Low-level formatting?

[RikTelner]

Related: https://www.daniweb.com/hardware-and-software/linux-and-unix/threads/494353/urgent-nothing-boots-anymore

The error of my laptop, the HDD turned out to be the culprit. They tried to recover data, but it won't really work and I think they just pull me off my money, I can get them to wipe the HDD and make it useful again for 50 euro. I went Googling on solutions, DBAN could be a solution, what it does is forcibly write x00 everywhere, but I'm not entirely sure whether it will be enough sufficient. HDD can't be attached by USB on Linux/Windows because it keeps just trying to load the drivers. In the topic also mentioned above, there's such thing as BoxyBox(?) or something like this.

Would it be possible of way to tell: "I don't care about your writing speed, your capacity, your name, your brand, anything, just write those x00 everywhere." ? Like I mentioned DBAN turns about to be a good guess, I'll try it out as soon as I land my hands on HDD, but, would there be no other solution but DBAN'ing it? I have no interest in recovering the data.

@edit - Maybe shorter: how to absolutely reset controller (to default), wipe out every type of data and all this kind of things, as close as possible to it original default values.

[mike_2000_17]

If you are using Linux, you can easily wipe out an HDD by using the dd command, as described here. Make sure to use the correct device. In those instructions, they wipe out the /dev/sda hard-drive, but this will be different for you. You can use the instructions on this page to figure out the device identifier for the HDD you want to wipe. The dd command is a very dangerous tool because it will just do what it's told, without warnings or protections (e.g., if you mistakenly ask it to wipe the HDD on which your OS (Linux) is installed, it will do it without question, and mess everything up). So, be careful, and triple check everything.

[rubberman]

As Mike2K said, dd will happily wipe any disc, file system, or file as needed. That said, did you try to use fsck to fix the file system? FWIW, you can only do a fix if the file system isn't mounted, otherwise it will only to a read-only analysis to tell you what is wrong. Boot a live cd/dvd/usb drive, and then run fsck on the file system that is problematic, such as /dev/sda1, or whatever it is. That will, if possible, fix the file system. If you think there may be bad blocks on the drive, then add the -c option to fsck. That will check for bad blocks, and map them out of use, after trying to relocate the data.

I have used this technique a number of times in the past to recover failing drives until I could get a replacement delivered.

[RikTelner]

Boot a live cd/dvd/usb drive,

Here's the problem, HDD made somehow booting from USB/CD/DVD impossible. Also mentioned in the topic.

If you are using Linux, you can easily wipe out an HDD by using the dd command, as described here.

Uhm, I know rubberman hasn't been in my topic about not-booting computer for quite a time, but you were, do you remember? If the HDD is attached to computer, nothing was able to boot? Remember the kernel panicks Linux got while HDD was attached and while I was booting from USB?

If this was as easy as booting Linux and formatting it, I'd just go for GParted and tell it to delete the partitions.

[rubberman]

Remove the HDD. Boot from live media. Put HDD in an external carrier (either Sata or USB), plug it in, and then erase the drive (after backing up data if you can). The key here is to boot before attaching the HDD.

[Slavi]

I think what Rubben said will work out, and just to add, if you are not comfortable with dd , boot from live Linux like ubuntu and run gparted, it is a graphical tool for formatting etc

[mike_2000_17]

I believe that you should be able to hot-swap the drive (most SATA controllers and drives support that now). That means, you can boot the computer without the HDD plugged in, and then plug it in while the computer is running. Be careful, of course. If all works well, it should show up on Linux as an unmounted drive, at which point, you can try the fsck utility, as rubberman described, and if that fails to fix it, you can use dd to wipe it, and then, re-partition it.

[RikTelner]

Pinning HDD while I was in LiveCD of Ubuntu, ended up showing nothing.
Pinning HDD before LiveCD ended up in familiar error.
Pinning HDD while I was in LiveCD of Ubuntu through USB, ended up making Ubuntu stop responding (even though my CD drive went nuts with reading data).
Pinning temporary working HDD I use right now, resulted in drive showing up.

If you are using Linux, you can easily wipe out an HDD by using the dd command, as described here. Make sure to use the correct device.

Nothing else except dev/sr0 shows up, which by it's size I assume it's my CD.

Let me quote something from here:
I really have no idea what happened. When he tried to do it at school, i.e. getting important data out of my HDD, he used Windows, with TuneHDD, HDDTune, something like this, my HDD didn't show up at all, it didn't show up at Windows Explorer as well.
When he booted from Linux Ubuntu (which he had on his own SSD [internal]) and plugged in my HDD through USB, his computer started dropping on performance and finally stopped responding, even when we distached my HDD.

This is why I really require something that wouldn't require anything from drive, name, capacity, writing speed, anything, just a thing, that would tell every drive attached, regardless what's with it, to nullify itself. Such thing as dd requires HDD assignment, e.g. /dev/sda, that's the problem, it won't mount it, because software data on it, I screwed up the partitions so badly, that nothing can touch it anymore. That's why I need something that wouldn't need a slightest thing (or at least as possible) from drive, that wouldn't make Ubuntu LiveCD crash and would nullify the drive.

After re-reading my posts, I seem to sound overly agressive, sorry for this, this isn't nor wasn't my intention. I just really need those 750GB back, regardless if empty or with my data.

@edit - When HDD has been attached to Windows through USB, it resulted in this: http://oi58.tinypic.com/10igged.jpg

But Windows Explorer, and Create and [...] partitions don't show it up.

@edit2 - DISKPART built-in Microsoft's specific command-line tool for partitions, doesn't show anything about attached HDD as well.

@edit3 - After 1 minute: http://oi61.tinypic.com/24355wg.jpg

[rubberman]

This may or may not be relevant, but there are viruses / malware that can be installed in an onboard disc controller. Since whenever you attach the drive to your system everything goes "sideways", I have to wonder if either the drive is seriously farked up, or you have one of these rather nasty viruses. My advice now would be to replace it with a new drive. Hopefully, if it is a virus, it hasn't infected any of your other devices.

[RikTelner]

So personally I can't turn anything down? I have to put 50 bucks on table and let this guy format it (with specific tools)?

My advice now would be to replace it with a new drive.

Yes, I already came upon that idea.

Pinning temporary working HDD I use right now, resulted in drive showing up.