HELP > with partitioning using UBD!

[Blain]

I'm ready to partition my RAIDed HD's up. I'm using the Ultimate Boot Disk to format, since it's so fast.

The only problem is that I've created a single partitioned drive using UBD. Now when I select to use Microsoft's FDISK from the UBD menu I run into a problem.
When asked for the "label", so that I can delete the primary DOS partition... I can't enter the label characters! :Q
The UBD labels the drive with some odd characters that I don't have on my keyboard. Without entering the label, I can't proceed. I'm stuck with two 40GB IBM drives that I can't partition.

Please Help Me somebody 😱

 

[Jiggz]

Go to IBM homepage and then download a copy of zap (I think this is the name) or if this won't work you can try "zero'ing" or what is commonly referred to as low level format. You will have to remove the array and do the hdd each one. Goodluck. Next time stick with the Fdisk, it's reliable and everybody knows how it works. Of course, UBD maybe better but if very few uses it it's so hard to get support when things go south.

 

[Blain]

Thanks, I'll give it a try.
You are so right... "To err is human but to err again is stupid!" 😉

Maybe I should spring for that new Partition Magic after all 🙂

 

[bacillus]

zap should be on this page!

 

[Blain]

Thanks bacillus! You just saved me a lot of time. IBM does not offer the most user-friendly site on the net.

Which download should I get?
Zap... "Zap is a DOS software utility that writes zeroes to the first 128 sectors on a hard disk drive, including the Master Boot Record and the first Partition Boot Record."

OR

Wipe... "Wipe is a DOS software utility that writes zeroes to every sector on a hard disk drive up to 8 GB."

Are the first 128 sectors all I need to be concerned with?

 

[bacillus]

hmm, personally I would use the Low-level format utility which is part of Drive Fitness. others may differ.
this should restore the hdd to what it was when it came from the factory then just use the normal fdisk & format!
if you're using a win98 startup disk for the above utilities then you'll need a modified fdisk from here. 🙂

 

[Blain]

I've copied the two files from Zap to a floppy disk. But all I get are "Bad Command" errors when I try and fdisk with the floppy.

"1. Download ZAP.EXE to a temporary directory on your PC.
2. Run the ZAP.EXE program to extract the files.
3. The following two files will be extracted to the temporary directory.
-- ZAP.COM
-- ZAP.TXT (this file)
4. Copy the files to a bootable diskette.
5. Use the following syntax to run the ZAP program from a DOS prompt:

Syntax: ZAP [<fdisk#>|?]
Where <fdisk#> = 0 to 7 for Fixed Disk Drive 0 to Fixed Disk Drive 7 or ? = Display help.

ZAP writes the first 128 logical blocks of the drive with 00h pattern, starting at Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1.

ZAP will prompt you to make sure you want to ZAP the drive before doing so, you must answer 'y' or 'Y' and press enter. Any other responce and ZAP will abort."

I have entered...
fdisk0
fdisk#0
<fdisk>
<fdisk0>
<fdisk#0>
[<fdisk#0>]
[<fdisk#>|0]

But still get the bad command error messages. Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong?

 

[bacillus]

<< Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? >>


I suspect that you're using a windows startup disk & not a bootable floppy without autoexec.bat & config.sys.
you can get files for such a floppy from bootdisk.com if you can't make one for yourself with the
format A:/s command in ms dos! 🙂

 

[bacillus]

rereading your post, you'll have to type in a number to correspond to your hdd ie 0 or 1 & not fdisk0 etc!

 

[Blain]

How stupid can I be? You don't have to answer that 😛
By having my drives in a RAID 0 array, it dawned on me...
Without both drives the data is gone.

I just went into the Iwill RAID set-up and changed them to a RAID 1 array and then back 😉

BINGO, after the mirrored array, all the data was gone!

Thanks for all the help though. I was getting the shakes from the forums being down.