[SOLVED] Bios Drive????

leemac13 · 05-05-2009, 10:34 AM

Dear All I was in the process of installing a copy of windows xp onto my computer when we suffered a powercut when i tried to restart the install the computer comes up with an error and the drive is now listed as a Bios Drive(81 hex) and will not let me install anything on it or format it or recognised it in fdisk. Can anybody help???

**Terrister** · 05-06-2009, 11:09 AM

Download dban on another computer and make a boot disk. Boot from this and wipe the drive. It should install after that.

http://www.dban.org/

leemac13 · 05-06-2009, 04:34 PM

is there any particular program i should use to burn the image of dban?

oldjoe · 05-06-2009, 08:24 PM

Dban will download as an ISO file. Any software that has ISO burning capabilities will work. I like this one: http://www.freeisoburner.com/

leemac13 · 05-07-2009, 07:28 AM

still no luck when windows tries to setup it keeps saying that it needs to write files onto my other hard drive which is a backup drive but there is not enough free space and to delete the partition but if i do that i will loose all my data on there!! anybody have any ideas what i can do?

**belfasteddie** · 05-07-2009, 07:39 AM

Disconnect the other drive.

leemac13 · 05-07-2009, 10:51 AM

That worked great thank you both :)

05-05-2009, 10:34 AM	#1 (permalink)
leemac13 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 11 OS: XP SP2	[SOLVED] Bios Drive???? Dear All I was in the process of installing a copy of windows xp onto my computer when we suffered a powercut when i tried to restart the install the computer comes up with an error and the drive is now listed as a Bios Drive(81 hex) and will not let me install anything on it or format it or recognised it in fdisk. Can anybody help???

05-06-2009, 11:09 AM	#2 (permalink)
Terrister Moderator Hardware Forum Join Date: Apr 2005 Location: West Georgia, USA Posts: 7,098 OS: Xp	Re: Bios Drive???? Download dban on another computer and make a boot disk. Boot from this and wipe the drive. It should install after that. http://www.dban.org/ __________________

05-06-2009, 04:34 PM	#3 (permalink)
leemac13 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 11 OS: XP SP2	Re: Bios Drive???? is there any particular program i should use to burn the image of dban?

05-06-2009, 08:24 PM	#4 (permalink)
oldjoe Registered User Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: Illinois Posts: 276 OS: XP Pro My System	Re: Bios Drive???? Dban will download as an ISO file. Any software that has ISO burning capabilities will work. I like this one: http://www.freeisoburner.com/

05-07-2009, 07:28 AM	#5 (permalink)
leemac13 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 11 OS: XP SP2	Re: Bios Drive???? still no luck when windows tries to setup it keeps saying that it needs to write files onto my other hard drive which is a backup drive but there is not enough free space and to delete the partition but if i do that i will loose all my data on there!! anybody have any ideas what i can do?

05-07-2009, 07:39 AM	#6 (permalink)
belfasteddie Enthusiast Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Belfast N.I. Posts: 1,551 OS: Puppy Linux 4.12	Re: Bios Drive???? Disconnect the other drive.

05-07-2009, 10:51 AM	#7 (permalink)
leemac13 Registered User Join Date: Dec 2008 Posts: 11 OS: XP SP2	Re: Bios Drive???? That worked great thank you both :)