Formatting the Entire Hard Drive

I recently formatted my hard drive.

Does formatting the hard drive with utilities that wipe it also erase the
Master Boot Record (MBR)?

I don't want to leave any trace of the old system, since it was viruses
infected. How do get rid of everything?

I know that the command fdisk/mbr is a good idea (but I didn't use that),
but if I use a Wiping utility that wipes C: and then re-intall everything,
does that also wipe the MBR?

What other places could a virus be hiding, what about BIOS/CMOS, is it
possible?

Regards,

Mike

Mike wrote:
> I recently formatted my hard drive.
>
> Does formatting the hard drive with utilities that wipe it also
> erase the Master Boot Record (MBR)?
>
> I don't want to leave any trace of the old system, since it was
> viruses infected. How do get rid of everything?
>
> I know that the command fdisk/mbr is a good idea (but I didn't use
> that), but if I use a Wiping utility that wipes C: and then
> re-intall everything, does that also wipe the MBR?
>
> What other places could a virus be hiding, what about BIOS/CMOS, is
> it possible?

If you used a Zero-Write utility - it's ALL gone.
And it is HIGHLY unlikely you have a virus in your BIOS. heh

--
Shenan Stanley
MS-MVP
--
How To Ask Questions The Smart Way
http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Mike wrote:
> I recently formatted my hard drive.
>
> Does formatting the hard drive with utilities that wipe it also erase the
> Master Boot Record (MBR)?
>
> I don't want to leave any trace of the old system, since it was viruses
> infected. How do get rid of everything?
>
> I know that the command fdisk/mbr is a good idea (but I didn't use that),
> but if I use a Wiping utility that wipes C: and then re-intall everything,
> does that also wipe the MBR?
>
> What other places could a virus be hiding, what about BIOS/CMOS, is it
> possible?
>
> Regards,
>
> Mike

Download the utility floppy from the hard drive manufacturer's web site
and use the Update MBR feature.

Alias

">Download the utility floppy from the hard drive manufacturer's web site and
use the Update MBR feature."

If the zeroing gets rid of the MBR as well why should I need to "Update MBR
feature"?
The Zeroing and format does erase the MBR as well right?

Mike

"Alias" wrote:

> Mike wrote:
> > I recently formatted my hard drive.
> >
> > Does formatting the hard drive with utilities that wipe it also erase the
> > Master Boot Record (MBR)?
> >
> > I don't want to leave any trace of the old system, since it was viruses
> > infected. How do get rid of everything?
> >
> > I know that the command fdisk/mbr is a good idea (but I didn't use that),
> > but if I use a Wiping utility that wipes C: and then re-intall everything,
> > does that also wipe the MBR?
> >
> > What other places could a virus be hiding, what about BIOS/CMOS, is it
> > possible?
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Mike
>
> Download the utility floppy from the hard drive manufacturer's web site
> and use the Update MBR feature.
>
> Alias
>

Zero-write (from the hard drive manufacturer) overwrites all on the hard
drive. Includes all areas of the hard drive. Remaps areas out that it
deems not usable in the process.
This includes the master boot record, and the entire area of the hard drive
it lives in.
Dave
"Mike" <Mike@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:11852CAA-C11E-4DE3-8A93-74A4266867C9@microsoft.com...
>">Download the utility floppy from the hard drive manufacturer's web site
>and
> use the Update MBR feature."
>
> If the zeroing gets rid of the MBR as well why should I need to "Update
> MBR
> feature"?
> The Zeroing and format does erase the MBR as well right?
>
> Mike
>
> "Alias" wrote:
>
>> Mike wrote:
>> > I recently formatted my hard drive.
>> >
>> > Does formatting the hard drive with utilities that wipe it also erase
>> > the
>> > Master Boot Record (MBR)?
>> >
>> > I don't want to leave any trace of the old system, since it was viruses
>> > infected. How do get rid of everything?
>> >
>> > I know that the command fdisk/mbr is a good idea (but I didn't use
>> > that),
>> > but if I use a Wiping utility that wipes C: and then re-intall
>> > everything,
>> > does that also wipe the MBR?
>> >
>> > What other places could a virus be hiding, what about BIOS/CMOS, is it
>> > possible?
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > Mike
>>
>> Download the utility floppy from the hard drive manufacturer's web site
>> and use the Update MBR feature.
>>
>> Alias
>>

Mike wrote:

> I recently formatted my hard drive.
>
> Does formatting the hard drive with utilities that wipe it also erase the
> Master Boot Record (MBR)?
>
> I don't want to leave any trace of the old system, since it was viruses
> infected. How do get rid of everything?
>
> I know that the command fdisk/mbr is a good idea (but I didn't use that),
> but if I use a Wiping utility that wipes C: and then re-intall everything,
> does that also wipe the MBR?
>
> What other places could a virus be hiding, what about BIOS/CMOS, is it
> possible?

Did you have any partitions left on the disk after the zero write or did
you have to create new ones? If no partitions remained on the disk then
the MBR was wiped.

Computer Debug Routines / Machine Code
ERASE HDD AND CLEAR CMOS
http://www.computerhope.com/rdebug.htm#5

USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!

John

Thanks for your replies.

No partititons were left after the zeroing. I had to create them.

Mike

"John John" wrote:

> Mike wrote:
>
> > I recently formatted my hard drive.
> >
> > Does formatting the hard drive with utilities that wipe it also erase the
> > Master Boot Record (MBR)?
> >
> > I don't want to leave any trace of the old system, since it was viruses
> > infected. How do get rid of everything?
> >
> > I know that the command fdisk/mbr is a good idea (but I didn't use that),
> > but if I use a Wiping utility that wipes C: and then re-intall everything,
> > does that also wipe the MBR?
> >
> > What other places could a virus be hiding, what about BIOS/CMOS, is it
> > possible?
>
> Did you have any partitions left on the disk after the zero write or did
> you have to create new ones? If no partitions remained on the disk then
> the MBR was wiped.
>
> Computer Debug Routines / Machine Code
> ERASE HDD AND CLEAR CMOS
> http://www.computerhope.com/rdebug.htm#5
>
> USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
>
> John
>
>
>

Well, then the MBR *was* wiped.

John

Mike wrote:

> Thanks for your replies.
>
> No partititons were left after the zeroing. I had to create them.
>
> Mike
>
> "John John" wrote:
>
>
>>Mike wrote:
>>
>>
>>>I recently formatted my hard drive.
>>>
>>>Does formatting the hard drive with utilities that wipe it also erase the
>>>Master Boot Record (MBR)?
>>>
>>>I don't want to leave any trace of the old system, since it was viruses
>>>infected. How do get rid of everything?
>>>
>>>I know that the command fdisk/mbr is a good idea (but I didn't use that),
>>>but if I use a Wiping utility that wipes C: and then re-intall everything,
>>>does that also wipe the MBR?
>>>
>>>What other places could a virus be hiding, what about BIOS/CMOS, is it
>>>possible?
>>
>>Did you have any partitions left on the disk after the zero write or did
>>you have to create new ones? If no partitions remained on the disk then
>>the MBR was wiped.
>>
>>Computer Debug Routines / Machine Code
>>ERASE HDD AND CLEAR CMOS
>>http://www.computerhope.com/rdebug.htm#5
>>
>>USE AT YOUR OWN RISK!!!
>>
>>John
>>
>>
>>