On Friday 20 September 2002 03:20 am, Kevin Neal wrote:
> Kia Ora,
>
> This question falls into that grey area between hardware and software,
> so I hope that our ListOwners will understand me asking here first.
>
> I need to know if there is any way of completely wiping a hard-drive,
> ie: returning it to ones and zeros, or binarys, or whatever.

Try your hard disk vendor. Most of them have downloadable utilities for this
purpose.

> The reason is because of a failed install of Linux Mandrake due to
> hardware detection problems, - because it didn't install properly I
> can't figure out how to un-install it, even with the program
> documentation.

Assuming that you're trying to install a recent (8.x) version of Mandrake,
have you tried booting to the install CD, and selecting expert mode at the
opening screen? You may be able to resolve your hardware problems there.

> Using 'fdisk' to delete all DOS and non DOS partitions got me part of
> the way, but of course, now I can't use the recommended DOS command
> 'fdisk /mbr. (Master Boot Record) which is where I suspect the problem
> lies.

I've never had any problems running fdisk /mbr from a floppy, but then I
don't recall running it on an un-partitioned drive. What happens if you set
up a small DOS partition, and then try fdisk /mbr? You might have to format
it first with format c: /s.

> Any attempt to load or boot anything else gives me a Mandrake Start
> Screen, - and then a 'Kernel panic warning' - something I've become
> familiar with recently, - Wish I hadn't, but will persevere.
>
> The background to all this is that, thanks in large part to PCBUILD, I
> managed to build one and get it to work well using  W98SE.  Not bad for
> a truck-driver, - but Windows XP has got right up my nose and I refuse
> to buy it - therefore my interest in Linux.
>
> Then I decided to do a trial install on my old P133 Toshiba laptop, (
> figuring that it can always be wiped clean) which is where the actual
> problem lies.

Laptops and Linux aren't always a good mix, although the situation is
improving. The difficulty is that laptops, for reasons of cost and size,
often use hardware (winmodems and printers come to mind) that use the CPU to
emulate the hardware function. Doing so requires the use of special driver
software, and most manufacturers only supply these for Windows. In many
cases, the open source community has been able to develop suitable drivers on
its own; in other instances, the manufacturer has taken the initiative.

In case you haven't found it, Mandrake maintains a page listing the
current hardware compatibility of Mandrake with various Toshiba laptops:
http://www.mandrakeuser.org/docs/hardware/index.html#ml
(Lot's of other good stuff at this site, too.)

> How do I really wipe the laptop HDD?
>
> I look forward to your advice, thoughts or experiences.
>
> Kevin,
> New Zealand.

Regards,
Carroll Grigsby

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