[Coco] (Was: OT -- PC needs TWO Shut Downs ) How to format a PC Hard disk

[KnudsenMJ at aol.com]

In a message dated 4/4/06 10:20:43 PM Eastern Daylight Time,  
rod.barnhart at gmail.com writes:

>No  need to format the harddrive if you just need to reset the master  boot
>record. "fdisk /mbr" will do that without data  loss.
THAT'S the one I was trying to remember!  I remember a slash and three  
characters.
So that's what I wanted.
ISTR that "sys c:" will put the required files on the disk, but you need  the 
"fdisk /mbr c:" (or wherever the C: goes) to make it bootable.
 
I wouldn't try it with my current Win98 HD, since it has three Windows  
partitions (like for CD burning buffer and installation disk) plus a 10G Linux  
partition that I've never been able to use since Linux fails to install on this  
machine.
 
But on my new drive I can use it -- unless I partition it funny too, which  
with 100 G seems like a good idea :-)

>There is a risk,
>however, that the drive has a non-standard  MBR. If this is the case, "fdisk
>/mbr" may cause the partitions to  become inaccessible without a third-party
>utility. 

I've used some versions of Partition Magic that worked OK.
Many thanks --Mike K.