Best way to format and break an array? Best way to ship full PC?

dak125dak125
edited October 2004 in Hardware
I recently sold my PC and I'm trying to figure out the best way to ship it out to him.

I need to remove everything off the HD's without installing Windows again. So, the best way to format the HD's without using Windows setup. Also what would be the best way to break the array? I was guessing just going into the raid setup, but I wanted to format everything first. Or would that be rather redundant?

I also wanted to know the best way to ship this thing. The case itself weighs 35 pounds, I'm guessing 60 with everything in it. I have the original case box but I don't want everything to get all jumbled around. I was thinking of bubble wrapping the hard drives and then putting them back in the HD cage. Also I'm putting all paperwork, cd's etc in the case (buyer's request) so perhaps that would serve as some type of padding. Then once I put everything in the case box I was going to wrap it in brown paper. Any suggestions on this? I want it to arrive as well as can be expected. I'm open to anything. Thanks :thumbsup:

Comments

  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited October 2004
    You don't want to reinstall windows? Is this raid-1 or raid-0? So few run raid-1 (grin)

    I have had major probs recently shiping computers in the orginal box for the case, depends on how good the box is. A Dell comes in a pretty nice box. Many cases have minimal padding as they don't weigh much. If its important consider double boxing it. Use a bigger well padded box (not peanuts but foam)

    Tex
  • dak125dak125
    edited October 2004
    Right, no reinstall of Windows. The new buyer's taking care of that. It is RAID-0. So what do you think the best way to get rid of everything is?

    The Antec box seems pretty sturdy, unfortunately I'm out of boxes besides that.

    Thanks for the response.
  • TexTex Dallas/Ft. Worth
    edited October 2004
    delete the existing array and format the two drives seperatly
  • dak125dak125
    edited October 2004
    Obvious question time:

    How would I format both drives seperately if the array is broken? I thought you couldn't format drives with XP unless you're installing XP again. IE no dos commands. Or am I missing something obvious? Does Western Digital offer a utility on the floppies they give you with the drives?
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    Download the western digital diagnostic tool and "zero level" the drives. Low level format. No need to worry about the array - a low level format will wipe everything, including the stripe.
  • dak125dak125
    edited October 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    Download the western digital diagnostic tool and "zero level" the drives. Low level format. No need to worry about the array - a low level format will wipe everything, including the stripe.

    Is the diagnostic tool the same thing that's on the floppies? Thanks for the response.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    Here's the one you need:

    http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/DlgDiagv504c.exe

    Just download that and it will make a bootable floppy. Boot off the floppy and wipe all your troubles away ;D
  • dak125dak125
    edited October 2004
    primesuspect wrote:
    Here's the one you need:

    http://support.wdc.com/download/dlg/DlgDiagv504c.exe

    Just download that and it will make a bootable floppy. Boot off the floppy and wipe all your troubles away ;D

    Thanks much Prime.
  • primesuspectprimesuspect Beepin n' Boopin Detroit, MI Icrontian
    edited October 2004
    :)
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