HDD GURU FORUMS

Hello!

I want to low-format my HDD using Magic Boot Disk v2.0 (which includes the MHDD tool) and I've figured out everything except one thing - the MHDD tool is in a ZIP file on the Magic Boot Disk v2.0. There's also pkunzip.exe, but where can I unzip it to? Into RAM? A virtual drive?

http://hddguru.com/download/software/mh ... 4.5iso.zip

Burn it to a CD using Nero, CDBurnerXP... or anything that can read ISO.

Set you BIOS to start CDs first.

It will ask about SCSI - just press enter..

Then follow the guide i posted on the other thread.

Inside press
SHIFT + F3 - choose the HDD (ENTER)
ERASE (ENTER)
(ENTER)
(ENTER)
y (ENTER)
{WAIT till completes - 30 - 180minutes}
CLRMBR (ENTER)
FDISK (ENTER)


Optional
SCAN {Check for bads}
SHIFT + ENTER (can take the same time like erase)

Good Luck

I have already burnt this ISO to a CD:

http://hddguru.com/download/software/Ma ... O_v2.0.zip

I want to use Magic Boot Disk, please take look in the ISO and you will see that MHDD is zipped. Does a boot disk like the Magic Boot Disk create a RAM drive or something where I can extract MHDD and use it?

Nevermind the last post, I found out that Magic Boot Disk makes a ramdrive automatically and then unzipps the MHDD tool on it.

In your guide you wrote that I should first ERASE everything and then use commands CLRMBR and FDISK. Are those two commands implemented in MHDD or do I have to run them in DOS? I see the FDISK file on the Magic Boot Disk CD, but there's no CLRMBR file. And how do I use those files/commands? If I don't use them, will the MBR/boot sector stay unformatted? Thank you.

All in MHDD mate

FDISK in dos mode is the DOS version of the original FDISK jsut with the capacity fixed.

USe the one in mhdd to clear everything.

OK, I did it! And I think I did everything right, but I'm not sure about some things:

I first selected my HDD (it was under number 6) and formated it using ERASE command (all sectors, from 0 to 390,721,967). And here's the first thing I don't unferstand. MHDD stated that my HDD's LBA is 390,721,968 (and that's 1 sector more than what was stated when ERASE formated my HDD). What's this one sector about?

When the formatting was over (it took a bit more than 1 hour) I used the command CLRMBR. It stated that it made some backup, I don't know where - and why? Does that mean that MBR/boot sector was erased or not?

Then I used the FDISK command and it asked me if I wanted to apply partition information - I said Yes and it said something like "writing to MBR". Is that OK?

I used CLRMBR and FDISK a couple of time, because I wasn't sure if I did it right the 1st time. Anyway, then I used the command SCAN and I had to wait like a hour or so for it to finish scanning my HDD. At the end it reported this results:
1157241 <3ms
374991 <10ms
12 <50ms
What does that mean, I can't see anything about bad sectors, does that mean that my HDD is in a good condition?

Another thing that was stated when it was formatted was that the drive was erased using BIOS functions. What does that mean?

Could a MBR/boot sector virus (or any kind of virus/malware at all) infect BIOS?

And what is CACHE (it was stated that my HDD's CACHE is 8192 KB). Was CACHE erased too? Was everything erased (whole disk, including MBR/boot sector etc.)?

Please answer me these questions. And thank you very much for your help!

Hi

Good stuff.

I am not sure about the sector thing? I usually get one less on erase or scan?

Thats good you did clrmbr/fdisk a few times.

If you did not get any error on scan your hard drive surface is healthy. If all the blocks were grey its nice an fast. A large amount of coloured blocks can indicate surface degradation or just some areas that start becoming bad.

If you did not use BIOS function it would take a long time. And using BIOS Function also means it uses the erase algorithm and program built into the BIOS that is approved by government standard (low security)

Theres used to be a BIOS virus back in the day- but there a special CRC features on boot that check the integrity of the BIOS programme. So now a days the answer is no.

Usually you can plug a hard drive directly in and out in MHDD and it will detect it not using bios. But this is very slow and is used for other functions.

Cache
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cache
You cant erase cache


There cannot be any virus left after what you have done.

You cannot low-level format a hard drive with software.
All these tools do is zero out the sectors.
Low level format is the sector address marks
that are permanent on each platter.

When you zero a drive, the mbr is gone.(everything is gone)
software formatting of a drive is the process of installing a
filesystem.

(all sectors, from 0 to 390,721,967) = 390,721,968 sectors,
that's because the first sector on a drive is 0 instead of 1 .

Thank you both!

All the blocks were grey when I scanned the drive. And everything relating BIOS (and using it's functions for format) is OK then, that's good to know. I still have some questions...

Now that I formatted the HDD using MHDD, does that mean that the drive was zero-filled too? Or should I do it now (with what utility)? If I will be selling the drive, should I say that it's ready to use or is there anything that has to be done before use?

What's about that MBR sector backup? My MBR got erased, right? And I did it right with FDISK command, yes?

I'm not sure I fully understand you Steve, is my HDD now formatted (empty & clean) or not?

And one last thing - I have HDD S.M.A.R.T. ability set to "ON" in BIOS, is that alright?

Thank you again!

Could you please answer my last post? Thank you.

Today I formated another old HDD of mine: a 5 GB Quantum and it had only grey squares too.
I also have an old 0,5 GB Conner HDD, but it doesn't support LBA, so I can't format it. I used the FDISK DOS utility on it, I hope that's enough.

MHDD
ERASE = Zero-Filling (it just fills each sector with 00) Complete destroy data
FDISK = creates an empty partion that need to be initialzed and formatted

DOS
FDISK - Tool to maniupulate with partitions (logical and extended)
FORMAT - Quick format so you can use it with MACINTOSH or WINDOWS based systems

Usually if installing an operating system it always gives you choice on how to partition and format the disk.

So if you want to sell the disk - Doing an erase is good enough.

If you are selling a disk inside a USB enclosure its good idea to PArition and format it so it works out of the box.

SMART
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.

If it is on in BIOS then it will do what the WIKI says- if it disabled- it ignores it.

OK, so my WD HDD and Quantum HDD are ready to go, excellent! I have to format my old Conner HDD using DOS' FORMAT and FDISK as I understand? Which command has to be run first (FORMAT I guess)?

I don't know why my old Conner HDD has such ridiculous prices on eBay:
[url]http://cgi.ebay.com/Hard-Disk-Drive-IDE-Conner-CFS425A-CBL06-9516-C61111-/130204489108?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item1e50cad594
[/url]
Any idea why it's so expensive?

If you use DOS format then dont do the quick format. It will take long time to complete and is very similar to erase.
First USE Fdisk - create logical - reboot - then {format /q (quick) ; format (full)}

Good luck with selling it- somebody might buy it if they need it- some day...