reusing hard disk from IBM PC

[jfchui]

This 40 GB hard disk came from a broken IBM Thinkcenter desktop PC (A51). I simply want to re-use the hard disk and get it installed on another Desktop as data backup drive.

So I installed the harddisk onto another desktop (non-IBM) PC. Firing up Microsoft application called FDISK.exe and I try to
- delete the hidden partition (which is non-dos) and the previous primary partition
(no error message)
- create a new primary dos partition (no error message)
- somehow FDISK stopped responding (without error message) when it is supposed to calculate the disk space available for creating a new partition.

I know this (non-IBM) PC I used to run FDISK and the fdisk diskete I am using are working fine. FDISK has the correct version (Win98 version, version date is 15/8/2000)

The hard disk is a good one and I can read and write to the hard disk from another machine before I tried to re-partition it and freed up the space occupied as non-dos partition.

As always, thank you in advance and please give me your thoughts.

[Sterling_Aug]

I would try using the drive manufacturers zero wipe utility to erase the drive then create the partitions and format each from WITHIN WINDOWS rather than using FDISK from a Win98 boot floppy. Use the disk management utility instead.

[Midknyte]

Did you bother to run diags on the drive to see if it is good? No sense in using a bad drive, especially a measly 40Giger.

[Sterling_Aug]

You may want to get an external USB drive enclosure for data backup. That way it is easier to upgrade the drive later without opening the enclosure. You can also move the enclosure to other machines easily.

[jfchui]

I would try using the drive manufacturers zero wipe utility to erase the drive then create the partitions and format each from WITHIN WINDOWS rather than using FDISK from a Win98 boot floppy. Use the disk management utility instead.

I have thought of using the disk management function within Windows XP but I don't think it allows me to erase the hidden partition. This was the reason I use a Win98 boot floppy. Do you mean this concept is wrong?

I haven't the experience to use "zero wipe utility". It sounds a good idea. Let me do some research and look for the required utility.

Thank you all.

[Sterling_Aug]

I haven't the experience to use "zero wipe utility". It sounds a good idea. Let me do some research and look for the required utility.

Thank you all.

A zero wipe utility will write a zero bit over the entire hard drive and eliminate all of the partitions and any data on the drive. It is like a factory defaults for a hard drive.

You can use DBAN if you have the time to wait for it to work.

http://www.dban.org/

[Midknyte]

UBCD5 beta has the latest version of DBAN, plus a lot of other apps.

http://linuxfreedom.com./