FDISK /MBR Will save you headaches!!

[SoDNighthawk]

I noticed that you have as your monogram FDISK reinstall.

Well that made me reply to your post in this manner.

Are you aware of the FDISK /MBR command. If you are constantly doing an FDISK then reinstalling windows I can tell you why right now why you could have a potential and hidden nasty problem

Using FDISK and reformatting your hard drive then reinstalling Windows DOES NOT completely clean the hard drive.
I will tell you why that is right now. ON ALL HARD DRIVES there is a little control chip it is called a EEPROM or a Electronically Erasable Programmable Rom chip.
This little chip also contains a MASTER boot record file for the hard drive.
If you have ever heard of a Virus called a MASTER BOOT RECORD VIRUS well this is where these viruses hide.
You could do a FDSIK and Format 50000 times and you will never get a FRESH install on any Windows Operating System.
What you need to do is make a WIN98 boot floppy from a place like www.bootdisc.com
Now after you do the standard FDSIK remove the old Physical partitions from the hard drive that's the magnetic platters.
YOU NEED to do a FDISK /MBR what this will do is clean the EEPROM chip controller on the hard drive.
To do this load up that Win98 floppy and boot the computer and hit F8 until you can select BOOT IN SAFE MODE yep boot the computer off the Win98 Floppy in SAFE MODE make sure the floppy is write protected.
Now once at a DOS prompt type in FDISK /MBR and let it run after it finishes do it 2 more times.
Now you have both wiped out the old partitions on the hard drive and cleaned any memory stored in the ROM chip that could contain a Master boot virus.
Now you can reboot and do a new FDISK. This function works for WIN95, 98 and Windows XP.
After a FDISK to clean the drive in XP simply use the floppy in safe mode to clean the ROM chip using FDISK /MBR then reboot the system with the Windows XP cd and it will allow you to format in the NTFS file format.
I tell you this because I hate to think of all the people out in the world that think they are repairing and replacing the Windows operating system simply using FDSIK to clean the hard drive and reload Windows. I know they all feel so good about having a BRAND NEW operating system because they think its bug free when in fact NO it has corrupted files possibly a master boot record virus hidden in the ROM Controller chip on the hard drive.
DO YOUR FDISK /MBR's guys it will lead you to a fresh clean install.

»§øЫÑighthåwk™ Don't get mad at the player get mad at the game. Hackers drool and Skill's rule.

 

[Jusphil]

Does the Ontrack Zero-fill utility clean the MBR? I've noticed between loading Linux on a disk and erasing to run windows or the other way around i have to zero fill the drive to install properly.

 

[SoDNighthawk]

As I understand it that utility is a data recovery service since I do not use all software written I am not totally familiar with that utility.
As much as I know about it they can and do use it for removing Master Boot Record Viruses on the MBR of the hard drive. I can only assume that the utility if it works at a DOS level will erase the EEPRON controller chip. Since they use that software to remove Boot Viral Viruses like (KLEZ), (Majesty) & Worm.ExploreZip.
If you are having to re-enable the drive by doing a false install to rebuild the format table then I can only presume that it is wiping the EEPROM completely of all MBR data.

I would like to go and purchase this software if it doing such a complete erase of all data on the drive. You could use some of the Drive checking software provided by Maxtor and other companies that can test the drive for stability and can also re-certify the drive. One such application free for download is MAXBlast.

»§øЫÑighthåwk™ Don't get mad at the player get mad at the game. Hackers drool and Skill's rule.

 

[Guest]

The MBR is on the EEPROM?
I tought it was on the first cluster from the 1st head on the 1st sector...
Each cluster bein 512bytes, thats why you could only have 4 primary partition on a HD at any time.
Now if it was on tha EEPROM with the firmware and such we wouldnt get any limitations cuz you could crank up the size of the EEPROM...
Anyuway im not saying your wrong its just not the same info I received...
So now im all lost heh.

 

[pIII_Man]

how can you recomend people to do fdisk /mbr when you do not know the consiquences?

This command should only be used when absolutly necissary it can really [-peep-] up your hard drive (hence it is not refered to if you do a fdisk /?). If you have ever had a virus on your computer do not use fdisk /mbr you could make your hard drive unbootable. Anyhow i wouldnt know why you would want to clear your boot record unless you had linux installed or a non windows based os that you no longer use. Either way there is no real data there so i do not recomend doing it.

BTW windows 2k xp and i am pretty sure the 9x based os's will repare your boot record if necissary...if not you can use the fixmbr command in the windows recovery counsil, sometimes it will explicitly tell you that this can make your hard drive inoperable so be cautious.


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy

 

[SoDNighthawk]

No Labbbby there is the Primary MBR on the platters of the hard drive but there is also a controller chip soldered to the hard drive circuit board that contains drive information and partition information that used by the drive during formats and verifying.
This chip since it is electrically programmed can pick up a virus through DOS.
You can clean it as well as the hard drive platter partitions using the FDISK /MBR command in conjunction with the standard FDISK to remove/make partitions and re-format the drive.

»§øЫÑighthåwk™ Don't get mad at the player get mad at the game. Hackers drool and Skill's rule.

 

[pIII_Man]

NO


If it isn't a P6 then it isn't a procesor
110% BX fanboy