removing write protection from a disk

[Shawz]

I have a new laptop with Vista on I want to delete this and install Linux but the disk is totally write protected. I have been trying using cfdisk and fdisk but it can't seem to remove the write protection. How can I just make a blanked writable disk?

[Duck2006]

http://gparted.sourceforge.net/

Maybe this will help.

[devils casper]

I have a new laptop with Vista on I want to delete this and install Linux but the disk is totally write protected. I have been trying using cfdisk and fdisk but it can't seem to remove the write protection. How can I just make a blanked writable disk?

boot up from any LiveCD, open terminal/konsole and execute this

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=521 count=1

this code will *wipe* your harddisk.





Casper

[Shawz]

boot up from any LiveCD, open terminal/konsole and execute this

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda bs=521 count=1

this code will *wipe* your harddisk.





Casper

thanks - what does the bs=521 count=1 mean / do?

[devils casper]

bs = Bytes and count = number of BLOCKS to be written.
Harddisk stores Master Boot Record, Partition Table and Harddisk signature in first 512 bytes of first Sector. this code will remove all those entries and your Harddisk will be blank as brand new.
check manual of 'dd' command.
man dd




Casper

[Shawz]

bs = Bytes and count = number of BLOCKS to be written.
Harddisk stores Master Boot Record, Partition Table and Harddisk signature in first 512 bytes of first Sector. this code will remove all those entries and your Harddisk will be blank as brand new.
check manual of 'dd' command.
man dd




Casper

should the number not be '512' instead of '521' then?

[devils casper]

No. its 521 only. 513-521 contains Dos Compat (Windows) OR GRUB stage 1.5 (Linux) and you have to remove that too.






Casper

[Shawz]

Command doesn't work as the drive is saying

'dd: opening '/dev/hda': Read-only file system'

[devils casper]

post the output of fdisk -l command.

[Shawz]

post the output of fdisk -l command.

"Disk /dev/sda: 80.0Gb 80026361856 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9729 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

Disk /dev/sda doesn't contain a valid partition table"