Now you have supplied more infoemation about your intent
try these
http://www.killdisk.com/
http://www.diydatarecovery.nl/mbrtool.htm
http://mbrwizard.tripod.com/
--
Regards
John
MCP Windows XP Professional
"Howard" <Howard@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news
2CDDEA7-2CD9-4F86-85B4-9B6233F7B738@microsoft.com...
> Thanks for your reply
>
> However, neither Windows Disk Management or Partition Magic is capable of
> erasing a partition completely
>
> It seems like the only erasing activity that Windows Disk Management does
> is
> simply to erase the Master File Table
>
> Partition Magic "Delete and Secure Erase" option does more - certainly
> takes
> a lot longer - but it does not remove Windows Boot Sector code when the
> selected partition to be deleted / erased was a Windows XP partition
>
> Here is one way you can test to see if an application / tool is capable of
> erasing a Windows Boot Sector code
>
> Take a fully erased hard drive (written to zero's) using an appropriate
> DOS
> application / tool and partition the hard drive into four (4) primary
> visable
> NTFS partitions using Partition Magic (DOS)
>
> Boot into each partition by changing which drive is Active - use Partition
> Magic to change the Active partition
>
> On each boot, you will probably only get a blinking cursor - no error
> message
>
> Next, insert your Windows XP installation disk and use said disk to boot
> into "Windows Recovery Console"
>
> Use the "FIXBOOT" command and write Windows Boot Sector code to all four
> partitions
>
> Reboot the computer into all four partitions using Partition Magic DOS to
> change the Active partitions
>
> You will now get the following error message on each boot
>
> "NTLDR is missing
> Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to restart"
>
> Next, use your Windows XP installation disk and install Windows XP on the
> first primary partition
>
> From the first partition, if you attempt to delete one of the other three
> partitions using Windows Disk Management and then recreate the same
> partition
> using same Windows Disk Management and then boot into said deleted /
> recreated partition by using Partition Magic DOS to change the Active
> partition, you will get the same error message which means that the Boot
> Sector code was not erased during said deletion activity
>
> Note: Windows Disk Management does not write a so called complete Windows
> Boot Sector code to a partition when it formats a partition - A complete
> Windows Boot Sector code is actually more than one sector -
>
> You can test this by doing the same setup
>
> Create four fully erased primary partitions
>
> Install Windows XP in the first partition
>
> Use Windows Disk Management to format the other three partitions
>
> Boot into each partition, using Partition Magic DOS to change the Active
> partition
>
> You will not get the previous mentioned error message
>
> "NTLDR is missing
> Press CTRL + ALT + DEL to restart"
>
> which means that Windows Boot Sector code was not written to said
> partitions
> during Windows Disk Management formatting process
>
> All of the above is also true if you attempt to use Partition Magic
> (Windows
> or DOS version) to delete / erase a Windows XP partition - it doesn't
> erase
> the Boot Sector code
>