[phillpower2]

You are welcome iammykyl

Cabranth
No worries reply when you can, one or both of us will around

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Ok, followed the instructions to burn Secure HDD Erase to my USB with RMPrepUSB.

Tried to boot the new HDD from my USB and it came up "BOOTMGR is missing".

Next?

Edited by Cabranth, 13 March 2014 - 10:45 AM.

[Cabranth]

Ok, followed the instructions to burn Secure HDD Erase to my USB with RMPrepUSB.

Tried to boot the new HDD from my USB and it came up "BOOTMGR is missing".

Next?

Edited by Cabranth, 13 March 2014 - 10:45 AM.

[phillpower2]

That sounds like the computer is still trying to boot from the HDD, I`m not familiar with the BIOS set up of your MB but have you changed the boot order as detailed below (making allowance for the fact that your MB is UEFI etc)

Switch on your target system - it MUST be off to start with (if it is a notebook, make sure it is running from the mains as erasing a hard disk can take hours), enter the BIOS Setup menu (e.g. by pressing F2 or DEL usually) and change your SATA HDD controller settings from 'AHCI' or 'Enhanced' to Compatible/Legacy IDE. If your BIOS does not have these settings then don't worry. Also, change the boot priority to make sure you boot from the USB drive. Save the settings and exit.
Boot from the USB drive on the target system (the one you want to erase).

[Cabranth]

Hi phill,

Yes, I believe I followed the instructions in the tutorial exactly. I even wrote them down for reference on scratch paper. I changed the SATA settings and switched to boot from USB.

After the first time I got that message, I tried powering down and booting after waiting 60 seconds as I have heard some people mention problems with trying to boot from a "restart". I tried that 3 times with the same result each time.

[phillpower2]

Hello Cabranth

Is Legacy USB Support enabled in the BIOS.

Is your USB thumb drive detected and listed in the boot order (non UEFI setting)

[Cabranth]

Hi phill',

Yes, Legacy USB support is enabled.

I don't understand what you mean by "non UEFI setting".

EDIT: Did you mean the EFI Shell? If so, the USB is not selected as EFI shell in the Boot Priority. There are 2 listings, and I selected the first one that doesn't say EFI shell in it.

Edited by Cabranth, 13 March 2014 - 12:47 PM.

[phillpower2]

As I said I am not familiar with your BIOS set up so going off your user manual.

[Cabranth]

That's how it looks in my UEFI. I selected the first USB option for Boot that appears at the top. The one that begins with "USB: Kingston" in your pic, not the one that begins "UEFI: Kingston".

[iammykyl]

Gday Cabranth.
Any luck using the "UEFI: Kingston".?

[Cabranth]

Hi iammykyl,

Just to be absolutely clear:

When I enter my UEFI(BIOS)/Boot Menu with a USB drive inserted, it offers me 2 Boot Priority options related to the USB drive.

The one that has always been at the top, or first, is "USB: Volume Label". "Volume Label" here means whatever the USB drive is labeled. The picture phillpower linked had the brand name Kingston, but mine was renamed when I used the RMPrepUSB program.

The option that has always been listed below the top, or second, is "UEFI: Volume Label".

I had been operating under the assumption that using the USB to boot from required me to select option #1. This is how I did it when I ran Memtest from my USB with the SDHC card, and it booted fine. I also selected option #1 when I tried to install Windows 7 from the 32GB USB, and while it booted up and began the process fine, it ended up hanging as I described earlier.

I did just a little while ago try booting from the USB after selecting the "UEFI: Volume Label" option and all it did was boot me directly into the UEFI(BIOS). It didn't run Secure HDD Erase, or anything. It just opened the UEFI like I'd pressed F2.

I suppose it's possible I did something wrong in the tutorial to set up the USB drive, and that's why it isn't working properly. I tried my best to follow the instructions, but the newest version of RMPrepUSB looked slightly different from the picture shown in the tutorial. There were also a couple of prompts asking Y/N that weren't described in the tutorial which I just answered Y to. The prompts themselves had the suggestion to answer Y when in doubt, and since I saw nothing about them in the tutorial, I did.


UPDATE EDIT: I FINALLY got the HDDERASE to run by burning the Ultimate Boot CD to a CDRW and booting from my CD/DVD drive. Now the problem is it isn't detecting my hard drive. HDDERASE displays 4 blank entries like so:

P0 is NONE
P1 is NONE
S0 is NONE
S1 is NONE

I tried the troubleshooting tip of going into my UEFI/Storage Configuration and switching between AHCI and IDE in my SATA Modes, but when I rebooted and ran HDDERASE afterwards, the drive still didn't show. The only other option besides AHCI and IDE is RAID. I also have a button in that UEFI/Storage Configuration section for SATA/IDE Combined Mode which has always been ENABLED as far as I know. I didn't try changing that.

Edited by Cabranth, 13 March 2014 - 07:40 PM.

[iammykyl]

Gday.
There is a conflicting setting in the BIOS if your HDD is no longer detected, pain I know, but back we go. Basic configuration, New HDD and OD only connected, no USB sticks, no disc in the OD..
Restart the computer and enter BIOS.
> check Time are Date are correct.
> Press F9, loads optimized defaults. (your computer may restart or you may have to press F10 to Save and exit)
> Enter BIOS, In the Storage Controller, Set SATA3 Configuration to AHCI mode. Check the HDD is detected. Does it say which Port.???
> Set the OD as first boot and the HDD as second boot.
> Save setting and exit.

What is now displayed on the display?

[iammykyl]

Providing your new HDD is detected in the BIOS, try running the HDDerase again, using the CD you burned, not the USB stick.

If OK, install windows. If a fail, we will give instructions to use Diskpart to wipe the drive.

[Cabranth]

Ok, thanks for the directions. I will try all this later as soon as I can.

I'll probably have a reply in about 5-6 hours from now. Sooner if lucky.

[iammykyl]

Gday.
I hope you have ben successful. I may be off line soon. Please check for any additional replies in case there are other suggestion.

Instructions to perform cleaning the HDD if steps failed in reply #41.
Please only enter a line in CMD that is bolded, then press enter, wait for the result to appear before typing the next line.
Start the windows install and at the first installer screen > press shift + F10 to take you to command prompt where you can run diskpart commands

diskpart > enter (to enter diskpart)
list disk > enter (wait for a list to be displayed of detected HDDs with a number.)
select disk ? > enter (enter the number of your disc, wait for the disc to be shown as selected.)
clean all > enter (which will erase entire disk including partitions, wait for confirmation the disc has been cleaned.)
exit > enter (exit diskpart)
exit > enter (exit command prompt)
You will be returned to the windows install for you to carry on.

Additional.
I do not enter the product key at installation, I do it after the system is tested.

[Cabranth]

Ok, here's everything that happened so far:

Time/Date were correct, loaded defaults (F9), Saved & Exited.
Changed SATA3 config to AHCI.
I did not see anything in my UEFI that lists Ports, Port#, and/or Devices connected to Ports by #, but my new HD was listed as an option in Boot Priority. Also, during the Boot process, between the 2 Asrock UEFI splash pages, there are 2 screens that are black with white writing on them. During the second such page, my new HD was listed by name and model#, and it also said "Port 0", if that helps.
Set Boot Priority to OD #1, and HD #2. Saved & Exited.
Booted with UBCD on the CD, opened HDDErase, still no drive listed. All 4 results listed read "NONE" as in the previous example.

Tried Windows 7 install with DVD.
Got to the Language/Time/Keyboard box this time, and pressed SHIFT+F10. DOS Window Opened.
Typed "diskpart", and this is exactly what the DOS screen looked like afterwards:


Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7601]

X:\Sources>diskpart

Microsoft DiskPart version 6.1.7601
Copyright <C> 1999-2008 Microsoft Corporation.
On computer: MINWINPC
_


The underscore immediately below "MINWINPC" was a flashing underscore as if it were waiting for another command. I tried typing "list disk", but it didn't show up. Neither did any key I typed. I still had mouse cursor function, and could close the DOS window. I could also reopen it by typing SHIFT+F10 again, but typing "list disk" just brought up the exact same response. I waited about 15 minutes to see if it was just hung, but it never changed.

So, that happened.