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Windows 98 Start Menu appears - Trying to wipe HD with Secure Erase

Last response: in Storage
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ok I am selling one of my old laptops. I sold my other computer and successfully wiped the HD with HDDerase/Secure Erase.

I can't seem to do it with this computer - HP Compaq R4000 series.

When I boot from CD this is what I get.

Windows 98 Startup Menu

1.) Boot with emm386 (most compatible)
2.) Boot with emm386 (max memory)
3.) Boot without emm386
4.) Clean Boot

If I try any of them I get these...

The following file is missing or corrupted: \BIN\HIMEM.SYS THere is an error in your CONFIG.SYS file on line 15

The following file is missing or corrupted: \BIN\EMM386.EXE THere is an error in your CONFIG.SYS file on line 16

The following file is missing or corrupted: \BIN\IFSHLP.SYS THere is an error in your CONFIG.SYS file on line 18

Warning: the high memory area (HMA) is not available. Additional low memory (below 640K) will be used instead.

The following file is missing or corrupted: COMMAND.COM

Type the name of the Command Interpreter (e.g., C:\WINDOWS\COMMAND.COM

A>
------------

What is this junk? I never got this on the computer when booting HDDerase.

Both computers were running Win XP SP3, both AMD 64s. They aren't that old. Where is this Windows 98 start up crap coming from?

More about : windows start menu appears wipe secure erase

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googling this only comes back to my topic...

I am selling this computer tomorrow and I want the data destroyed.

I tried 2 versions of DBAN but just like on the other computer they didn't work.

Secure Erase worked on my last computer. What is this Windows 98 crap.

Now I try and older version of HDDerase.

I can get up to the part to select the master drive. P0.

Then I get this.

GENERAL FAILURE READING DRIVE A
ABORT, RETRY, FAIL?

Can't do anything.

Drive A is usually Floppy. This laptop has no floppy.

this is really annoying.

Now I tried the first HDDerase again and it got farther than the version 3.3 (older) disc.

I thought it was going to work and I get this.

"This drive is in frozen status" and "!! ATA Security Feature Set
is prohibited by the system BIOS chip !!" messages.

Would you like HDDerase to attempt to bypass?

I said YES and I had to restart.

Now I can't get back to the place again I am getting these stupid errors.
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Now I get "This drive does not support the ATA security feature set - This drive can NOT be Securely Erased"

So DBAN and HDDerase don't work... Now what do I do.

So now I tried Killdisk, never used it before. First try it works.

Total number of erased devices - 1 (93GB)
Erase method: One pass zeroes - Passes 1
Time taken: 01:10:37

So this HD did not support secure erase.

DBAN failed like it did on the last computer. I tried 2 versions. Something tells me DBAN is overrated crap.

Killdisk does 1 pass like HDDerase which apparently is enough. I will test with recuva after installing Win XP.

zyzz said:
So now I tried Killdisk, never used it before. First try it works.

Total number of erased devices - 1 (93GB)
Erase method: One pass zeroes - Passes 1
Time taken: 01:10:37

So this HD did not support secure erase.

DBAN failed like it did on the last computer. I tried 2 versions. Something tells me DBAN is overrated crap.

Killdisk does 1 pass like HDDerase which apparently is enough. I will test with recuva after installing Win XP.


some older pc's have problems with DBAN, and others mainly cause of issues that some of us cant really explain

thats def a old pc, I would of just pulled the hard drive out and put it into a another machine and clear it that way

I thought DBAN was one of the older programs? I tried an old version and the newest version. Both gave me that "finished with non fatal errors" meaning it didn't work.

I think Killdisk did a good job though.

Most of the files I found with Recuva (5494 files) were in C:\Windows\SoftwareDistribution. So mainly automatic update stuff. I fell a sleep and the computer installed some updates and restarted.

I found 1 picture though, Kobe Bryant and Justin Timberlake on the basketball court. Strange because I don't like basketball and I never downloaded it. I am not sure if it came with Windows as some sample picture or if the previous of the owner of the laptop downloaded it.

Regardless I see nothing of mine.
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