I have a piece of old software that is currently on a bootable floppy disk that is used to erase the contents of a hard drive. I would like to use a CD to do the job now as the floppys are wearing out rather quickly and just generally am tired of dealing with them. The problem that I've run into is that the software tries to write to the floppy while loading the program -- I'm not sure what it's trying to write or if it's just doing a write check of some sort. I started working at this about 6 months ago and got as far as getting the program to start, but once it attempted to write back to the disk (which obviously it can't to a CD) it basically craps out for lack of actually remembering if there was an actual error message or if it just locked up. So I'm wondering if there's some way to create some sort of virtual RAM drive and running this software in that space so the program can be in a writable environment.

Any help is greatly appreciated. Thanks!

3/26/2010 1:02:26 AM

so you want hiren's boot cd? it has hdd erasers on it

3/26/2010 1:04:36 AM

Well, for reasons beyond my control I need to use the specific piece of software that I'm using already and would just like to run it from a CD rather than floppy. The software is out of production and is no longer sold or distributed.

3/26/2010 1:06:37 AM

Use a bootable thumbdrive?

3/26/2010 1:08:11 AM

i dont understand the reasons beyond your control but...how would anyone be able to tell you used one hdd eraser over the other?

3/26/2010 1:09:48 AM

^^I've thought of that and might be where I end up in the long run, but I was trying to use something real cheap (and plenty already on hand) and something that could be duplicated easily if damaged.

^I understand that it really shouldn't matter, but in order to cover my ass without going into details, I need to use this specific software. Hopefully I may be able to use something else in the future, but for now I'm stuck.

[Edited on March 26, 2010 at 1:15 AM. Reason : ]

3/26/2010 1:12:47 AM

why not just keep using floppys? 10pack for $5. are you going through these at a rate faster than 1 a week?

i mean, at the end of the day, no solution with writeable media may work because software may be hardcoded to write to the a: drive anyway

[Edited on March 26, 2010 at 1:31 AM. Reason : .]

3/26/2010 1:29:01 AM

I am having a hard time believing that DBAN would not work for your purposes.

http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/

Moreso, I am amazed that you are still using a floppy disk in 2010.

3/26/2010 9:10:02 AM

this motherfucker has an external USB floppy drive just in case

3/26/2010 9:48:08 AM

Quote :

"this motherfucker has an external USB floppy drive just in case"

ditto...i have the iomega floppy plus:

3/26/2010 9:54:58 AM

Quote :

"Moreso, I am amazed that you are still using a floppy disk in 2010."

Something tells me this is our government at work.

3/26/2010 10:19:59 AM

i don't doubt that a bit

surely there is a way to take an image of the floppy and use it to create a bootable flash drive

[Edited on March 26, 2010 at 10:23 AM. Reason : reading comprehsnsion ftl]

3/26/2010 10:21:55 AM

^^^^I do too, but I don't regularly use it, nor have I used it in the past 5 years.

3/26/2010 10:37:44 AM

Just in case you get the itch to reinstall Corridor 7.

3/26/2010 10:39:52 AM

Use the CD to boot to DOS, crate a RAM drive, copy the tool to the RAM drive and run it from the RAM drive.

3/26/2010 3:27:26 PM

use dban. Alternatively do ^ which is what i used to do for ghost boot cds back in the day.

3/26/2010 3:29:45 PM

dban

3/26/2010 8:02:47 PM

Is there a reason these Boot CDs won't find my USB external Hard Drive?

[Edited on September 6, 2010 at 1:58 PM. Reason : ]

9/6/2010 1:58:18 PM

your BIOS may not be able to recognize USB devices in which case you're SOL

9/6/2010 3:21:33 PM

BIOS shows a USB hard drive connected.

9/6/2010 5:37:55 PM