Hmm...Okay Trying To Format Here

[Studs Ramrod]

Hello everyone, I'm doing the 'f disk' formatting style and I have come to a halt. It is requiring me to type out the Volume Label. That's cool and all, but the damn name of the Volume has all these characters that I'm not able to find on the keyboard. I know that by using the 'ALT' key/combination numbers on the numerical pad, I'm able to display some of the characters that are part of the Volume Label. Dang, what can I do? Anyone know how to type out all those characters? Is there a chart that I can look up that will have all the different characters using the 'ALT' key/Numeric pad combination? This is the only thing stopping me from formatting my drive. Please assist. Thank you very much.

[NooNoo]

Sounds like you had a nasty little virus... I suggest you download the zero fill utility (sometimes called the low level format utility incorrectly) from your hard drive manufacturer page - powermax at maxtor... for instance.

This util will fill ever part of your drive with zeros overwriting everything including the partitions... from there you should be able to fdisk and format normally.

[arokh]

Originally posted by Studs Ramrod
Hello everyone, I'm doing the 'f disk' formatting style and I have come to a halt. It is requiring me to type out the Volume Label. That's cool and all, but the damn name of the Volume has all these characters that I'm not able to find on the keyboard. I know that by using the 'ALT' key/combination numbers on the numerical pad, I'm able to display some of the characters that are part of the Volume Label. Dang, what can I do? Anyone know how to type out all those characters? Is there a chart that I can look up that will have all the different characters using the 'ALT' key/Numeric pad combination? This is the only thing stopping me from formatting my drive. Please assist. Thank you very much.

Couldn't you just hook it up in another working computer and use the label command? I haven't done it in a while, but if I remember right, you don't need to specify the previous label when assigning a new label to the drive. Once you wipe out the label with that command (in dos) then you can repartition it. If it works, great, it'll save you time on doing the zero fill. But I agree, it sounds like you had some major FAT/MBR corruption, and a zero fill might be what the doctor ordered anyway.

[kato2274]

I'm thinking along the same lines as Noo Noo. I just want to add one small point.

for safety I would create any boot disks or utility floppies from another computer. if by chance you have a memory resident virus it could very well end up on the floppies you create, and then right back on your hard drive.

[NooNoo]

Originally posted by arokh
Couldn't you just hook it up in another working computer and use the label command? I haven't done it in a while, but if I remember right, you don't need to specify the previous label when assigning a new label to the drive. Once you wipe out the label with that command (in dos) then you can repartition it. If it works, great, it'll save you time on doing the zero fill. But I agree, it sounds like you had some major FAT/MBR corruption, and a zero fill might be what the doctor ordered anyway.

If its a virus - that is the last thing you want to be doing!

[arokh]

Originally posted by NooNoo
If its a virus - that is the last thing you want to be doing!

I guess your right, in all my years I've still not learned that 90% of people who use computers are not adequately protected with virus scanners. I throw infected hard drives in my PC's at work to clean them off all the time, I know I'm protected, and I guess I take that information for granted