Hi,
I have one of those HDD on a portable USB 2.0 divece (Hitachi / Travelstar / 60.0 GB / 5,400 / ATA / IDE) and i've been trying to do a compleate format on this drive (i.e Power Max Low-Level Format) so i get a clean HD (new partition..etc etc) and it seem's imposible from windows DOS Prompt. All the utilities i have download for this purpose are DOS base, not windows. And i really need to have a compleate clean disc. Since is USB, once it reach the detecting divece on the Power Max program, all there is my Samsung nothing else. Can anybody help on this!? Thank's in advanced.

Hello Gabrielc, welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

For one, this is not the right forum for questions as printed in bold outside the 'door'. :) Don't worry though, one of the mods will relocate it to where it belongs.

Back to your problem. You cannot access any usb device with the DOS floppy or DOS commands in Windows. Why don't you just boot normally into Windows, go to 'My Computer', and right click on the usb drive and select format?

If that does or even doesn't work, please post back with results and also what you do see in 'My Computer'.

Hi gabrielc,

I think the problem you are having is that the powermax program is for Maxtor HDDs. It can't see your Hitachi drive.

A couple questions:

What operating system are you using?

Why do you need to do a low level format?

If you really need a clean HDD, you can use the "boot and nuke" function of the disc utility called Eraser. You can download it here (http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/historyfile.php) .

Welcome to the http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

The programs you have must not support USB. What OS do you have? If XP, right click on "My Computer", choose "Manage", on the left pane under "storage", choose "Disk Management". You can delete, partition, and format from there. I'm not sure about other OS's. Though I believe Win2000 has this feature as well. But I am not sure.

EDIT- LOL. How is that for service. Three posts in three minutes. :)

I moved this to storage as it makes more sense.
:)

Thank u all for ur interest on this issue of mine... For those who ask me what OS i have, well is Windows XP Pro / SP2. You see, i need a very clean HD for some very good reazons, like the HD it was not my is one of them, it was from a friend who had made lot's of thing on it :-) plus, on WinXPPRO i can delete a partition that is on the HD, is like a 1GB. I try going on a DEBUG from the DOS Prompt, try deleting, format on the WinXP (MyComputer>Format). So i guess all you very good friend have a better idea of my problem.

If you are intending to format this drive and install WinXP onto it then your BIOS must support booting from a USB drive and be correctly positioned in the boot order.

If you just want to format the drive to delete the files off it then since WinXP supports USB all you should need to do is to use WinXP's disk management as already indicated or simply do a quick format from MyComputer.

As you indicated you will not be able to do this easily from DOS without installing USB drivers for DOS (and I have never seen that done).

To securely erase/wipe/zero all the data on the disk then use a windows based utility such as eraser from http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/ or wipedisk from http://www.birdcomputer.ca/Software/SoftwareToC.html. You will of course then have to partition and format to make it functional again.

Paul,
Thank u so much men...that's exactly what i was looking for. It works great. And like u said, if i din't install USB drivers for DOS, wich i can't find any, it was gona be impossible. But anyway's it worked!!! Thanks so much again.