Clean HD wipe?

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netguardianii · #1 Post by **netguardianii** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 4:18 pm

Currently, my hard drive has three partitions:
1) The partition Windows XP boots from (NTFS)
2) My data partition (FAT32)
3) IBM HPA (FAT32)

Partition #1 is filled with a ton of crap (spyware, malware, etc), so I've decided to reinstall XP. I've never created a backup of any partitions using IBM R&R (or any other program for that matter), so the only choice left is to hit "Access IBM" at boot time and select the option to, "Restore my hard drive to the original factory state."

I don't have any external hard drives large enough to backup the 26.6 GB of data in Partition #2 (which I want to preserve). However, I vaguely remember the "Access IBM" program detecting more than one partition (it can only detect NTFS and FAT32 partitions) and asking me if I want to limit the restoration process to my primary XP partition during a restore that occurred over 5 months ago. Does anyone know definitively whether or not such an option exists?

Thanks, guys.

netguardianii · #2 Post by **netguardianii** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:41 pm

Anyone? Anything? Please?

cmarti · #3 Post by **cmarti** » Wed Mar 15, 2006 11:46 pm

Do you have a copy of Win Xp?

#4 Post by **bill bolton** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 12:08 am

netguardianii wrote:Anyone? Anything? Please?

You may want to restate the question

... it's not particularly clear what you are specifically asking!

Cheers,

Bill

netguardianii · #5 Post by **netguardianii** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:21 pm

What part of my brief precis was unclear?

netguardianii · #6 Post by **netguardianii** » Thu Mar 16, 2006 8:22 pm

cmarti wrote:Do you have a copy of Win Xp?

Unfortunately, I do not. That is why wiping the HD clean and starting over is my only option.

w0qj · #7 Post by **w0qj** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 12:07 am

I've never tried Restore to factory state with 2 partitions plus IBM HPA, so don't know.

What I know is, you *cannot* use Rescue & Recovery (v3.01.0037) to restore your Windows partition (the C:\ ).
It would result in an unbootable machine that requires Restore To Factory State (I used the Recovery CD's, so don't know for sure about Access IBM's function of the same).

Here are some related links---hope this helps you!
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... highlight=
http://forum.thinkpads.com/viewtopic.ph ... light=boot

Back up your data (onto another computer, or buy a USB HDD)...

Good luck!

egibbs · #8 Post by **egibbs** » Fri Mar 17, 2006 6:58 am

w0qj wrote:Back up your data (onto another computer, or buy a USB HDD)...

Good luck!

I agree. I'm also not sure how well the restore to factory state works with 2 partitions, but I am absolutely sure that I would never try it if I had un-backed up data on one of those partitions that I wanted to keep. Even if it's designed to work that way, things can (and usually do) go wrong.

Of course, if "want to preserve" is just a preference and not a requirement then go ahead and try it, You might get lucky and your data will be intact later, or you might lose it all.

A separate but related issue tha you might want to work on is why your Windows installation keeps getting filled with crap. Unless you are using this machine to research malware by deliberately infecting it, there is no reason for that to be happening.

Ed Gibbs

Clean HD wipe?

Clean HD wipe?

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