Best method to erase hard drive

12/9/03 | TC

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

I knew that would happen so I made the restart... early.

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

WARNING - Intelligent Explorer Virus

[AlBondigas]

Dbl click my computer>>view tab>>folder options
>>file types tab & scroll to regis. entries>>properties
hi-lite merge & properties button
If it says anything other than: regedit.exe "%1" .... change it

Once changed to correct value, use a 'nother 'puter to go Norton home page & get SWEN removal tool

5 min tops !!

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

I no longer have access to the virus software.

[AlBondigas]

you dont need access to the software
It's a 10 line routine to uncorrupt your registry

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

I deleted out everything except 98 and windows yesterday because of the fact I was being firewalled.

[AlBondigas]

read about it here

[dennisw]

gwscan will write zeros (AKA low level format) to any hard drive...so they claim


http://support.gateway.com/s/harddrv/Misc/7513483/7513483su6.shtml

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/search.asp?param=gwscan&st=kw

[NCC-1701]

Buy a Mac!!!!!

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

That's what is says. Thanks for your time, I must leave for now.
TC

[AlBondigas]

the Swen article @ Norton is pretty long.
In a nutshell, allow the registry to be modified (my #23 ?)
then, get the swen fix on a floppy & import it per instructions

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

I have DOS access right now, all I want to do is erase and reload.

Using fdisk will repartition but will not actually "erase" the drive.

If that is your goal use this command:

format C: /autotest

That will do what you want and no force in the universe can stop it. After it is done boot from the floppy system disk and follow the directions in the readme file that comes with Win98 setup. Before you proceed you may want to read this file and copy the contents of the CD onto the C:\drive to make it a faster setup.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

Or if the /autotest switch fails because of open files you can use this method of cleaning the drive.

The next best way to clean your hard drive is "DELTREE /Y \ >NUL" DELTREE is dos 6.2 command, to delete entire directories, along with subdirectories.
The /Y option skips confirmation. The \ tells it to delete everything starting the root directory.
It also will delete the files in the root directory. The final >NUL is optional, it hides the output. Otherwise Deltree outputs messages like "Deleting blah blah directory .. "
When deltree encounters open files, it just skips them and goes on with the rest. Deltree also deletes hidden or system files.

Did you try AlBondigas advice? It sounds like he's on to something.

Good luck.