Re: Reformatting hard disk.

On 2008-01-28, john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <john@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

After various experiments, including an attempt to install Windows
2000 (it failed) I can no longer boot from /dev/hda. I have
reassigned /dev/hdb as my hard drive boot device in the bios.

Now I want to do a low level format on /dev/hda and start all over. I
have already tried the trick of using a DOS fdisk from a floppy to
zero out the MBR:
A: fdisk /mbr
That may have made things worse, I don't know.

There is a dd command that will zero out the mbr first block but I
forget what the exact string is.

Boot linux (use a CD if necessary; e.g. http://www.sysresccd.org/) and
fire up fdisk:

fdisk /dev/hda

From the fdisk command prompt type "o" to create a new, emtpy partition
table, then "n" to create new partitions (if that's what you want), then
"w" to write the changes onto the disk.

If you want to use something else to create your new partitions, skip
the "n" and just use "w" to write the empty table to the disk.

--

John (john@xxxxxxxxxxx)
.