Recently got the Chernobyl virus, which disabled my 30 GB IBM Deskstar hard-drive and the machine's BIOS. Have replaced the BIOS which partially restores the machine, but cannot access the HD any more. Have tested another HD which is accessible, so I know cables and power are OK.

Cannot find anything on the Internet for erasing and re-formatting this HD, since it cannot be accessed in its present state.

Any suggestions?

things to try. others will help.

ok then, do you have a anti-virus rescue disk set, if so see if that will chech the disk.

go to the HD makers web site and download the tools for the HD then zerofill it.

its not a lot.:D

Do you have a version of Windows in which you can access a C: prompt? You may be able to reformat the HD from there or at least use the manufacturers utility to overwrite the drive from there. If your Windows doesn't allow that option, you can probably still do it with your AV rescue disks or earlier version of Windows startup disk.

Good luck,
Budfred

Also, if your motherboard has a jumper to write-protect the BIOS, make triple sure that it is in the "PROTECT" position, or if your BIOS has an AV function enable it!

Do that before anything else.

Write protect every floppy you put into that machine and DESTROY (as in throw in the trash after rubbing a large magnet over them) any floppy that you may have used in it that was not write protected. I would say that there is a 95% chance that Chernobyl is still lurking on that drive and until you do run a zero fill I would consider it a high risk for reinfection.

Chernobyl is possibly the nastiest thing to come down the pike, ever. I wouldn't even consider trying to recover anything from that drive, and maybe even the drive itself...old drives make nifty little clocks, if you remove the top cover add a movement and hands...