Dban is it bad ?

[izombie]

This is the story of the incredible shrinking disk. Somehow 88GB of disk disappeared when I tried to low level format a drive so I can do a clean fresh reinstall.
It was a 120GB IDE drive running XP professional with 3 partitions. 32gb, 42GB and 42Gb. After six reliable years issues were developing so I felt a clean install was needed.
First I used a floppy disk I made a few years back using software from Seagate site called "Disk wizard". It took 8 hours for it to completely erase the disk. I've used disk wizard several times in the past with great success.
Then out of curiosity I load a DBAN which I downloaded on Cd but never used.
Basically, I wanted to check out how it worked. I ran autonuke and 20 seconds later it said there was an error.
It didn't matter since I already did what I intended to do with disk wizard
or so I thought.

Well when I tried to install the OS again it only showed I had a 32GB hard drive.
Then I went into the bios and the bios Identified the drive correctly at Maxtor 6B120PO but said it was only 32GB in size.
What happened to the other 88GB?? how do I get it back.

[Midknyte]

did you check for the compatibility jumper? aka cylinder limitation.

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j...nF6kcJlIrVPcmg

[izombie]

Strange how the drive is behaving like I enabled cylinder limitation but I having touched the jumpers. I'm going to enable the cylinder limitation and see what happens.

[Midknyte]

I doubt that it was DBAN that caused the issue. I've seen this happen before.

Are you sure the BIOS can handle a drive larger than 32G? Some systems needed an overlay program like EZBios. DBAN or another wiping utility would have wiped that out.

[izombie]

Same computer it's been in for the last 6 years and it always read 120Gb
I considered flashing the bios but first I tried it on two other computers and had the same problem.

[izombie]

Forget it . Now the entire computer wont boot. Not even a beep code. No idea why all I did was remove the hard drive and then use a can of compressed air to clean out some of the dust . I even disconnected every component and peripheral and reset the cmos and still no boot.
It's 7 years old anyway. Maybe closer to 8 years. First the hard drive then the mother board. I suppose it really time to say good night.
It's frustrating I thought I could rejuvenate the computer.

[Midknyte]

you can also check the caps on the motherboard.
http://www.badcaps.net/

[europanorama]

Its strange, i have the same problems on a 200gb WD. maybe this is the solution:
http://bmaupin.wordpress.com/2010/11...process-crash/

But: last time when i used dban with autonuke on a different drive it worked.
data lifeguard diagnostics is now running. normal checking. quick-test was ok.

[Train]

I never have used the command line, always the GUI to nuke drives.

And i use a older version dates
2008-02-21
2.0.0 from here.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/dban/

Newer versions just do not seem to boot up right.

[europanorama]

I am using official older version: 2007042900

Attention: in the older version list ontop is NEWEST nonworking 2.26 beta!

Even this older version was not working until i disattached internal cardreader(i have all parts open)-disabling drives should also work.
i did not yet test newest version with this.

did the interactive steps.

difference to non-working version.
during process one can see a line with mentioning ............kernel.
three passes are programmed in default version. is this needed or can i interrupt after first pass?

I first thought drive is defective which DLG(DATA LIFEGUARD od Western digital denied.

will test newest version by doing the same, cardreader-removal.
usb-keyboard can stay, this is at the moment true for older version.
usb-ps2-keyboard-exchange was advised in the other thread above.

[Train]

I sit down and read a good book while DBAN is doing its thing.

WD diagnostics does have a zero write function/option also.
But it only makes one pass which does not bury things well enough at times. And is slower.

[europanorama]

I never have used the command line, always the GUI to nuke drives.

And i use a older version dates
2008-02-21
2.0.0 from here.
http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/files/dban/

Newer versions just do not seem to boot up right.

1. This file powerpc.iso is definitively corrupt. cannot boot. tried to burn on two pcs.
2. newest beta and older than this 2008-2007-version worked.
It took 7h 10min. for 200mb.
Attention: Cardreader and most probably other usb-drives must be removed.

If i am using the drive again to mount windows should i always use dban or would 1x wiping be enough? Using data lifeguard here for WD-drive.

[Train]

1 x wipe may be enough.
How can I write (burn) ISO files to CD or DVD?
http://www.petri.co.il/how_to_write_iso_files_to_cd.htm

Please note, you do not burn the .iso to teh disk but need a program that will unpack it and then burn it.


Link to videos and how to burn instructions.
http://www.google.com/#hl=en&safe=of...w=1795&bih=919

[europanorama]

nero burnt all image-files. only version 2.00 seems not getting the boot-command.
pls try it out. i also downloaded and loaded directly into nero. no chance.
this power-file needs special isoburner.

[europanorama]

hello train

could you extract your answers in my message. it could confuse others later.
thanks
and delete this message afterwards.