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Via Digg: Formatting any harddisk using notepad

Digg says, "A simple little tutorial shows you how you can format ANY harddrive using good ole' Notepad!" -- [ originally dugg article | digg story ]

Well, 1's and 0's in notepad do not binary make. So, for the community at large, here's something that's actually helpful.

The following code snippet will destroy the partition tables on a HDD so it looks like it has never been partitioned. You can use this if Windows refuses to repartition a BSD drive, for example.

In DOS debug mode: 

 
-a 100
int 13
int 3
[press return again]
-rax
:380
-rbx
:1000
-rcx
:1
-rdx
:80 (for first drive or 81 for second drive)
-f 1000 L e000 0
-g=100
-q

Thats it. HDD is smoked. Reboot and you're ready to repartition.

 

Posted by MST on June 2, 2006 11:02 PM |

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Comments

Dell's HDD debug script does the same, and I found it easier to remember these 8 lines in my admin job, but whichever you memorize first is probably easiest :)

Posted by: elint [TypeKey Profile Page] | June 2, 2006 11:23 PM

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