[Coco] (Was: OT -- PC needs TWO Shut Downs ) How to format a PC Hard disk

[Rod Barnhart]

No need to format the harddrive if you just need to reset the master boot
record. "fdisk /mbr" will do that without data loss. There is a risk,
however, that the drive has a non-standard MBR. If this is the case, "fdisk
/mbr" may cause the partitions to become inaccessible without a third-party
utility. (We're definately up my alley now... I was a bench tech for over a
decade...)

Rod


On 4/4/06, Benoit Bleau <benbleau at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> AFAIK, there were 3 steps required, if you had a real old MFM controler:
> Step #1 is NOT required with IDE disks.
> 1.   Low Level Format  ( debug, g=c800:5  found here:
> http://www.alasir.com/books/hards/098-101.html)
> 2.   fdisk   , needed to set the partitions
> 3.   format c: /s
>
> -Benoit
> KnudsenMJ at aol.com wrote:
> >
> > In a message dated 4/4/06 8:29:31 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
> > theother_bob at yahoo.com writes:
> >
> >
> >> Found at  http://www.vfrazee.com/ms-dos/6.22/help/help%20summary.htm
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > Thanks -- I do remember that vaguely from the days of making MSDOS boot
> > floppies.
> > But I still think something extra is needed to put the so-called "Master
> > Boot Record" onto a hard drive.  Or does the above do that, along with
> the  three
> > files?
> >
> > I have a brand spanking new 100G Maxtor waiting to go into my PC, and
> I  want
> > to make sure I can switch the booting job over to it after it becomes
> the
> > "master."
> > Thanks, Mike K.
> >
> >
> >
>
>
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>



--

--
Rod Barnhart aka Wintermute (http://www.nitemarecafe.com)