|
Ready to wipe that drive out that has been locking up on you
because you have screwed it up so bad, that God just laughs?
Only Geeks
get excited about this stuff.
Here is a great utility that will wipe it out, it's called gwscan. Basically it is a hard drive tester/re-conditioner.
Have your IE set for FTP View
This is a download link:
ftp://ftp.gateway.com/pub/hardware_support/drivers/win3.x_and_dos/mass_storage/hard_drives/
and
look for 7510801.exe
Basically just download the link to a floppy disk, extract the file (double left click on the *.exe file and make sure all the files stay on the floppy disk).
Boot to a command prompt (F8 in post - but before the splash screen).
Or
use a Windows 98 boot disk.
1) if you come up to c:\> type in A: and hit enter.
2) Stick the gwscan disk in the floppy drive.
3) Type in gwscan and press enter.
4) A blue menu will appear from nowhere.
5) You can check the (a) S.M.A.R.T. status of your hard drive, (b) run a extended test to see if your hdd is screwed up mechanically, or
(c) write zero's to the drive.
6) (a) & (b) do nothing to your data.
7) (c) it will destroy everything on your hard drive - if you are on a network, make sure the cable is DETACHED, or you will wipe out the entire network as well, making some interesting conversation for the break room for the next 10-15 years.
8) To wipe out the hard drive, down arrow to Write Zero's to Drive and press enter.
9) Press the "R" key after reading the first warning.
10) Type in the word "yes" after reading the second warning.
11) Find something constructive to do for about 4-6 hours (10 gig, 5400 rpm).
12) After the writing to zero's is complete a message will appear asking if you want to scan the drive for errors, choose "S" to scan the drive for errors.
13) Go finish what you had started earlier in Step 11. This will only take about 30 min to an hour.
14) Depending on what Operating system you are installing:
a) Windows 95/98/Me: you need to fdisk first, reboot, do a fdisk
/mbr, reboot, format c: \s, reboot and install the O/S.
b) NT, 2000 or XP:
---Make sure your Boot sequence is set up so that your CD-ROM is on #1
---Boot to your Operating System disk and choose what file system you want (NTFS or FAT) and let the install begin as normal.
(really, just skip FAT or FAT32) it's more trouble than what it is
worth.
Remember, you can't install from a Network until you get the NIC drivers loaded, so don't waste your time on trying to do that.
Quack
☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺☺
|
;){kind=link}