terry@julia.math.ucla.edu (08/30/90)
Hi, netlanders!
I am looking for a program that will let me wipe out a whole hard disk
very quickly. I don't want to have to wipe out each individual file
(a la a UNIX rm -r) or reformat the disk -- both of these options take
too long and are error-prone. What would be ideal is something that
would just replace the root directory FAT with an empty one. Also,
I want this to be done from a batch file, not interactively.
I looked at PCMAG's PRUNE program, which prunes directory trees, but
it is interactive (imagine that!), and it won't prune the root. I
also checked out TREESURG, but it's not what I want either.
Does anybody know of a PD or shareware program that does this, and
where I can get it, or of some method using standard DOS programs?
Please e-mail your responses and I will post a summary. Thanks!
>>> terry <<<rusin@mp.cs.niu.edu (David Rusin) (08/30/90)
Do I understand you right - all you want to do is wipe out FAT tables and root directory entries but not format your hard disk? That's just what formatting DOES do on a fixed disk (Hence the un-formatting utilities such as Norton's) no .signature
williams@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu (Kent Williams) (08/31/90)
No, I don't have a disk nuker, but to write one wouldn't be hard.
The trick to killing directories fast is to use the FCB delete call.
Something like
nuke_dir(name) {
for all directories X in name {
change directory to name/X
nuke_dir(X);
}
set all files read/write/visible;
fcb_delete(*.*);
/* everything left must be a directory */
for all directories X in name {
rmdir(name);
}
}
nuke_dir("\\");
--
Kent Williams --- williams@umaxc.weeg.uiowa.edu
"Had a dream one night/That the tree had lost its middle/So he built a trunk
of chicken wire/To try to hold it up/But then the wire, the wire/Turned to
lizard skin/and he climbed inside" - 'Wendell Gee', by REM