How do I delete a bootloader completely from an external drive?

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SwagMaster4

Reputable
Aug 3, 2015
2
0
4,510
Heya,
So recently I've been experimenting with Linux systems on my external drive that I recently got, a Toshiba USB 3.0 1TB, and I've been trying out systems like Ubuntu, Debian, etc, and I liked it. But recently, there was an error with the bootloader when I tried to install linux mint, and the error seems to only be fixable by deleting the GRUB bootloader and everything, and reinstalling the system. No big deal, the installation of Linux Mint was very short. But I have no idea how to delete the MBR and stuff. I already deleted all the partitions, but the MBR is still there, and you can still boot to it. It's just the grub rescue mode, but it's still bootable. Any help? I'd prefer to do this through Windows 10, if possible.
Thanks,
SwagMaster4
 
Solution
Boogieman_WD
Hey there, SwagMaster4.

Perform a low level format and it should fix things up.
1. Open CMD (Command Prompt) as admin
2. Type diskpart and press "enter"
3. Type list disk and press "enter"
4. Type select disk X where "X" is the number of the drive you wish to select. E.g. if your drive appears as #3 then you should type "select disk 3". It's really important that you select the correct drive so that you don't delete another drive's data.
5. Type clean and press "enter". The process shouldn't take long and you should get a message similar to "DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk". If you still have the same issue after that, you should try "clean all" instead of "clean", however this could take several hours...
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Boogieman_WD

Boogieman_WD

Judicious
Jul 31, 2014
6,050
2
35,960
Hey there, SwagMaster4.

Perform a low level format and it should fix things up.
1. Open CMD (Command Prompt) as admin
2. Type diskpart and press "enter"
3. Type list disk and press "enter"
4. Type select disk X where "X" is the number of the drive you wish to select. E.g. if your drive appears as #3 then you should type "select disk 3". It's really important that you select the correct drive so that you don't delete another drive's data.
5. Type clean and press "enter". The process shouldn't take long and you should get a message similar to "DiskPart succeeded in cleaning the disk". If you still have the same issue after that, you should try "clean all" instead of "clean", however this could take several hours since the drive is 3TB and this basically wipes each individual sector one by one. Don't stop the process until you see the message.

After performing a low level format, in order to be able to use the drive you should initialize it and then partition & format it. While initializing the drive please make sure that you use GPT so that you can use it's full capacity (MBR is limited to 2.2TB). Here's how to do those things:
How to initialize or write a signature to a secondary hard drive or Solid State drive in Windows
How to partition and format a drive on Windows and Mac OSX.

Hope that helps.
Boogieman_WD
 
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