Linux Live CDs

Posts Tagged ‘formatting’

i used to format and change the size of partitions every month to try different flavors of linux and my hard disk developed bad sectors and i had to send it for a replacement,at the moment i am using mandriva live cd to run basic stuff as i don have a hard disk

I’ve been building and repairing pc systems as a hobby for about seven years now. My worst nightmare (and this seems to be the majority of my work) is a windows pc full of spyware, and sometimes viruses, to the point where the pc is too crippled to even run anti-spyware/anti-virus software on it. I usually end up backing up important documents using a Linux Live-CD, then format and reinstall, but in a lot of cases, the customer has neglected to tell me about some of the stuff they needed to keep, or they assumed that it came with windows, and then later they’re surprised when something is missing, but by that time its too late to get it back. So how does your average technician deal with these things?

I have heared that formatting reduces the life of harddisk. Let us suppose I have a virus on my harddisk or my windows is curropted. I want to erase all data from my harddisk including hiddden folder and files like System Volume Information without formatting it. So that I can install windows what should I do? I have NTFS volume. Do u know any live CD linux which supports NTFS filesysystem? I think it will help me to erase data from my HDD.