how do i make fdisk work?

[Will1]

okay, i have an old 40 gig hard drive laying around here that i used to use. it is formatted into 2 partitions, one for windows and one for linux. i needed to get rid of the linux partition recently and when i tried i apparently did something wrong and now whenever i boot up with the drive it says "invalid partition table". so, again going it alone, i tried using fdisk. i tried telling it to "delete all partitions", but then it would tell me that the drive was not ready and gave me the option to either abort, retry, or fail. so, im stuck. this is where i ask someone where to go. does any one have any ideas? help on this subject would be especially appreciated. i need to set this hd back to normal.

many thanks

[iisbob]

Unfortunately microsoft's version of FDISK won't work with linux-but never fear! I have an alternative for you-and it's free!

Go here; Ultimate Boot Disk (http://www.startdisk.com/Web2/ubd/ubd.htm), it uses Ranish partition manager to undo partitions, and it''l work with any OS's FAT system ( or NTFS ).

One other tool i regularly use is the driver manufactorers " Zero drive " utility-it writes 1's and 0's to the drive completely overwriting ALL data; including partition/FAT tables-my persoanl choice. http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif


Can't help but notice you said " ...old 40 Gig drive just laying around.." If it's a bother i'll be glad to take it off your hands! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/tongue.gif

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iisbob
""I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know."
Mark Twain

[Gallaeglagh]

I had a similiar problem about a month ago. Try going into your Bios and setting the drive to LBA, reboot go back into fdisk and at the A prompt enter Format X: where X is the letter of that drive

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Indecision may or may not be my problem

[rond36]

After you deleted the partitions did you create a new partition(s) and format them. Sounds to me like you are trying to read a unformatted drive

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Alright who messed it up this time!

[Jumby]

Yeah, I'll take that "old" 40 gig.

[Will1]

thanks for your input everyone. i was able to fix the problem using ranish from the ultimate boot disk site. was pretty simple, it got rid of all my other partitions and set up a fat32 system almost automatically. pretty impressive.

this board has been extremely helpful answering my questions in the last few days. in the years that i have dealt with computers, ive never come across a board so practicable and free from those elements that cause many public forums to become chaotic and useless. i plan to frequent this place for a long time to come.

thanks for the help everyone http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/smile.gif

[iisbob]

So...what about the 40 Gig drive?! http://www.PCGuide.com/ubb/biggrin.gif

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iisbob
""I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did. I said I didn't know."
Mark Twain

[bassman]

Hi Will1,
I'm glad that your experiences here have been positive. We stive to be the best on the net by giving accurate info and not making anyone feel stupid for the questions asked.
With that said, have you seen THIS (http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/Forum10/HTML/000225.html)?

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Please go HERE (http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/Forum10/HTML/000225.html)