How to completely format an IDE (PATA) hard disk drive to its full capacity by deleting its MBR
315NOTE: The method shown in this video is most likely ONLY going to function when formatting IDE (PATA) hard disk drives (HDDs). If you are formatting a SATA drive (or if you are unsure which type of hard drive you have) then instead of this video, view the shorter, alternate method at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEfGhWXJVJM
NOTE 2: This method will ONLY function for hard disk drives of 2 GB or less in capacity. If your hard disk drive is over 2GB, rather, view the following video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wng5ILjJPto
WARNING - I will NOT be held responsible for any damages the methods shown in this video may cause to yours or someone else's computer, hardware, software, and/or data, including loss of use of such devices and/or loss of data and/or loss of profits from the resulting inability to use such devices and data. Any information or program you choose to put into use from this video is done AT YOUR OWN RISK. As a precaution, I recommend backing up any irrecoverable data before practicing any of the methods shown in this video.
This video will show you how to completely format an IDE (PATA) hard disk drive (HDD) to its full capacity, erasing everything on the hard drive to then be used in a Microsoft Windows environment (for which you own the ORIGINAL Microsoft Windows installation disc). This video applies to users of Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and Windows 8. This will ensure that your format is complete, fresh, and will not carry anything over from previous formats to the new format. In order to do so, we will be deleting or erasing the Master Boot Record (MBR) of the hard drive, which in turn eliminates all previous partition information (even hidden partitions) and allows for the creation of entirely new partition(s), which also reclaims and uses the maximum capacity of your hard drive. In order to do so, your computer will have to have an optical drive, such as a DVD ROM drive. This will also require access (even temporary access) to a computer with high speed internet access and minimally a CD burner (writer, recorder) and an empty CD-R or CD-RW disc. This video will also show you how to surface scan your hard drive for physical damage or bad sectors, and will show you how to create partitions around these bad sectors so that the bad sectors do not increase, multiply and propagate to other sections of the hard disk. This video ALSO covers the partitioning of a hard drive to install multiple versions of Windows on the same PC computer, creating a mult boot or dual boot environment.
Since this video covers so much ground, I have noted which timestamps to fast forward to in order to jump ahead to a specific tutorial:
0:00 - Introduction
2:40 - Downloading, extracting and burning Hiren's Boot CD
11:20 - Booting Hiren's Boot CD and configuring your BIOS to boot primarily from the optical drive (CD-ROM)
15:00 - Scanning for bad sectors and clearing the MBR using Test Hard Disk Drive 1.0
21:45 - Clearing the MBR using Ranish Partition Manager (ONLY if Test Hard Disk Drive 1.0 does not function for you)
25:30 - (With your MBR deleted) How to use Microsoft Windows to create one or multiple partitions, including how to cushion bad sectors and how to install multiple versions of Windows to create a multi boot environment
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Pertaining to 32:00 in the video: CLARIFICATION: If you have ADDITIONAL bad sectors on your hard drive, you MUST repeat creating additional buffer partitions for EACH and EVERY bad sector you have (if two bad sectors are close to each other or if you don't mind losing a good amount of hard drive space, you can encompass multiple bad sectors in a larger buffer partition). Note that you have to subtract created partitions from the next bad sector number to find out where the next buffer partition is to be created. For example, using the figures in the video, if there was ANOTHER bad sector at 4700 MB, I'd have to subtract the partitions I've already created (3000 MB and 200 MB) from 4700 MB to obtain 1500 MB. Since I need a buffer partition (-100 MB), I could create a 1400 MB partition, then create a 200 MB buffer partition, then create another main partition should there be no other bad sectors, or repeat for further bad sectors....