New
#1
Low Level Format Prior to Installation
I just started to try to install W7 x64 on my secondary rig, but when the partitioning tool seemed unable to delete a couple of partitions on the disk, I resorted to several other tools trying to wipe the disk totally clean...including the MBR. I tried Seatools, but the best I could see, it wasn't designed for this purpose. I tried Hatichi's DFT, but it balked saying that I didn't have an HGST drive...whatever that is. I then went to Acronis Disk Director Suite, and simply created the partitions, because I didn't find a means of low level formatting.
For the W7 partition I chose an active partition and committed the operation, but while it seemed to complete the first part of the operation, it froze when trying to syncronize with the OS (I assume because there wasn't one).
I then started over with the W7 disk, but what it saw was a 100 GB logical partition for the OS (Which it would't accept), with the remainder, that I had not used DDS on, as an unallocated extended partition.
I tried to delete these, but it failed on the first partition, and on the other, the format and delete options were grayed out. The obvious question is how do I clean the HD of any trace of the previous partition data, so that the W7 installation doesn't throw a fit?
EDIT: I found that HGST stands for Hitachi Global Storage Technologies, so I guess they don't want it used on other drives, but that seems odd, because I had used it on some Maxtors in the past.