killdisk.com

[Eryk]

hello techimo'ers

jmi reccommended me to use killdisk.com to fix a really messed up computer.

the computer boots up, and then gives 4 options, and no matter what options are chosen, the monitor goes out after and the computer hangs.

since the computer is at my friends house, i cant tell if i can get into the bios or not... but i shouldnt have any problems getting into it will i?

basically, for the killdisk program to work... i download it and put it onto a floppy or cd and then change the boot sequence to either cd or floppy before the HD.

then the options for the program should come? and after i let it run and it completes, i can install windows right?

thanks

eric

[paul9]

most pcs will boot from floppy without having to change bios settings. some also let you press a key such as f9 or f11 while booting, which will bring up a boot menu. this will let you pick a boot device on a per boot basis. handy if you just want to boot from a cd on one occasion, without changing the bios settings.

[Eryk]

so try the diskette first right? the hard-drive is completely jacked.

will there be a chance that i cant get it to work? and ill have to buy a new HD?

[lynch]

Active@Killdisk is a hard drive erasor. It wont "fix" a PC; it will erase the contents of the hard drive.
lynch

[paul9]

run a full scandisk with surface test on the drive, if you can. it will take almost forever, but if you think the drive may be shady, it is better to be safe than sorry. you will need a boot floppy to do this, or if using xp, booting from the install cd gives a repair console option, where you can use chkdisk (or chkdsk ?? try /help to get the correct program name)

[saladbarkid]

If your friend is using XP on his PC, it sounds like he has the "Unmountable Boot Volume" BSD. There is a way to fix this without formating the hard drive. You need the XP cd. Go into the BIOS and set the boot order for ATAPI CDROM to be first boot device. Then put the cd in and reboot. It will say "Press any key to boot off cd" (or something similar to that), so do so and press a key. When you come to the setup menu, press the "r" key to kake it go into the console repair. Once in, you'll need to choose your installation, usually 1 C:\WINDOWS. Now comes the fun part! type chkdsk /r /p. It will now scan for any errors on the drive. When it's finished, type fixboot. And finally, type fixmbr. Then exit the utility. You should now be able to boot.

This procedure is if the OS is XP. Let me know if it is anything other than XP.

[Eryk]

ok thanks for the suggestions, however, he wants everything wiped out... no restoring here

ill just let killdisk run, and then install windows after right?

[paul9]

pretty much, yes. just remember the boot floppy, if you don't have a bootable windows cd.