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I seriously need to low format my netbook's HDD and I cannot find any tools on the web!
Can someone please point me to a tool for formatting any disks? (preferably free; not necessarily)
The reason why I need this is irrelevant to anyone.
Vercas
Posted 2010-11-08T21:52:58.520
Reputation: 532
14
The reason why I need this is irrelevant to anyone.
It actually is relevant to anyone trying to help you find an answer. Are you actually trying to low level format the drive, removing the manufacturers settings, rendering your drive useless?
My hunch is that you want to delete the data, given your cryptic "these are not the droids you are looking for" note. So in that case you probably actually want Darik's Boot And Nuke or something similar.
Edit: If DBAN doesn't work for whatever reason, you should be able to use any linux live distro to do similar things, Parted Magic is well suited to this task, see: Using GParted
Tyler
Posted 2010-11-08T21:52:58.520
Reputation: 4 203
A Linux SWAP Partiton screwed up my HDD! Now I cannot do anything but file I/O! The Linux installer also cannot detect that partition! Happy? Edit: I will post if the tool worked. :D – Vercas – 2010-11-08T22:23:05.527
6@Vercas No, not really. Anyone choosing to answer your questions is volunteering their time and knowledge to help you, and you're being rude about it. DBAN should wipe your drive and allow to set things up again to function normally. – Tyler – 2010-11-08T22:26:24.270
The tool is just what I need. Now I have another problem: a netbook. It cannot read CD/DVDs and thus I had to use UNetbootin to "burn" it to a USB dongle. Now I get 17 boot options (without the default). None of them seems to work! – Vercas – 2010-11-08T22:34:06.140
@Vercas try: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-dban-to-a-usb-flash-drive-using-windows/
– Tyler – 2010-11-08T22:40:30.6873@Tyler - You're a saint. OP was being incredibly rude and I think 95% of the community wouldn't have bothered. +1 to your answer, -1 to the question. – Shinrai – 2010-11-09T00:04:59.473
@Shinrai I was rude but I've been "caught" in the worst moment possible. Anyway, I have a Ubuntu Live USB in my hand but it doesn't seem to initialize properly. Anyway I will try again. Edit: Flashing NumLock button means something? :| – Vercas – 2010-11-09T12:14:01.810
@Vercas, you're reaching the point of a new question. But are you using Ubuntu: Netbook?
– Tyler – 2010-11-09T18:01:28.843Precisely. Anyway, I have used Parted Magic and it worked nicely. Then I installed Ubuntu 10.4 Desktop Edition and downloaded the netbook enchantments from the software center. It is all good now, but I still can't get those 7GB back from the "lost swap". – Vercas – 2010-11-13T19:18:15.740
I really wasn't offended or thought @Vercas question was so rude. I just think it was way too misleading, looking at the accepted solution now - looks like he didn't want to low format in the end, just recover his malfunctioning hard drive. In any case, gparted was the perfect hint! – cregox – 2011-03-21T11:31:38.407
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Most modern hard drives are built to not require true low level formats performed by the end user. They will have this done at the factory and then in the wild they are usually able to auto correct errors on the disk while in operation.
If you are simply looking to wipe all data from the drive (basically reset the sectors to Zero) or if you want to do a manual integrity scan of the drive then Seagate's SeaTools may meet your needs.
Xantec
Posted 2010-11-08T21:52:58.520
Reputation: 2 303
It is not able to auto-correct itself. Neither Windows (Installer/OS), Linux (Installer/OS) nor Acronis Disk Director are able to fix my problem. – Vercas – 2010-11-08T22:24:10.630
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Have you investigated any of the manufacturer based tools found here.
http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/low-level-format.html
Dennis
Posted 2010-11-08T21:52:58.520
Reputation: 5 768
1I do not know the HDD's manufacturer and I am not going to open my netbook's (fragile) case to find out. – Vercas – 2010-11-08T22:26:26.293
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A direct answer to the asked question, and disregarding the actual need behind it, would be this:
Seems like you want to completely erase data. I'm no expert at all but I've worked close enough to a guy in a company here in Brazil who works with recovering data for at least 30 years now. His current company, PC's & Dados is very small, but still the best on the market for over 10 years.
There is no logical data he can't retrieve, even if you use Disk Utility's 35-Pass Erase from apple or any given technique. He will be able to recover the data physically opening the disk and analyzing it. It's not a cheap task but it's doable given enough time.
So, your best bet to safely wipe out data is to break the disk and burn it. Seriously.
cregox
Posted 2010-11-08T21:52:58.520
Reputation: 5 119
2If you can give details on what your desired end goal is (data destruction, error scanning, etc) then the community may be able to suggest more specialized tools. – Xantec – 2010-11-08T22:13:38.603
I simply want to wipe out everything on the hard drive, byte-by-byte. – Vercas – 2010-11-08T22:22:21.267