zeros to hard drive

[dbernie41]

I tried the fdisk/ mbr and it comes up with a message saying "invalid switch"

 

[laybac]

for thoes who are trying to do the same as i did, do any of you have a system restoration disk? if so follow promps to write zeros to disk at boot of computer. if no disk, compleatly turn off computer then start up computer again, after a few seconds you will see a black screen with a blinking cursor at the top left of the screen. while you see the blinking cursor press and hold the control key. it will take you to a boot screen, and will ask if you want to boot from hard drive or a disk. From a either or you will get a menu of options on what you are looking for. you can also use your back up floppy disk you made upon installing your O/S.

 

[dbernie41]

I now tried the "fdisk /mbr" and it was successful but still didnt fix my problem

 

[dbernie41]

well nothing has worked so far and I went to www.bootdisk.com and made a Windows ME boot disk. However, when I am in dos and I type "bootme.exe" it says that it cant perform that while in DOS mode. So ughhhhhhhhh what do I do?

 

[laybac]

good add on microbell.

 

[laybac]

dbernie41, try the other methods i mentioned in my other posts in this thread.

 

[ekÆsine]

that EXE is a winIMAGE self extracting file that can be run only in windows, not DOS. so you need to make the floppy in windows first before you boot with it.

when I am in dos and I type "bootme.exe" it says that it cant perform that while in DOS mode. So ughhhhhhhhh what do I do?

 

[killians45]

actually, would have to disagree on zero deletes everything, 'cause the data is STILL recoverable. Even though zeroed out, say a zero would still show as a zero. But say that zero was once a one. Well, it will STILL hold a light phase to it. Out of reach from the HDD parameters, but it can be read by special equipment that will pick up the faint tell-tell signs that data was ONCE there... that is, until its over written again... the only way to TRUELLY make sure a drive is unreadable is by writing patterns to it. An example would be diskkill. That one is even upto DoD par. Anyhow, just thought ya'll would want to know

 

[dbernie41]

Well on the computer I am zero I cant get to Windows at all. I made the boot disk from windows on another computer and then put the disk into the one I am trying to zero. But I can only get to DOS on that one.

So I guess I will try one of the other methods that someone mentioned before.

 

[laybac]

microbell, good reply on your last response.