Missing HDD after using DBAN

Topic

New Reply

Hi all, I recently used DBAN on my old XP SP3 machine, intending to reinstall Windows before donating the computer. Well DBAN did such a good job of ‘erasing’ the hard drive that when I tried to reinstall XP (using the Alienware-provided System Recovery DVD), it couldn’t find the drive at all! So I had to abort Windows Setup because it thought there was no drive to install itself on. I then tried using a system image DVD made with Norton Ghost (again, provided by Alienware) and was informed the hard drive was only 1MB in size and of course too small to restore the image to. I searched for a solution online and it seemed people had that error when downgrading from Vista. My computer never had Vista. Any thoughts on how to proceed? Do I need an actual Windows installation DVD instead of my Recovery DVD? Don’t have one! Thank you!

Reply | Quote

Replies

You need to partition the drive. DBAN removes ALL data, including format and partition info.

Reply | Quote

Right! How do I do that if I can’t install an OS??

Reply | Quote

You hook it up as a secondary drive first and initialize/partition/format; whatever needs doing.

Reply | Quote

OK that was vague! I’m sorry; I am not well-versed in this sort of thing. (If I knew “whatever needs doing” I would do it.) Can someone talk DOWN to me and explain exactly what I need to do? Thank you!

Reply | Quote

Install the drive as a second drive in another working PC. Use Windows to partition and format it. Put it back in the other PC. OR get a live CD or USB drive (one you can boot from) with partition tools on it. Like this: http://partedmagic.com/doku.php
Download: http://partedmagic.com/doku.php?id=downloads

I am NOT recommending this, just using it as am example. That does NOT mean it is bad, just that I haven’t used it. (I have Paragon and Easus tools I use). Download the iso file, burn it to a CD and boot from it.

Reply | Quote

Parted Magic is fantastic if you don’t have a second PC to hook the drive to (or no means (cabling)). Once booted with it and running in RAM (the fastest method), use the GParted partitioning program to write a DOS-partition table to the drive (MBR). Then partition and format to NTFS. If there is more than one drive in the system, make sure the correct drive is selected before applying all this to it.

Then reboot with the recovery DVD in and see if it recognizes the drive properly, again being sure the correct drive is selected if there is more than one.

Reply | Quote

Thank you gregandrene and Infinicore! I will try Parted Magic forthwith.

Reply | Quote

“Once booted with it and running in RAM (the fastest method), use the GParted partitioning program to write a DOS-partition table to the drive (MBR).”

I know what that means (honest!) but I don’t see any “write a DOS-partition table” options in the software. Can you be more specific? Thanks again for your help; I feel like a doofus.

Reply | Quote

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/display-doc.php?name=help-manual#gparted-create-partition-table

Creating a New Partition Table

To create a new partition table on a disk device:

Select a disk device. See the section called “Selecting a Device”.

Choose: Device → Create Partition Table. The application displays a Create partition table on /path-to-device dialog.

If you want a partition table other than msdos, click Advanced and select a partition table type from the list.

Click Apply to create the new partition table. The application writes the new partition table to the disk device. The application refreshes the device partition layout in the gparted window.

Caution

WARNING: This will ERASE ALL DATA on the ENTIRE DISK DEVICE.

Reply | Quote