Disk Wipe Revisited (Using GDisk)

Astral Fridge Magnet · Fri Dec 29, 2006 5:15 am

Hello,

A long while ago I asked a question about wiping my drives on this forum.
I usually use GDisk by Norton to wipe disks if I have to and it works on all my other PCs but not the one that I am trying to use it on.
I have just discovered that in the BIOS of the said machine that my hard drives are connected to the 3rd IDE Master/Slave. Nothing is connected/detected on the Primary or Secondary IDE Master. Could this be the problem? Maybe GDisk has to detect the Primary/Secondary and not the Third IDE Master/Slave. It is only a guess and maybe I am talking rubbish. The reason I think this is that the PC in question is the only one where I can not boot from boot CDs that I have created, even though they work on my other PCs, so I know I haven't done anything wrong there.
Finally, if that is the problem, would restoring my image work if I change the IDE configuration, as the PC won't be the same configuration as before or shouldn't it make a difference? Excuse me if that is a dumb question.

Thanks in advance for your response(s)

arela · Post by **arela** » Sat Dec 30, 2006 1:37 am

I think it just to move the ide bus cable to ide bus #1 (unplug ac first)
On the other hand, IDE bus #1 and #2 should both be accessable.

(but.........no experience with norton products in many, many years)

Astral Fridge Magnet · Fri Jan 12, 2007 10:48 pm

I figured out the problem at long last.

It had to do with the IDE configuration in my BIOS. I had to change it to compatible mode then Gdisk works. After my drive is wiped, I revert back to enhanced mode. It took me one year and a half to discover that!!!! A very frustrating experience ( because when I want to do something I want it done straight away), but nonetheless rewarding now that I figured it out.

By the way it was pure chance I discovered this. I was reading through the manual of my motherboard (trying to get a clue why Gdisk wouldn't work-not for fun!) and happened to notice the section of IDE configuration. Then it made me realise that Gdisk is a Windows 98 thing. Simple when you know, despite it taking so long to find out!!!!!!!

Hopefully this information might be useful to other people out there.