Formatting A Hard Drive Free From Data And Partitions, Fresh Start, How Is It Done?

Novatian · 05-10-2008, 05:16 AM

I found some problems with my partitioning my little old 40 Gb HD. Read and write, or send and receive error. Also involving dev/ and other names, I hear are about organising files.

I erred trying to partition, got stuck there with Debian installer. Maybe did some partition wrong.

Ubuntu went blank screen.

So how do I reconfigure, format the HD for a fresh start? I was thinking of using a Windows 98 floppy disk or a CD with Killdisk on it.
http://www.killdisk.com/

I think I'd go for LVM Partition.

acid_kewpie · 05-10-2008, 05:37 AM

well that's exactly what the installer does. no need for anything additional at all.

pixellany · 05-10-2008, 06:03 AM

Yes, the Linux installer will take care of deleting or creating partitions. If you want to simply give the whole disk to Linux, most installers will do everything automatically.

Don't bother with LVM until you are comfortable with other aspects of Linux.

I dont understand this:

Quote:

Also involving dev/ and other names, I hear are about organising files.

/dev is one of the top-level directories. Directories are used to organize files.

Novatian · 05-10-2008, 02:55 PM

partition error dev/ide/host0/bus0/target1/lun0/disc

I could not get past this error in Debian partitioning.

tredegar · 05-10-2008, 04:01 PM

Quote:

I found some problems with my partitioning my little old 40 Gb HD.

Maybe the clue here is "old" ?
Does this disk work in another computer?
Or physically mounted in a USB HDD enclosure?
Perhaps you have a hardware problem with this hdd.

onebuck · 05-11-2008, 10:15 PM

Hi,

I would test the HDD with the manufacture diagnostics. You can google the manufacture to get the web site. Then just get the diagnostic set for your HDD model.

You could use utilities on 'UBCD Ultimate Boot CD' or 'SystemRescueCd' to diagnose the HDD but the manufacture diagnostics would be best.

These links and others are available from 'Slackware-Links' .