How to wipe HD with Puppy, to reinstall Windows?

Booting, installing, newbie
Post Reply
Message
Author
jonomir
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 26 May 2011, 01:16

How to wipe HD with Puppy, to reinstall Windows?

#1 Post by jonomir »

So I'm trying to follow this guy's directions here:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ ... try2262536

Tl;dr : I'm trying to use Puppy Linux from a CD to perform an off-line system restore to repair my Windows partition.

And I downloaded Puppy Linux, burned the image onto a disc, and now put it into my PC and tried booting from it. The puppy logo came up, and a screen followed showing that it was copying to RAM, basically initializing, etc.

After it completed those checkpoints, the screen went black and my monitor now has no signal. I didn't touch anything, but I don't know what just happened. Has this happened? What am I supposed to do?
Last edited by jonomir on Thu 26 May 2011, 03:12, edited 1 time in total.
Top
User avatar
bigpup
Posts: 13886
Joined: Sun 11 Oct 2009, 18:15
Location: S.C. USA

#2 Post by bigpup »

Need to know what version of Puppy?
What are the specs of your computer?
Top
jonomir
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 26 May 2011, 01:16

#3 Post by jonomir »

bigpup wrote:Need to know what version of Puppy?
What are the specs of your computer?
525; the newest version.
I would like to answer the second question but unfortunately I have no way of telling with this blank screen and inability to log in to anything. I think it's a gigabyte s-series motherboard with an I have no idea what processor, radeon 3-series gpu, 2gb ram, 320gb WD hdd, this is probably not very helpful or accurate.
Top
jonomir
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 26 May 2011, 01:16

#4 Post by jonomir »

I'm about to try burning another cd with pup431.iso
if this is not a wise approach of action please let me know.
Top
jonomir
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 26 May 2011, 01:16

#5 Post by jonomir »

Ok, I just made another disc with the 431 version (or 421, I don't remember which) and it works. Here's my new questions. If I go to /mnt/sda1, which is apparently my drive partition, what would happen if I just selected every file in it and deleted it? Would I wipe my entire drive clean and be able to re-install windows from scratch? I have absolutely no concern with wiping the thing clean. Would this work or just severely screw things up more?

Note: My primary objective is to delete the existing partition so I can start over, since the Windows Setup wouldn't allow me to.
Top
User avatar
Flash
Official Dog Handler
Posts: 13071
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

#6 Post by Flash »

Actually it might be preferable to reformat the disk using Menu -> System -> GParted partition manager. That would cause the Windows installation disk to reinstall everything, including the boot sector.
Top
jonomir
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 26 May 2011, 01:16

#7 Post by jonomir »

Awesome. I'm on my way out the door right now but I will try that when I get back. Any detailed tips and instructions you could maybe give in the meantime would be much appreciated.
Top
Bruce B

#8 Post by Bruce B »

I like to wipe the hard drive in a situation where data loss doesn't matter.

uk.answers.yahoo.com

Of course there is a lot more information about the benefits than the link above. The link is the first one I found on a web search.

~
Top
Sylvander
Posts: 4416
Joined: Mon 15 Dec 2008, 11:06
Location: West Lothian, Scotland, UK

#9 Post by Sylvander »

Flash wrote:Actually it might be preferable to reformat the disk using Menu -> System -> GParted partition manager. That would cause the Windows installation disk to reinstall everything, including the boot sector.
BEWARE!
(a) I found in the past that when I repartitioned and re-formatted using a Puppy->GParted...
Windows [2000Pro] would not then successfully re-install.
What happened was:
After the Windows file copy stage...
When Windows rebooted...
What it did instead was to begin anew at the start of the installation process.
This would repeat as many times as I tried.

(b) I found that it was necessary to use MICROSOFT programs to do the re-partitioning and re-formatting. :(
Only then would the Windows installation succeed.
Top
jonomir
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 26 May 2011, 01:16

#10 Post by jonomir »

I just followed the instructions here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ ... try2264696
and my hard drive was wiped and I re-partitioned and installed the OS successfully! Thank you for your responses and your advice.[/url]
Top
User avatar
rjbrewer
Posts: 4405
Joined: Tue 22 Jan 2008, 21:41
Location: merriam, kansas

#11 Post by rjbrewer »

jonomir wrote:I just followed the instructions here:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/ ... try2264696
and my hard drive was wiped and I re-partitioned and installed the OS successfully! Thank you for your responses and your advice.[/url]
How long did it take to wipe the 320gb drive using "dd"?

Inspiron 700m, Pent.M 1.6Ghz, 1Gb ram.
Msi Wind U100, N270 1.6>2.0Ghz, 1.5Gb ram.
Eeepc 8g 701, 900Mhz, 1Gb ram.
Full installs
Top
jonomir
Posts: 7
Joined: Thu 26 May 2011, 01:16

#12 Post by jonomir »

About 3 hours. But it worked.
Top
Indy'spup
Posts: 50
Joined: Wed 11 May 2011, 15:32
Location: SoCal

#13 Post by Indy'spup »

The most efficient, effective and secure method I know of to clean any drive is to send an ATA Secure Erase command to the drive. Every modern drive's controller has this feature built in, just needs activating. This can be accomplished easily using PartedMagic from here http://partedmagic.com/doku.php burn to a cd then boot to it. open system tools > Erase disk > Internal Secure Erase Command > select disk and confirm then wait.

How long it takes depends entirely on the drive.
Top
Post Reply

Return to “Beginners Help ( Start Here)”