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> > Please explain exactly what you do here.  I don't follow it.
>
> This is the point: Your HD has a probability of being misrecognized by the
> BIOS.
>
>
> > My much newer 100GB HD works badly on two computers, including the one
> > where I partitioned it, so I think it is a HD problem.  But maybe DOS is
> > confused by 100GB.  All of the linux partitions act normally.

> I don't know what is your motherboard, but in the '80s and '90s it was
> "normal" the recognizing
> of 6GB to 10 GB and nothing higher. Many times we needed to run a
> manufacturer's program in
> order to have the total capacity recognized.
> "Modern" PCs don't need that procedure anymore.

The computer was given to us with a dead 3.8GHz cpu and should be able to 
handle a 100MB drive.  It is our fastest computer.  But there may be 
something else wrong with it.

> > Please explain exactly what I should do to make my HD work properly.  I
> > partitioned it with BL3 fdisk (PQMagic would not work at all with it) and
> > could format with e2fsck and copy files, but DOS format acts oddly.  Files
> > appear and disappear and turn to gibberish and the drive sometimes boots
> > and sometime does not boot.  I assumed bad partition table.  It was given
> > to me with no files on it, in an XP computer.
>
> > Sindi
>
> I use to be quite "radical" when concerning to "donated" HDs, because the
> most of them
> were given by Windows users.
> Many HDs I've handled were infected by partition viruses which do not allow
> us to
> work properly on the partitions (and this is totally invisible for us).

We have been brought hard disks which spontaneously reboot instead of 
going into XP, and I think fdisk /mbr and repartition fixed them, but I 
was not the one who used them again.

> Fdisk. cfdisk, qparted, etc. are unable to handle this kind of viruses.
> They modify the MBR "conveniently" and everything seems to be Ok.
>
> If the system doesn't show you a "track zero" error, and assuming that your
> motherboard is not so old, try the following:
> Use  'debug'  from DOS (it also can be found on the Windows 98 rescue floppy
> disk)
> in the spite of  "breaking" any partition at all, and then start it from
> scratch.
> It's a low-level modification, so be adviced that this process makes your
> data to be lost.
> It covers the MBR with spaces (character 20 ASCII)

To erase (overwrite with zeros) the MBR I can also
dd if=/dev/zero  of=/dev/hda  bs=512  count=1
Would this be just as good?  Can I then repartition and reformat?
Should I overwrite more than this in case the virus is hiding some place 
else?


> After typing   debug <enter> enter the following values:
Might this do permanent damage to the MBR if I do it wrong?

> -F  200  L1000  0
> -A  CS:100
> xxxx : 0100  MOV  AX,301
> xxxx : 0103  MOV  BX,200
> xxxx : 0106  MOV  CX,1
> xxxx : 0109  MOV  DX,80
> xxxx : 010C  INT  13
> xxxx : 010E  INT  20
> xxxx : 0110
> -G
> -Q
>
> Notes: the "xxxx: 01xx"s are provided by 'debug';
> At 0110 just type <enter> with no information.
> When G is entered, the system says the program was ended normally;
> (If not, just retype the information)
> Q is for "quit".
>
> (DX,80 is for the first HD and DX,81 for the second.
> But I never use a second HD while doing this).
>
> Having done this, you'll have a "brand new" HD what is to say you have
> to partition, format, mount, etc.

I have practice doing that.  Nothing important on the drive.

I found a site warning against using FDISK/MBR, which can cause more 
problems than it cures.

Would spinrite be adequate to determine if the drive is simply worn out?

> I hope it works for you.
>
> Teixeira
>
>
>
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keesan AT sdf.lonestar.org
SDF Public Access UNIX System - http://sdf.lonestar.org