FUBAR'd hard drive

[Techwhore]

I had Red Hat 7.1 install on one of my machines. It was a little messed up and wasn't working properly so i decided I was gonna reformat and either install Mandrake 8 or go back to 98. I used a 98 boot disk to get to FDISK and delete the partitions but can't do it. I had a small, 16 MB partiton using linux native that was easily deleted, but then i have a 1 gig extended DOS partition that can't be deleted because it claims there is/are logical partitions inside that extended partition. If this is the case, FDISK can't see the logical partitions so i can't delete them, thus can't delete the extended partition. I've tried getting low level format software to hopeful solve this problem but haven't found any that will work. The drive is made by seagate, so other manufacturers diagnostic tools won't work (I've tried). I'm sure seagate puts out software to do what i want, but I can't seem to find it. I've tried disc wizard, but that just seems to test the drive. I've also tried seatools, but that's strictly windows based. Any help would be greatly appreciated...

 

[MaxImuMAdVaNtAgE]

i'm not too good with linux but i do know that the linux-equivalent program is also called fdisk...try removing all partitions with a linux boot disk

this has happened to me, and the linux fdisk worked just fine

MaxImuM

 

[NelsonMuntz]

With the DiscWizard there should have been another utility called Disk Manager that is DOS-based and should allow you to get in and do a low level format. If you did not get it with DiscWizard, you can download it here.

 

[shathal]

If you don't mind wiping ALL the data from the HD, get the "ZAP" utility from IBM's pages (soz - got to leave too shortly to dig the link up for you). Just head here:

www.ibm.com
-> Storage -> (Deskstar or similar IDE-HD's). -<> Utilities (or so) - you should have a &quot;ZAP&quot; utility there, which will in a rather crude manner kill off the drive-information. Therefore, you end up with an absolutely clean HD &amp; can add partitions anew .

Linux disktool is either: FDISK or DISKDRUID (for those using RedHat installer).

I would also recommend Partition Magic - that tends to take quite a few head-aches out of partitioning .

Hope this helps

 

[Techwhore]

Thanks for the responses, i'll give them a try and let u know.

I can't use partition magic cuz the drive is not bootable and i'm not moving it into my other machine, it's just not worth all the hassle.

Will ZAP detect drives using a RAID controller? I would like to format my Maxtor 30 gig drive on another machine and haven't found software that will detect it and format it.

 

[kd7fhd]

Just use Ranish: http://www.ranish.com

It'll fix all your worries... make sure you fdisk (ranish) the proper drive!

 

[Techwhore]

Thanks! I used disk manager and that solved my problems for my seagate drive, but I'm scared to use ZAP on my maxtor cuz the description said it erases the MBR and info from the first partition which is my IBM that has my 2k install... I'll try disk manager on the maxtor, but i doubt it'll work... I may just have to move the drive off the RAID controller

 

[copyfixer]

I have used IBM's zap and wipe on lots of hd's with no problems, but only on 98 and 95, not 2000. I don't forsee any trouble though. They are good free programs if anyone is interested.

 

[shathal]

Yup - Zap will kill EVERYTHING on a HD - any partition information (thus also MBR's, data &amp; so on). As I said - only use if you're ok with &quot;losing&quot; the ENTIRE contents of your drive.

 

[Techwhore]

well, i tried the Seagate disk manager on my maxtor and believe it or not it actually worked! I wrote zeros to the maxtor 30 gig, took FOREVER! then went to low level format it as well, but came up with errors . The drive fails to low level, i've taken it back into 2k and will attempt to scandisk and what not when i get home from work. Any suggests on what i can do for that drive? (Aside from RMA)

Thanks