doesn't allow you to delete non-FAT partitions, like a NTFS partition

 

[Crashman]

I don't remember the specifics of 98 first edition CD, except that it was bootable. I've been using the 98SE CD to wipe drives, and it can delete non-DOS partitions.

<font color=blue>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to a hero as big as Crashman!</font color=blue>
<font color=red>Only a place as big as the internet could be home to an ego as large as Crashman's!</font color=red>