Bitzenbytes.com

Introduction:

First, make sure that this procedure is safe to do on your hard drive.  I don't know how to tell you to do that, but you take full responsibility for what you do to your computer.

I would think long and hard before using this routine on a laptop computer.  I'd probably call the laptop OEM and ask their support team about the problem and this routine before going ahead with it.  It wouldn't surprise me to find out that a disk manager program supplied with a laptop was essential to the operation of the laptop.

Most importantly, you should understand a little about what it is that you are doing here. The BobNuke routine is designed to wipe your hard drive clean. If you haven't done a current backup before running it, you won't have to worry about doing one later...all information on the drive will be lost. I'd suggest you read the 'Nuke & Pave 101' document in the Arcanum at bitzenbytes.com before you attempt this. If you have any questions about anything in the document, post them in the CompuClues Forum.

Okay...now let's get to the image file...

As I mentioned above, I use the BobNuke routine every time I nuke and pave. As many times as I have done it, I can't seem to commit the steps to memory. I have even gone so far as to print out the steps, and keep the paper on the bench. Those that know me will tell you that I hate having to rely on dead-tree media for anything. :)

Also, I often find myself out in the field without my boot disk. With the prevalence of NT kernel-based operating systems (NT, 2k, XP) , it's not as easy to make one as it used to be. I had considered uploading an image file of my trusty Win98 boot disk, but figured that Microsoft might have something to say about that. Open Source to the rescue...

FreeDOS is an open-source DOS-compatible operating system. It includes lots of DOS-style utilities, including debug, fdisk and format. I created a FreeDOS bootable floppy, then copied the files I needed to it. I made a text file containing the debug routine, and a batch file to run debug and import the text file into it. I then used dd for Windows to create an image of the disk. To write the image back to floppy, I use RawWrite for Windows. I have also uploaded the current (at the time of this writing) version of RawWrite for Windows to the Bitzenbytes Downloads section.

How to create and use this disk:

1. Download and unzip rawwritewin (no install necessary, I just unzipped it to \Program Files\rawwritewin\ and made a shortcut to the .exe).
   
2. Download bobnuke.zip and unzip it to a place where you can find it later.
   
3. Pop a floppy disk in the drive.
   
4. Run rawwritewin.
   
5. Browse to bobnuke.img (the file you extracted in step 2)
   
6. When rawwritewin has finished, put the floppy disk into a machine that needs its C: drive nuked.
   
7. Boot to the floppy.
   
8. Hit Enter twice to get past the date and time prompts.
   
9. Type bobnuke and hit Enter.