uninstalling EZ-BIOS

Hi, New guy here. Does anyone know how to uninstall or remove EZ-BIOS from a non-Western Digital hard drive? It got installed on my Samsung 60gig somehow when I had the WD from my old system installed as a second drive to transfer the data from it to my new system with the Samsung. The new computer has a bios that recognizes large hard drives already so I don't need or want EZ-BIOS but I can't seem to get rid of it. The WD EZ-DRIVE install disk and WD dataguard diagnostics, tools & install disk are useless on anything except Western Digital drives. All it does now is add to the boot delay time with an extra bootup screen, (bootloader initalizing-EZ-BIOS continuing startup, bla, bla, bla.) It attached itself to the MBR and won't leave!
HP 7950, Win ME, 1.2GHz AMD.
Thanks for any help.

Hi, new guy, welcome to VirtualDr!

Quote:

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Originally posted by mijogo:
The WD EZ-DRIVE install disk and WD dataguard diagnostics, tools & install disk are useless on anything except Western Digital drives.

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Have you tried using the EZ-Bios removal tool, or are you just assuming it won't work?



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"I'm not a real doctor, I just play one on VDr!"

If memory serves... I had to fdisk a hard drive to remove it... format doesn't go deep enough. If you have the WD drive still and it's just not in the system with the Samsung, put it in as a slave and see if that will let you into the utility and select the Samsung ... Odds are you'll lose data so you'd need a backup.... You might also check the WD site and see if they have some utility that would handle it also. Either way, have a backup!

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"Some mornings it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps!" Emo P.

yep, fdisk will do it.

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There is no spoon.

I'm assuming what you mean by EZ-bios removal tool is the utility on the dataguard disk or EZ-drive install disk? if so, yes it's there and yes I tried it, but like I said unless it's a WD drive you can't get to the advanced tools on the disk which is on the second screen, using a Samsung you don't get that option.

If I use fdisk will I lose all the data on the drive, I would hate to have to restore and reinstall everything I've got on here up to now, bummer!
Is there a way to access the boot record or boot sector and kill the little bugger? I think it's only about 5K in size.
Sounds like this is going to be alot of trouble.

I've never used it so I don't know how it will work in this instance, but FDISK /MBR will rebuild the master boot record. It's supposed to work without destroying any data.

Here's a link to a Microsoft article about it.

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"I'm not a real doctor, I just play one on VDr!"

Well I tried the FDISK/MBR and my advice is DON'T DO IT!! I read the article at microsoft, seemed simple enough so I tried it, what a mistake that was. My system wouldn't boot, no drive access, all I kept getting was "invalid system disk ect. ect."
I was able to get into setup if I was quick on the draw at startup but no matter what I did in setup no dice.
So after much scewing around I finally got the DVD to see the master restore disk by putting it as First boot device in setup, got a screen with two choices format and restore or just restore.
Tried restore and it said no drives to restore to. The disk makes a virtual drive in ram to run so I had C:\ but it was the ram drive not the HD.
The only choice left was format and restore but I would lose everything (which I did) but before doing it I partitioned the 60GB HD into 3 drives C, D, & E so if I ever mess it up again at least I won't loose it all, I'll put my stuff on the other drives so if C:\ takes a powder it won't affect the others
hopefully.
So I just spent the last 2 days restoring, downloading, reloading, installing and collecting, but alot of stuff I will never get back, (bought my first computer in 1995 and been collecting ever since) and almost all of it was on this new drive.
Anyway welcome to my nightmare!!

well,

the warnings about fdisk /mbr are all true.

from an earlier post about fdisk

Hi Folks
this is a summary of many things I've collected about USING FDISK

FIRST, some warnings about fdisk /mbr
It is often recommended that one use fdisk /mbr to sort out some problem.
But, you had better known about the possible dangers.
FDISK /MBR can cause serious problems when you

• #are using a boot manager for multi OS booting
  #have more than 4 (¿¿primary??) partitions
  (this has never been clear to me)
  #require disk management software (overlay).
  #use goback or second chance (or similar)
  #use a laptop with a boot util for swappable cdrom and floppy bays
  #have a machine wich has a tattoo bios copied on the drive.

what's FDSK /MBR for? undocumented FDISK

what jacobsen says

Fdisk rewrites the master boot record what microsoft says

To kill master boot record infectors, it is often said that fdisk /mbr will kill it.
(even when fdisk was not designed to be used as antivirus tool)
BEWARE, The use of fdisk /mbr is NOT always good for virus removal.
The One-Half virus is a classic example of this dangerous potential. you can read about it here

Some explanations;
OVERLAY
an overlay is used for older machines, which cannot directly work with a capacious hard drive (a BIOS limitation) When these machines boot, you normally see a message pop up asking something like, "do you want to boot from floppy?" (But not always. You may have killed the options-message software, and still have the overlay.)

How to find out if you have OVERLAY
http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q186/0/57.ASP

now, remember this
When you're machine BIOS is set to first try boot from FLOPPY or CDROM, the overlay is bypassed when you do not load the overlay from hard disk.
Overlay software normally gives you an option to boot from floppy, but does that only after it got the options screen while initiating the bootprocess from the HARD-DISK it is on.
In other words, if you boot straight from a floppy, you may have bypassed the overlay, and the hard disk may "inexplicably" become invisible to DOS...or show a size of 504MB only...
fdisk not giving you the fat 32 option seems to be a giveaway symptom too...

ABOUT GOBACK
Older versions of GoBack created a problem when one fdisks /mbr while GoBack is active. Newer versions are able to recognize and rehook itself to the mbr without using a copy of one of GoBacks files on a flopy while in DOS.
Naturally GoBack is tied to the mbr, how else could such a program function?
the thing to do that come to mind would be
disable goback for a few sessions,
or fully uninstall goback
NOT listen when someone tells you to do fdisk /mbr
when you uninstall goback, first disable bios anti-virus (which will yell at you when it sees a change to mbr)
while disabling/uninstalling goback, an installed AV program may also want to protect the mbr (mssg in the vein of "changes to boot record", etc)
You would want to allow changes.
But hell, I seen problems when two "services" acted simultaneuously. a mobo AV and AV proggy, when both active, may create serious clashes...)

To disable GOBACK;
1- From the Start menu, click Shut Down, and then select the option to restart the computer.
Hold down the CTRL + ALT keys simultaneously while tapping the G key right after the computer completes its Power On Self Test (POST) and before the GoBack message.
Note: Timing is very important and it may take a few tries.
GoBack prompts if you would like to force GoBack to unhook itself from the MBR.
To have GoBack unhook itself, press the F key.
A message prompting that GoBack successfully unhooked itself appears and the computer starts back into Windows.
A message may appear that prompts that GoBack is currently disabled and would you like to re-enable it. Click Yes.
If a message does not appear or if GoBack does not successfully enable again, follow the normal removal/reinstall procedure for your version of GoBack.
2- There is a method of booting off a flopy while GoBack is active. When you reboot the system there is a window that advices you to hit the spacebar if you want to restore your system. If you do, a menu apears, and one of the items is "boot from flopy".


STILL ABOUT FDISK, and beyond...
to get this info, I asked our fellow members for help.
this is a what I got out of them.

Q- Suppose you want to FDISK a machine
What if you find a non-DOS partition, either active or not, and you don't know why it exists?
What if you find a small DOS partition, either active or not, and you don't know why it exists?
Whatever you find, you must find out why it is there.
So guys, here is the question. What can it be for? And what are the telltales?
For instance, It can be an overlay as used on older machines.
An overlay may even be a small DOS part??
(I remember that in the old days, many larger drives had the utility on them, and booted as a floppy. During the overlay creation process, a real floppy was made)
What does an overlay in older and current drives look like?
We are already aware of this article. http://support.microsoft.com/support.../Q186/0/57.ASP
whatever you see, it can also be an NTFS or Linux partition.
It can be a suspend to disk partition as found in many notebooks, and some desktops.
what are the telltales here? The last ones I can think of, are a drive tattoo or a small partition where BIOS is copied onto. (Does that use a small partition? Where will a tattoo be found?)
So here it is.
WHY is it there? And how does one find out what is in there...
oh yeah, the manual may not be available...
yeah, that was the QUESTION....
And I got plenty info

Other Partition Types
The microsoft family
DOS partitions work in all systems up through Win9x, but they are not always compatible. Versions before windows 95 OSR2 did not support FAT32.
Windows NT and Windows 2000 (in a clean install) uses an NTFS file system. Partitioning of these drive is the along the same lines but you should know one thing. If you choose to install a NTFS onto the partition and later go back and use a Win9x operating system you will have to destroy the partition and start over. The file allocation structures are radically different. The same principle applies when trying to regress from a Windows 98 operating system to an earlier version of Windows. Backward compatibility just ain't there folks.
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There are many other types like UNIX, Linux, and NOVELL, to name a few.
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Compaqs (a brand of computers) use a non-dos partition for the setup information, so that you dont have to use the Diskettes. Very good unless you forget to put it back after deleting it, to wipe the HD clean. Only about 2mb in size....
Q- how does Compaq setup info on a non dos partition load? Is that little part active or non active? If I try to explain why I wanna know, I have to use laymans Flemish...
In laymens, it's gotta be called to or call out. Also, can it be saved to floppy?
A- On my Compaq I did the status and I found it all there. And yes, I took in the difference between advertised and actual sizes. It is a presario 5222 with a 8.4GB harddrive.
The bomide is the Compaq id that is on the harddisk.
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I use Partition Magic to set a small hidden partition on my secondary, so that the drive letters don't go jumping around, while I see how much of the alphabet I can use.
What will that hidden part look like in Fdisk ?
(this remained unanswered)
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HOW TO IDENTIFY TYPES
I hope you never get in this situation. But when you want to do partitioning and you find the drive was used, the OS got butchered by a botched attempt to use another OS or perhaps a multiOS.
Unfortunately FDISK just won't cut it in terms of being able to show what's what on the "non-standard" partition types.

Partition identifiers; http://www.powerquest.com/support/primus/id233.html
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partition...n_types-1.html
http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/partition...on_tables.html

Ranish is decent tool to find out what partition types you have.
http://www.users.intercom.com/~ranish/part/
If you look at all 4 info areas, you can usually figure out what it is.
Or, boot with the latest slack install cd, login as root, and type cfdisk. It'll show plenty types of partitions.

Q- That says slack install CD.. that's gotta be linux?
Which precautions do we take so as not to molest anything?
A- You just hit the q for quit to exit without changing anything.
Ranish shows many partition types,including novell, and I think all I've seen listed in this thread. It does take some getting used to, the more I understand about hdds, the easier ranish is to understand, because it lists everything. Cylinders, heads, sectors, partition types, mbr, code. Partition Magic is for those who don't want to have to understand the real basics, good for windows, but isn't nearly as powerful. Testdisk is also a very good tool, as is mbrwork. The downside of cfdisk is it doesn't fit on a floppy, I think it needs about 4 megs, but you can create all those partition types with it.
A- Unfortunately FDISK just won't cut it in terms of being able to show what's what on the "non-standard" partition types. Something like RANISH's part.exe that Downtime showed the link to is free, and runs in dos. It can help. There are other such things available too. And in the worst case it is possible to use a small Debug script to examine the info and get the partition type number. Then armed with a list of type numbers, as in the case of the link I provided above, you can see what's there.

IMM wrote;
This one covers the various variations of Unix - the *nix world.
There is source here for FreeBSD and Linux as well as some good links http://www.stud.uni-hannover.de/user/76201/gpart/
I don't know if anyone followed the links from my first post but here is one of the ways to go.
Go to http://www.esiea.fr/public_html/Chri.../testdisk.html and download it.
Unzip the package somewhere. Format a floppy with the basic system files. (FORMAT A: /s)
Copy the cwsdpmi.exe and the testdisk.exe files (form the extracted DOS subdirectory) to the floppy and boot with the floppy - then run the program.
If you're playing with your own system make sure you don't write anything to your disk!
The first link I gave will require a linux boot disk or similar or a compile using djgpp and most people on this board probably don't want to go that route.
The TestDisk stuff I was pointing at doesn't require any Linux - just a floppy with Windows (DOS) system files. For those with a reading knowledge of C - the source code is also included.
Here is some of the readme.
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TestDisk 3.2 checks the partition and boot sectors of your disks.
It is very useful to recover lost partitions.
It works with :
- FAT12
- FAT16
- FAT32
- NTFS (Windows NT)
- EXT2FS (Linux)
- Linux Swap
- IBM Multiboot
- BeFS (BeOS)
- UFS (BSD)
- RaiserFS
TestDisk runs under:
- Dos, Win9x
- Linux
- FreeBSD
TestDisk is under GNU Public License.
Christophe Grenier
[email protected] http://www.esiea.fr/pulic_html/Christophe.GRENIER/
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If someone did want a floppy or CD bootable disk to use the Linux utilities then he/she could try http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/sys...ry/!INDEX.html
for the "The most Linux on one floppy." stuff.
His home page is http://ftp.toms.net/rb/home.html

Another member mailed me and pointed me to this utility. http://www.aefdisk.com/
http://covenant-itr.hypermart.net/fdisk-2.htm
http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~trix/...2/SSR02-03.htm

and last,
Craig Duckett’s DUG_IDE can come in useful. http://www.lurkhere.com/~nicefiles/index.html
it gets the data from the drive electronics, and shows manufactor, model, and SIZE
this can be useful to determine how much space there should be, and even more useful when one wants the drive manufactor tools but don't know the make.

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I think we forgot...

Kind regards, Jaak

[This message has been edited by jtdoom (edited 11-24-2001).]

[This message has been edited by jtdoom (edited 11-24-2001).]