i cannot access one of my hard drives. how do i format it??

Asked by chrisprice07

I need to wipe my personal information in order to return this computer. Can you tell me how to do this? I assume that I will need to format the hard drive. I tried to use the system administrator, but it asked for a password that I do not have.

Question information

Language:
English Edit question
Status:
Answered
For:
Ubuntu nautilus Edit question
Assignee:
No assignee Edit question
Last query:
Last reply:
Revision history for this message
marcobra (Marco Braida) (marcobra) said :
#1

Please open a terminal press ALT+F2 and type gnome-terminal into dialog window.
Into terminal type:
sudo fdisk -l
give your user password when asked, you don't see any screen chars when you type it, then press enter
Please select copy and paste the result here.
Thank you.

Revision history for this message
Allen Chemist (alchemist) said :
#2

I'm not sure why Gutsy won't mount the drive, which may cause difficulties if you are trying to edit the drive from the partition editor. If you want to diagnose the problem why it's not showing up, can you post back the output from the following commands, when issued inside Applications -> Accessories -> Terminal
sudo fdisk -l

If the problem with the drive is in fact a filesystem problem, and you do want to erase it and start fresh, install "Gnome Partition Editor" from the "System Tools" section of the add/remove software.

When working with the drive, be very careful you are working on the correct drive (as chosen in GParted -> Devices -> yourdrive) as you will be erasing all data on it. Remove all currently-defined partitions, then create a new partition of type ext3. For further information on using the Gnome Partition Editor, see http://www.howtoforge.com/partitioning_with_gparted

Hope this helps
-sean

Can you help with this problem?

Provide an answer of your own, or ask chrisprice07 for more information if necessary.

To post a message you must log in.