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OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical => Setup & Installation => Topic started by: Martin Iturbide on December 19, 2018, 05:55:06 pm

Title: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: Martin Iturbide on December 19, 2018, 05:55:06 pm
Hi

Which is a good way to remove all the partition (wipe all the HDD drive with MBR) of a previously Windows 10 partitioned HDD using the ArcaOS 5.0.3 media installer?
On the Maintenance Mode, none of the tools provided works for me (Disk Utility, Resize Partitions, Manage Volumes, Check Disk, Format Disk).

I think it will be easy for me to boot Windows 10 USB flash and wipe all partitions, and reboot ArcaOS USB Flash, but I want to know if I'm missing a way on how to do it from ArcaOS installation media.

Regards
Title: Re: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: Andreas Schnellbacher on December 19, 2018, 06:28:59 pm
I've always used DFSee for such things.

I guess the included menuless and feature-stripped version of it that is included with ArcaOS and eCS can handle that as well. Without a menu, you have to know the parameters. When DFSee executes commands that were selected via the menu, it writes those command lines to its screen. That might be one option to get the parameters for that in plain ArcaOS.
Title: Re: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: ivan on December 19, 2018, 07:18:12 pm
Like Andreas I would say use DFSee but I think you might be able to do what you want (win10 is tricky) with the Installation Volume Manager utility.

In the dropdown menu under System you should find an item Rewrite MBR.  This should do the job but It may not (remember that win10 is not designed to be uninstalled).

Are you certain that it is an MBR disk?  All the win10 disks I have seen are GPD if the MB they are attached to has a UFEI bios and you do need DFSee to convert GPD to MBR.
Title: Re: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: Doug Bissett on December 19, 2018, 07:48:53 pm
Quote
Which is a good way to remove all the partition (wipe all the HDD drive with MBR) of a previously Windows 10 partitioned HDD using the ArcaOS 5.0.3 media installer?

When you get the installer started, go to System Management-> Disk-> Disk Utility. It will check your disk(s), and tell you if it found anything wrong. Ignore that, and click Disk, and one of the options is Wipe disk information, with three options.  Use All disk information, to wipe the disk. It simply writes over the first 1000 sectors.

Use this tool to shrink windows partitions too, if you need to do that. It is a version of DFSEE, that is specifically set up to do those operations correctly. DFSEE will do it incorrectly, unless you are booted to OS/2 when you run it, so you might as well use the proper tool. Windows, Linux, and any other partition tool, will likely do it wrong, unless you just happen to get the partitions on a cylinder boundary, rather than the more common MB boundary. Almost impossible, from what I have seen.

Note, that ArcaOS makes no attempt to convert anything from GPT to MBR. You must do that in some other way, but wiping the disk is the safest way to do that. If you need to change the geometry, you probably still need to wipe the disk anyway. Rewrite MBR will definitely mess up a GPT disk, if it will actually do it (it should refuse).
Title: Re: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: Eugene Tucker on December 19, 2018, 08:12:10 pm
Martin, I personally use an application called Active Killdisk. I used at work at Westinghouse Elcetric for years. It brings the drive back to the fresh out of the box level using it powerful engine. It will remove everything. There is a free version at....  http://killdisk.com/killdisk-home.htm. After wiping or  erasing the disk I would for a Arca OS drive partition it with DFSee.
Title: Re: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: Martin Iturbide on December 20, 2018, 06:04:35 pm
Thanks for the reply.

All answers are right, I wanted to see which was the way to do it with ArcaOS install media, since I was getting confused with the GUI. Doug's procedure worked for me on this case.

Regards
Title: Re: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: Doug Bissett on December 20, 2018, 10:25:21 pm
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since I was getting confused with the GUI.

What is somewhat confusing, is the README files, that tell you how to do these things. There is a LOT of good information in them, if you can find it among the other good information (it is ALL good information, there is just way too much of it, which makes it difficult to find what you are looking for).

If you find the GUI confusing, lets discuss that. It may be possible to get it improved, if somebody has a better idea, that isn't too difficult to implement (Artificial Intelligence is required, but it probably won't happen   :o ). Personally, I find it to be quite good, but I use it a lot, while testing ArcaOS.
Title: Re: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: Andreas Schnellbacher on December 21, 2018, 12:58:55 am
Doug, apparently you're referring to DFSee.

I think the biggest problem for a newcomer is that he has to select the medium first: "File" -> "Open object to work with". Only after that, the "Mode=FDISK" submenu is usable. I find all other parts self-explaining and well documented.
Title: Re: Removing all partitions from HDD with ArcaOS Installer
Post by: Doug Bissett on December 21, 2018, 03:54:24 am
Quote
Doug, apparently you're referring to DFSee.

No. The discussion is about the ArcaOS installer (at least I think that is what Martin means).

DFSEE is very good, as long as you stay away from the advanced stuff. If you go to advanced mode, you had better know what you are doing, or you can get yourself into a lot of trouble. The Disk Utility, that is included in ArcaOS is a reduced function, scripted, version of DFSEE, that is designed to be used by people who don't know what they are doing. It is highly recommended to read every word in the READMEs, to be sure that you understand what the tool is designed to do.