Dos Format Utility

Format Floppy 1.2 for DOS 5.0 to make formatting floppy disks easy and colorful. 4 format types: System, New, Quick and Safe. Requires ANSI.SYS and color monitor, and works on 360K, 720K, 1.2MB, 1.44MB and 2.88MB floppie. We once formatted our floppy disks with MS-DOS using the format utility built into Windows, but most computers don't have floppy disk drives anymore. Many no longer even have optical disc drives. Fortunately, there's a free third-party utility that lets you quickly create a DOS-bootable USB drive. Step One: Use Rufus to Format Your USB Drive. Format Utility Dos Software Kingston Format Utility v.1.0.3.0 Kingston USB drives are pre-formatted with a FAT32 file system for cross platform compatibility and for optimum performance. When the format is complete, select Close in HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool. The USB Drive is now DOS bootable. The USB Drive is now DOS bootable. Remove the USB Drive and FreeDOS CD from the computer.

• Ms-dos Format Utility
• Dos Fdisk Format Utility
• Wd Drive Format Tool

What Can You Do with Bootable USB Hard Drive Format Utility?

Almost everyone knows that formatting hard drives is not a difficult job and can be easily done with the built-in Disk Management tool in Windows. However, formatting a hard disk could be complex when your operating system cannot boot properly or your disk fails to work normally. That's when you need to create a bootable USB to format your hard drive. You can format hard drive from USB by using a bootable USB drive created by a third-party HDD format tool or a Windows installation disk. Both are effective bootable USB hard drive format utilities. Read on and carry out the method best suited to your needs.

Method 1: Format Hard Drive from USB with Bootable format Tool

The simplest way to format your HDD from USB is to use the professional partition management software - EaseUS Partition Master. With the assistance of this tool, you can create a bootable format tool that enables you to run the software on the problematic computer and then format the hard drive from USB without the operating system. To get things done, you need to create a bootable USB drive with a computer that is fully functional (Part 1), then apply it to format hard drive on the computer without OS (Part 2).

Part 1: Create a Bootable USB Drive

Please refer to this page: create a bootable drive with EaseUS Partition Master.

After creating a bootable USB drive with the format tool, you can format your hard drive on the problematic computer from USB. Connect the USB to your computer and then open EaseUS Partition Master from the USB. Then follow the steps below.

Part 2: Format Hard Drive from USB

Step 1: Run EaseUS Partition Master, right-click the hard drive partition you intend to format and choose 'Format'.

Step 2: In the new window, set the Partition label, File system (NTFS/FAT32/EXT2/EXT3), and Cluster size for the partition to be formatted, then click 'OK'.

Step 3: Then you will see a warning window, click 'OK' in it to continue.

Step 4: Click the 'Execute Operation' button in the top-left corner to review the changes, then click 'Apply' to start formatting the partition on your hard drive.

If you follow the guide above, you will use the bootable USB to format your hard drive successfully. Don't miss this partition tool that can perfectly fulfill your needs.

Method 2: Format HDD from USB using Command Prompt

Other than using the third-party tool, you can also format your hard drive from USB with the help of Windows Installation disk, which, as you will know, is relatively more complicated than using a bootable format tool as shown in Method 1.

Step 1: Create a Windows installation disk and boot your PC from it.

Step 2: Navigate Repair Your Computer --> Command Prompt.

Step 3: In the Command Prompt window, type diskpart and press 'enter'. Kotor 2 hk factory walkthrough.

Step 4: Type list disk and press 'Enter' to list all the disk drives.

Step 5: Type select disk + disk number, here you can find the number of the target disk by referring to the listed disk information.

Step 6: Type clean to wipe all files and folders on the selected disk.

Step 7: Type create partition primary and press 'Enter'.

Step 8: After diskpart successfully created the specified partition, type format fs=ntfs (or format fs=exfat) and press Enter. You're telling diskpart to format the drive with a file system, let it be NTFS, exFAT, etc.

Step 9: At last, assign a drive letter to the newly created partition by typing assign.

The above guide shows you all the steps to partition and format a hard drive from USB using the diskpart command prompt. As you can see, It is a little bit tedious and time-consuming. If you want an easier way, a third-party bootable USB format tool will help.

Can You Format Hard Drive from BIOS?

Other than following the bootable USB methods to format a hard drive, you can also try to format a hard drive from BIOS. It works in the same scenarios when something went wrong with the bootable partition or when you want to format C drive in Windows.

To format hard drive from BIOS settings, you got two options.

Option 1. Boot into BIOS and Format in Windows

Step1: While booting up your computer, consecutively press F1, F2, F8 or Del key to enter BIOS settings.

Step2: Select the 'Advanced BIOS Features' by pressing the arrow keys on the keyboard of your computer and then set the first boot device as the USB drive or CD, DVD.

Step3: After changing the BIOS settings, you can exit the screen and reboot your computer. Insert the bootable USB or CD/DVD, and your computer will boot from USB or CD, DVD.

Step4: After booting the computer, you can go ahead to format the hard drive in Windows Explorer or Windows Disk Management.

Option 2. Boot into BIOS and Format Using CMD

Step 1: While booting up your computer, consecutively press F1, F2, F8 or Del key to enter BIOS settings.

Step 2: Change the boot order to boot from USB/CD/DVD.

Step 3: Reboot your computer from the bootable disk. When your disk loaded, click 'Use this recovery tools that can help fix problems starting Windows' and navigate to Windows installation > Command Prompt.

Step 4: In the Command Prompt window, type format c: /fs: ntfs and hit Enter.

Which Way Do You Prefer Formatting A Hard Drive?

Based on the situations when you cannot normally start a computer, the boot partition fails to boot, or try to reinstall an operating system, it's necessary to format a hard drive in a bootable environment. Concluding from what we presented in the article, you can start freely to format HDD from USB and format HDD from BIOS settings.

No matter you choose to format hard drive from USB or BIOS settings, you must create a bootable USB or disc to boot into Windows. In comparison, EaseUS USB bootable format software is the easiest to create, and disk formatting is usually done in a few simple clicks. Whereas the Windows recovery disk is rather difficult to get, and format hard drive using CMD is higher-leveled. We don't recommend average computer users to attempt for the first time.

Free Software for DOS Disk Utilities – 1

21 Aug 2006

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Go to top of Disk Utils – 2
This page:		HARD DISK PARTITION MANAGEMENT
	HARD DISK FILE SYSTEMS & DRIVERS
	HARD DISK ANALYSIS, REPAIR, RECOVERY
	DISK EDITORS
	DISK WIPERS
	CD-ROM UTILS
Other page:		FLOPPY DISK AND DRIVE UTILS
	HD AND CD IDENTITY
	DISK COMPRESSION
	DEFRAGGERS (FAT 16 only, not for Win9x)
	OTHER DISK UTILS (RAM disk, power)

Also see Hex Tools and Sound Programs & CD Players.

HARD DISK PARTITION MANAGEMENT

Free FDISK — Disk partition management utility.

unrated

[added 2000-04-18, updated 2003-05-13]

• Supports HDs up to 128GB
• Implements 'standard' FDISK interface.
• Has extended command-line support: can use in batch files. Command-line support is compatible with Microsoft's undocumented FDISK commands.
• Flexible design allows for both occasional use and large scale automated OS roll-outs / cloning projects.
• Includes BootEasy, a compact multiboot loader.
• Customizable with an easy to use configuration file.
• Allows use of boot loaders from other operating systems.
• Supports Non-DOS partition types.

Free FDISK is Open Source and licensed under the GNU GPL.

Author: Brian Reifsnyder (2003).

2003-05-13: v1.2.1. Safari mobile web.

See the Free FDISK Home Page for latest versions.

XFDisk (eXtended FDisk) — Open source FDISK replacement with boot manager.

unrated

[added 2000-12-13, updated 2005-12-09]

XFDisk is an open source FDISK which resembles OS/2's. It can also function as a boot manager. Requires 80286+, HGC, MDA, EGA or VGA card (80x25 display), DOS 3.3+. Available in three languages, only the German package includes a manual. Distributed under the GNU General Public License.

Authors: Florian Painke & Ulrich Müller, Germany (2001). Suggested by Timo Gransch.

2001-09-09: v0.9.3 beta. Last version, development has ended.

Downloads
English		xfd093en.zip		(41K)
Deutsch		xfd093de.zip		(72K)
Nederlands		xfd093nl.zip		(41K)

Get more info & source at the XFDisk homepage, in English — auf Deutsch.

Partition Manager (Ranish Partition Manager) — Disk partition and boot manager, FAT16/32.

unrated

[added 1998-06-15, updated 2005-12-09]

Untested here, but praised by other users. From the docs:

Private users, educational and non-profit organizations may evaluate the program for the period of 10 years, then they must pay registration fee of $10 per household/classroom/department or stop using the program. If you cannot afford $10, you may send me a postcard with a nice view of your city, and I will count you as a registered user.

Commercial users: see docs.

Also see the related XOSL boot manager.

Author: Mikhail Ranish (2002). https://uoxg.over-blog.com/2021/01/share-bucket-mac.html.

2002-06-09: v2.44beta. Earlier versions are still available, including 2.40 stable (2001-02-08), and 2.37 (1998-09-15), runs on 8086.

Download part244.zip (136K).

Go to the Partition Manager Page for other versions, help/info, screenshots. Also available: CVT – converts FAT16 to FAT32.

PRESIZER — Non-destructively resize disk partitions, FAT16/32.

unrated

[added 1998-06-15, updated 2001-01-20]

From the docs:

This program does not intend to replace FDISK. It's rather complementary to it. You will still need FDISK if you want to create and delete partit ions. Partition Resizer processes only existing partitions. Also, Partition Resizer does not convert FAT16 (older DOS partitions) into FAT32.

• Fixed a bug with multiple primary non-FAT partition moving
• Fixed a graphics mode problem with some Graphics cards that default to 16 pixel character height
• Fixed a problem with the 2nd option (you'll now be able to change a FAT16 partition's cluster size)
• Minor documentation update

Author: John Lagonikas, Greece (2000).

2000-12-31: v1.3.4.

Download presz134.zip (96K).

FIPS — Non-destructive partition splitting program, FAT16/32.

unrated Bluebeam cloud tool.

[added 1999-01-30, updated 2005-12-09]

A veteran DOS utility that's been updated to handle FAT32. GNU GPL, C++ source included.

From the docs:

FIPS reduces the size of a partition by changing some values in the partition table and boot sector. It does not change the formatting of the partition, especially not the cluster size and the size of the file allocation table (FAT). Therefore the reduced partition will have a FAT that is in part unused, but this is not a problem for DOS.

From the free space that is won by this, FIPS creates a new _primary_ DOS partition.

If you want to use the new partition under a different OS (e.g. Linux), use its supplied fdisk program to make any necessary changes (refer to the OS manuals).

If you want to use the new partition under DOS/Windows, you can use it as it is (after formatting!), but be aware of the following:

According to the official references, DOS can only have one primary partition. All DOS versions (at least from v5.0 on) will happily work with multiple primary partitions, but this is an 'undocumented feature'. If you want to follow the official rules, you can delete the new partition with fdisk and create an extended partition in its place.

There are reasons for having multiple primary partitions, among them the possibility to boot from different partitions by changing the active partition with fdisk.

Photoshop for ipad air free. Author: Arno Schäfer, Germany (1998).

1998-05-11: v2.0.

Download fips20.zip (159K).

More info at the FIPS page.

Partition Saving (Savepart) — Copy, save and restore hard-drive partition and other data.

unrated

[added 2001-08-14, updated 2006-04-01]

Partition Saving can copy and save an entire hard drive, a partition only, a Master Boot Record, or a floppy disk to a file. Saved files can be used to restore data after a drive crash. The program can compress files (using gzip's algorithm) and split them (to fit onto target disks). With FAT12/16/32, ext2/3 and NTFS partitions, all sectors can be saved, or sectors in use only.

While the program recognizes NTFS partitions, it can't create them. Solution: Create them under Windows, and then reboot to DOS.

For complete details, see the online manual, in English — en Français.

Author: Damien Gibouret, France (2006). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

2006-02-10: v3.10.

Download savepart.zip (484K).

Get more info, utilities and documentation at Partition saving — Sauvegarde de partition.

STBFP — Save and/or restore Boot Record, Partition Table, and FAT.

unrated

Three small programs, STB.COM (Save The Boot), STP.COM (Save The Partition), and STF.COM (Save The Fat) compare the current boot record, partition table and File Allocation Table with backup copies, and restore the current records from the backups, if necessary (FAT16 only?). Not guaranteed to run properly under Windows or any other multitasking OS. Free for personal use only.

Author: Jad Saliba, Canada (1997).

1997-09-25: v2.0.

Download stbfp20.zip (45K).

FILE SYSTEMS & DRIVERS

Also see Partition Support.

NTFS (NTCP) — Windows NT File System driver & utils for DOS.

unrated

[added 1999-07-03, updated 2004-10-10]

This DOS driver / util set provides read/write access to NTFS drives or partitions. The components of the set can work from a boot diskette, or from a DOS partition of a multi-partition, multi-boot hard disk. First run the driver ntcp, then any of the other utils. 8GB and larger disks are supported.

32-bit DJGPP binaries, require 80386+ and a DOS Protected Mode Interface (provided by CWSDPMI [included] or by OS).Source code also included. Ported from Linux. Free under GNU General Public License.

ntcp		Reads files
ntchange		Changes files
ntdir		dir command
ntmkdir		mkdir command
ntdump		Displays low-level disk structures
ntcat		Dumps contents of NTFS file to stdout
ntgrep		Searches for text string
chntpw		Changes NT password
samdump		Extracts NT password info

Author: DOS versions by Christophe Grenier, France (2002).

2002-03-25: v1.1.1.1 (2001-03-30) reissued.

Download either one: ntfs.zip (600K), or ntfs.tgz (571K).

Get more info, English — Français, at the NTFS page.

NTFSDOS — Windows NT File System Driver for DOS/Win3.x/Win95.

unrated

[added 1998-08-16, updated 2005-07-01]

From the docs:

NTFSDOS.EXE is a read-only network file system driver for DOS/Windows that is able to recognize and mount NTFS drives for transparent access. It makes NTFS drives appear indistinguishable from standard FAT drives, providing the ability to navigate, view and execute programs on them from DOS or from Windows, including from the Windows 3.1 File Manager and Windows 95 Explorer.

Notes: Runs from HD or removable disk. Mounts NTFS volumes formatted by WinXP. Under DOS 5.0+, displays only 8.3 filenames. Under MS-DOS 7 (Win95), displays full Long File Names.

Authors: Mark Russinovich, Bryce Cogswell / Sysinternals (2001).

2001-09-11: v3.02R+.

Download NtfsDos.zip (37K).

Go to the NTFSDOS page for lots more info, and a Win95/98 version.

HARD DISK ANALYSIS, REPAIR, RECOVERY

Partition Support — Misc. command line disk utils for experts.

unrated

[added 2000-01-01, updated 2006-03-14]

The command line disk sector and partition tools in this group are intended for advanced users. Minimal documentation. All programs listed here run under plain DOS or Win9x/ME, and operate on partitions created by DOS, WinNT/2K/XP, OS/2 and other OSes.

Chsdir		Lists contents of a FAT partition, evaluates integrity of lost partitions.
Cyldir		A recovery tool. Searches for existing or lost directories, in an existing or lost FAT partition. Found files can be copied to a good partition.
Editpart		Command line partition table editor. For experts.
FindBad		Locates bad sectors.
FindBSD		Searches for BSD disk labels.
Finddir		Searches for subdirectories, calculates the location of cluster number two.
Findext2		Searches for Linux ext2/ext3 superblocks, calculates possible partition location.
Findfat		Searches for FAT and estimates its condition.
FindNTFS		NTFS data recovery tool, lists or copies files.
Findpart		Searches for lost FAT, NTFS, HPFS, BeOS, Linux and swap partitions.
Findword		Searches a disk for occurrences of a word or sentence.
FP.SYS		DOS device driver, assigns read-only drive letters for lost FAT partitions.
GB32		Determines if a 32GB limit is present, for a disk larger than 32 GB.
Getsect		Retrieves HD sectors, writes them to a file.
Pqrp		Examines PQRP partitions that were originally FAT32 partitions.
Putsect		Writes a sector to disk.
Setsize		Sets the ATA Max Address (size of disk).

Author: Svend Olaf Mikkelsen, Denmark (2000-2005).

2000–2005: Various issue dates and versions.

Download individual programs, including Win9x/NT/2K/XP versions of some of them, from the author's Utilities page.

DFSee (Display File Systems) — Disk analysis and repair utility ([V]FAT[32], HPFS, NTFS).

unrated

[added 1998-07-05, updated 2004-08-07]

DFSee is a comprehensive disk sector and file systems information / repair utility for power users. Handles information from HPFS, NTFS and various FAT partitions. Includes OS/2, DOS and NT versions. Capabilities include sector reading, du mping and editing, bad sector scanning, sector checksums, file system analysis (e.g., displays errors in FS), MBR walking, file recovery, clear partition-tables sectors (MBR/EBR), clear LVM information sectors and/or all partition boot-records.and so on.

Recent versions include an FDISK module that also supports the OS/2 bootmanager.'you can FDISK your system from a DOS diskette, without any user intervention.reboot and restart a particular partition from DOS or Windows NT. Virtual disks allow experimenting with partitions without modifying the real physical disk.'

Author: Jan van Wijk, Netherlands (2001). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

2001-07-09: v3.42. Last freeware version – beginning with v4.0 (2001-07-24) DFSee is pay shareware.

Download dfsee342.zip (843K).

DFSee page.

TestDisk — Check partition and boot sectors, recover lost partition.

unrated

[added 1999-08-29, updated 2006-08-21]

From the docs:

TestDisk queries the BIOS (DOS/Win9x) or the OS (Linux, FreeBSD, Windows) in order to find the Hard Disks and their characteristics (LBA size and CHS geometry). TestDisk does a quick check of your disk's structure and compares it with your Partition Table for entry errors. If the Partition Table has entry errors, TestDisk can repair them. If you have missing partitions or a completely empty Partition Table, TestDisk can search for partitions and create a new Table or even a new MBR if necessary.

TestDisk works with these partitions:

• BeFS (BeOS)
• BSD disklabel (FreeBSD/OpenBSD/NetBSD)
• CramFS (Compressed File System)
• DOS/Windows FAT12, FAT16 and FAT32
• HFS, Hierarchical File System
• JFS, IBM's Journaled File System
• Linux Ext2 and Ext3
• Linux Raid
• Linux Swap (versions 1 and 2)
• LVM and LVM2, Linux Logical Volume Manager
• Netware NSS
• NTFS (Windows NT/2K/XP/2003)
• ReiserFS 3.5 and 3.6
• UFS (Sun/BSD/.)
• XFS, SGI's Journaled File System

Runs under DOS 6.x, FreeDOS, Win9x box. 32-bit DJGPP build, requires 80386+ and a DOS Protected Mode Interface (provided by CWSDPMI [included] or the OS). The download package & some files have Win32 Long File Names. Open Source under GNU Public License. Package also includes PhotoRec.

Author: Christophe Grenier, France (2006).

Versions
2006-03-01:		v6.3
2006-04-03:		v6.4 WIP

Downloads
v6.3		testdisk-6.3.dos.zip		(794K)
v6.4 WIP		testdisk-6.4-WIP.dos.zip		(773K)

Go to the TestDisk page for more info. Get source code and compilations for Windows NT4/2K/XP/2K3, Linux, Unixes & Mac OS X at TestDisk Download.

DISK EDITORS

For *experienced* users only. Normally run from a bootdisk (unless you're editing a floppy). Also see: DFSEE disk analyzer (w/ sector edit capability); LSD, a completely safe disk sector viewer that can write to a file.

DISKED — Recovers data from disks with damaged BOOT sector, FATs, and directory areas.

unrated

[added 2000-10-22, updated 2004-08-07]

From the docs:

DISKED is a simple to use disk editor and data recovery program for IBM-PC/XT/AT and compatible computers. It allows the editing of any sector and the saving of sectors to a file. DISKED provides a way to recover data from disks with a damaged BOOT sector, damaged FATs, and damaged directory areas, allowing the saving of otherwise lost data.

Corrupt data can be a foreign type of media (not really corrupt but able to be interpreted), a disk that was inadvertently written to by power failures or system crashes, or, on single floppy systems (like laptops), a disk was changed at the wrong time causing another disk's data written on it.

Some non-DOS floppy disk formats will be able to be read if they are formatted for 512 byte sectors.

Author: Gregg Jennings (1995).

1995-11-19: v2.91.

Download diske291.zip (88K).

WDe — Disk editor capable of editing physical disks.

unrated

[added 2002-07-14, updated 2006-03-14]

This program does a lot, but is easy to use. From the docs:

WDe is designed to be a modular disk editor capable of allowing users to manipulate data stored in various ways on different kinds of storage mediums. currently capable of editing logical, physical and CD-Rom drives on MS-DOS V4.0+ or compatible. It should (theoretically) be able to edit drives up to 2 TB in size.

A few features, from the manual:

• Menu system. controlled by the function keys on the keyboard
• Saves/restores sectors, MBR, FAT and partitions, to/from files
• Search functions may be used to find strings, hex, FATs, boot sectors, MBRs, and directories
• The fill functions allow the filling of sectors with a repeated string or byte. It also has an invert function which takes each byte and reverses each bit; this is ideal for securely overwriting data when used in conjunction with the random fill function.

Author: Ben Cadieux (2005).

Released under GNU General Public License. ASM source included.

2005-08-29: v3.0.

Ms-dos Format Utility

Download wde_v30b.zip (87K).

PTS DiskEditor — Disk editor and viewer (FAT16/32 HDs).

unrated

[added 1999-10-08, updated 2004-06-27]

Apparently allows viewing and editing of fixed disks only. While not especially option-rich and lacking user documentation (but see the online help page, below), PTS DiskEditor uniquely handles both FAT16 and FAT32. Includes Block copy and paste, undo, search for HEX/ASCII functions. 'PTS DiskEditor can work without any operating system' on the fixed disk, because it is run from a DOS or Win9x boot diskette. While it does not run under WinNT/2000/XP, it can still repair MBRs created by those OSes. 32-bit program (with built-in PMODE/W extender), requires 80386+.

Author: PhysTechSoft, Russia (1998).

Note: The rights to this disk editor were acquired in 2001 by Acronis, which now publishes a commercial variant, Acronis Disk Editor (demo is available). The original PTS DiskEditor, listed here, was licensed with a free distribution clause.

1998-11-30: v1.04.

Download PTSDE104.ZIP (161K).

Starman's A Review of the PTS (PhysTechSoft) Disk Editor has detailed info and screenshots.

DE (DiskEditor) — Disk editor and viewer (FAT12/16).

unrated

[added 1998-06-23, updated 2004-08-07]

Untested. See a review of DE at ZDNET.

From the docs: 'DiskEditor is a full function disk editor that supports graphics or non-graphics printing of all data displayed onto the screen, a DOS shell, Directory displaying, viewing, and editing, help, and mouse support.' Also functions as an analysis tool: Locates stray / cross-linked clusters; can locate bad, reserved, invalid clusters; can compare both copies of FAT for errors; can test read all disk sectors. 50K EXE and requires 27K help file.

Requirements: 8088+; monochrome or better video; DOS 2.0+; Bytes@Sector, 4096 maximum; Sectors@Cluster, 128 maximum; FAT12 or FAT16.

Author: Jim Webster (1998). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

1998-06-07: v3.0.

Download DE_30.ZIP (70K).

Jim Webster's Assembly Language Help and Programming Home Page.

Zap-It — Hex and disk editor (FAT16/32).

Facetime black screen fix. unrated

[added ?1997, updated 2004-06-27]

Untested.

Zap-It can function as either a file hex editor or a disk editor and has the ability to insert or delete bytes in hex mode. Works with FAT32 volumes. Charityware.

Features, from the docs:

- Commands accessible from pulldown menus or keys.
- Drive/directory/file listing for easy navigation and file loading.
- Last files edited history list.
- Binary/Decimal/Hexadecimal conversion and calculation.
- Hex and Ascii editing windows.
- Non specific text search.
- Disk caching.
- Easy display configuration.
- Filtering.
- Cut/Copy/Paste/Insert functions.
- ASCII viewer.
- File Compare feature.

Author: Marten Egmond / Elmer Productions (2001).

2001-09-28: v5.13.

Download zapit513.zip (66K).

DISK WIPERS

Also see: Secure File Wipers — WIPEUTIL (zapempty.com) — Shred.

Active@ KillDisk — Wipe an entire disk.

unrated

[added 2004-08-07, updated 2006-03-14]

Free version's features, from the docs:

• Detects and displays information about all partitions, hard disks and floppy drives currently connected to your computer.
• Wipes out all floppies and hard disk drives completely by secure overwriting data on physical level using [One Pass Zeros] data destruction method.
• Erases partitions, logical drives and even not used disk space.
• Erasing report is created and can be saved as a file.
• Supports IDE and SCSI drives.
• Supports larger than 8GB hard disks via using LBA mode to access drive's data.
• File systems (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc) on the drive do not matter, detected physical drive is erased using low-level disk access.
• Double confirmation excludes possibility of accidental erasing of data on a drive.
• Works on any system capable of boot from floppy in DOS mode.
• Utility is so compact that can be placed on bootable diskette and used from it. You do not even need to boot from the hard drive to destroy it.

32-bit program, requires 80386+, 4MB RAM, any DOS 6.0+, DOS/4GW extender (included).

Publisher: LSoft Technologies, Canada (2005).

2005-11-25: v3.1.2151

Get killdisk.zip (933K), accessories & manual (pdf) at the Active@ KillDisk page

WIPE (1) — Wipes fixed disks, up to 8GB.

unrated

[added 2001-09-23]

This small (3K) disk wiper will wipe entire disks (not just unused space). Useful if you are disposing of hard disks with sensitive data.

From a user:

. nice because it does not CARE about the file system – it starts from the first sector and starts writing zeros. Granted it will only do HDs up to 8 gig because of the new Bios thing [no int13h extensions], and not everybody wants to totally zarch their partition unless they are getting rid of hard drives.

• WIPE writes the COMPLETE drive with 00h pattern, starting at Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1 and ending with Max Cylinder, Max Head, and Max Sector.
• WIPE will display the drive parameters before prompting if you want to continue.
• WIPE will prompt you to make sure you want to WIPE the drive before doing it. You must answer with 'y' or 'Y' and press enter to continue, any other responce will cause WIPE to abort.
• WIPE will display a progress line with the current Cylinder, Head and Starting Sector that is being written.
• WIPE will display any non zero error code returned from the Fixed Disk function call.
• If you do not enter a parameter, WIPE will display help.

Author: Unknown. Suggested by Daniel Schmidt.

1996-05-02: v1.0c.

Download wipe10c.zip.

Get even more good stuff from Uwe Sieber's Utilities for DOS and Windows (in English) / Utilities für DOS und Windows (auf Deutsch).

WIPEM — Disk shredder overwrites unused hard disk space, Win swap files.

unrated

From the docs:

WIPEM is an assembler DOS program that protects the private data on your hard drives. Although there are several other programs.which perform the wiping of the unused space, all these leave the directory entries untouched and the files final cluster still contains data. Directories scanning, finding files FAT chains, unused cluster scanning are all done directly reading the sectors on disk. WIPEM uses different patterns when overwriting data on disks. If used repeatedly even advanced data recovery methods (like scanning the disk plates) won't give results.

This baby will wipe your Windows swap file too – a smart idea.

Limitations: not usable on FAT12 (floppies) or FAT32 disks.

Author: Emil Laurentiu, Romania (1997).

1997-07-21: v1.0. Cardware.

Download wipeem01.zip (11K).

WipeFree — Wipe over free disk space (DOS and Win32 versions).

Dos Fdisk Format Utility

unrated

[added 1999-07-10]

From the docs:

WipeFree for DOS creates files and writes to them until the drive is full. Each file can be up to 2GB and up to 1000 files can be created. WipeFree32 can handle this by creating a single file. WipeFree32 can overwrite the free areas twice. The parameter for this is /2.

Author: Uwe Sieber, Germany (1999).

Download wipefree.zip (44K).

Get even more good stuff from Uwe Sieber's Utilities for DOS and Windows (in English) / Utilities für DOS und Windows (auf Deutsch).

CD-ROM UTILITIES

Also see CD Navigator, a disk cataloger.

Disc-at-Once (DAO) — Golden Hawk's CD recording utilities.

unrated

[added 1998-12-08, updated 2006-08-21]

'.A set of useful CD-R applications for MSDOS. They support every major CDROM recorder.' 16-bit DOS and 32-bit Windows console versions available (DOS version does not support IDE devices). The following freeware programs are included in the larger Disc-at-Once commercial distribution packages:

CD2CD.EXE		Copies a single-track data CD from any supported CDROM drive to a CD recorder.
CD2FILE.EXE and FILE2CD.EXE		CD2FILE copies a CD from any supported CDROM drive to a hard drive image file, which can then be written to the same or a different CD recorder using FILE2CD.
DISK2CD.EXE		Copies a SCSI harddrive block-by-block to a CD recorder.
CDTOOLS.EXE		Performs CDROM functions including 'Disc Finalization', 'Erase CD-RW Disc', 'Table of Contents', etc.

Author: Golden Hawk Technology (2004-06). Suggested by Dev Teelucksingh.

Versions
2004-10-06:		3.9h		DOS16
2006-03-20:		4.0c		Win32

unrated

[added 2000-10-22, updated 2004-08-07]

From the docs:

DISKED is a simple to use disk editor and data recovery program for IBM-PC/XT/AT and compatible computers. It allows the editing of any sector and the saving of sectors to a file. DISKED provides a way to recover data from disks with a damaged BOOT sector, damaged FATs, and damaged directory areas, allowing the saving of otherwise lost data.

Corrupt data can be a foreign type of media (not really corrupt but able to be interpreted), a disk that was inadvertently written to by power failures or system crashes, or, on single floppy systems (like laptops), a disk was changed at the wrong time causing another disk's data written on it.

Some non-DOS floppy disk formats will be able to be read if they are formatted for 512 byte sectors.

Author: Gregg Jennings (1995).

1995-11-19: v2.91.

Download diske291.zip (88K).

WDe — Disk editor capable of editing physical disks.

unrated

[added 2002-07-14, updated 2006-03-14]

This program does a lot, but is easy to use. From the docs:

WDe is designed to be a modular disk editor capable of allowing users to manipulate data stored in various ways on different kinds of storage mediums. currently capable of editing logical, physical and CD-Rom drives on MS-DOS V4.0+ or compatible. It should (theoretically) be able to edit drives up to 2 TB in size.

A few features, from the manual:

• Menu system. controlled by the function keys on the keyboard
• Saves/restores sectors, MBR, FAT and partitions, to/from files
• Search functions may be used to find strings, hex, FATs, boot sectors, MBRs, and directories
• The fill functions allow the filling of sectors with a repeated string or byte. It also has an invert function which takes each byte and reverses each bit; this is ideal for securely overwriting data when used in conjunction with the random fill function.

Author: Ben Cadieux (2005).

Released under GNU General Public License. ASM source included.

2005-08-29: v3.0.

Ms-dos Format Utility

Download wde_v30b.zip (87K).

PTS DiskEditor — Disk editor and viewer (FAT16/32 HDs).

unrated

[added 1999-10-08, updated 2004-06-27]

Apparently allows viewing and editing of fixed disks only. While not especially option-rich and lacking user documentation (but see the online help page, below), PTS DiskEditor uniquely handles both FAT16 and FAT32. Includes Block copy and paste, undo, search for HEX/ASCII functions. 'PTS DiskEditor can work without any operating system' on the fixed disk, because it is run from a DOS or Win9x boot diskette. While it does not run under WinNT/2000/XP, it can still repair MBRs created by those OSes. 32-bit program (with built-in PMODE/W extender), requires 80386+.

Author: PhysTechSoft, Russia (1998).

Note: The rights to this disk editor were acquired in 2001 by Acronis, which now publishes a commercial variant, Acronis Disk Editor (demo is available). The original PTS DiskEditor, listed here, was licensed with a free distribution clause.

1998-11-30: v1.04.

Download PTSDE104.ZIP (161K).

Starman's A Review of the PTS (PhysTechSoft) Disk Editor has detailed info and screenshots.

DE (DiskEditor) — Disk editor and viewer (FAT12/16).

unrated

[added 1998-06-23, updated 2004-08-07]

Untested. See a review of DE at ZDNET.

From the docs: 'DiskEditor is a full function disk editor that supports graphics or non-graphics printing of all data displayed onto the screen, a DOS shell, Directory displaying, viewing, and editing, help, and mouse support.' Also functions as an analysis tool: Locates stray / cross-linked clusters; can locate bad, reserved, invalid clusters; can compare both copies of FAT for errors; can test read all disk sectors. 50K EXE and requires 27K help file.

Requirements: 8088+; monochrome or better video; DOS 2.0+; Bytes@Sector, 4096 maximum; Sectors@Cluster, 128 maximum; FAT12 or FAT16.

Author: Jim Webster (1998). Suggested by Lars-Erik Sandberg.

1998-06-07: v3.0.

Download DE_30.ZIP (70K).

Jim Webster's Assembly Language Help and Programming Home Page.

Zap-It — Hex and disk editor (FAT16/32).

Facetime black screen fix. unrated

[added ?1997, updated 2004-06-27]

Untested.

Zap-It can function as either a file hex editor or a disk editor and has the ability to insert or delete bytes in hex mode. Works with FAT32 volumes. Charityware.

Features, from the docs:

- Commands accessible from pulldown menus or keys.
- Drive/directory/file listing for easy navigation and file loading.
- Last files edited history list.
- Binary/Decimal/Hexadecimal conversion and calculation.
- Hex and Ascii editing windows.
- Non specific text search.
- Disk caching.
- Easy display configuration.
- Filtering.
- Cut/Copy/Paste/Insert functions.
- ASCII viewer.
- File Compare feature.

Author: Marten Egmond / Elmer Productions (2001).

2001-09-28: v5.13.

Download zapit513.zip (66K).

DISK WIPERS

Also see: Secure File Wipers — WIPEUTIL (zapempty.com) — Shred.

Active@ KillDisk — Wipe an entire disk.

unrated

[added 2004-08-07, updated 2006-03-14]

Free version's features, from the docs:

• Detects and displays information about all partitions, hard disks and floppy drives currently connected to your computer.
• Wipes out all floppies and hard disk drives completely by secure overwriting data on physical level using [One Pass Zeros] data destruction method.
• Erases partitions, logical drives and even not used disk space.
• Erasing report is created and can be saved as a file.
• Supports IDE and SCSI drives.
• Supports larger than 8GB hard disks via using LBA mode to access drive's data.
• File systems (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, etc) on the drive do not matter, detected physical drive is erased using low-level disk access.
• Double confirmation excludes possibility of accidental erasing of data on a drive.
• Works on any system capable of boot from floppy in DOS mode.
• Utility is so compact that can be placed on bootable diskette and used from it. You do not even need to boot from the hard drive to destroy it.

32-bit program, requires 80386+, 4MB RAM, any DOS 6.0+, DOS/4GW extender (included).

Publisher: LSoft Technologies, Canada (2005).

2005-11-25: v3.1.2151

Get killdisk.zip (933K), accessories & manual (pdf) at the Active@ KillDisk page

WIPE (1) — Wipes fixed disks, up to 8GB.

unrated

[added 2001-09-23]

This small (3K) disk wiper will wipe entire disks (not just unused space). Useful if you are disposing of hard disks with sensitive data.

From a user:

. nice because it does not CARE about the file system – it starts from the first sector and starts writing zeros. Granted it will only do HDs up to 8 gig because of the new Bios thing [no int13h extensions], and not everybody wants to totally zarch their partition unless they are getting rid of hard drives.

• WIPE writes the COMPLETE drive with 00h pattern, starting at Cylinder 0, Head 0, Sector 1 and ending with Max Cylinder, Max Head, and Max Sector.
• WIPE will display the drive parameters before prompting if you want to continue.
• WIPE will prompt you to make sure you want to WIPE the drive before doing it. You must answer with 'y' or 'Y' and press enter to continue, any other responce will cause WIPE to abort.
• WIPE will display a progress line with the current Cylinder, Head and Starting Sector that is being written.
• WIPE will display any non zero error code returned from the Fixed Disk function call.
• If you do not enter a parameter, WIPE will display help.

Author: Unknown. Suggested by Daniel Schmidt.

1996-05-02: v1.0c.

Download wipe10c.zip.

Get even more good stuff from Uwe Sieber's Utilities for DOS and Windows (in English) / Utilities für DOS und Windows (auf Deutsch).

WIPEM — Disk shredder overwrites unused hard disk space, Win swap files.

unrated

From the docs:

WIPEM is an assembler DOS program that protects the private data on your hard drives. Although there are several other programs.which perform the wiping of the unused space, all these leave the directory entries untouched and the files final cluster still contains data. Directories scanning, finding files FAT chains, unused cluster scanning are all done directly reading the sectors on disk. WIPEM uses different patterns when overwriting data on disks. If used repeatedly even advanced data recovery methods (like scanning the disk plates) won't give results.

This baby will wipe your Windows swap file too – a smart idea.

Limitations: not usable on FAT12 (floppies) or FAT32 disks.

Author: Emil Laurentiu, Romania (1997).

1997-07-21: v1.0. Cardware.

Download wipeem01.zip (11K).

WipeFree — Wipe over free disk space (DOS and Win32 versions).

Dos Fdisk Format Utility

unrated

[added 1999-07-10]

From the docs:

WipeFree for DOS creates files and writes to them until the drive is full. Each file can be up to 2GB and up to 1000 files can be created. WipeFree32 can handle this by creating a single file. WipeFree32 can overwrite the free areas twice. The parameter for this is /2.

Author: Uwe Sieber, Germany (1999).

Download wipefree.zip (44K).

Get even more good stuff from Uwe Sieber's Utilities for DOS and Windows (in English) / Utilities für DOS und Windows (auf Deutsch).

CD-ROM UTILITIES

Also see CD Navigator, a disk cataloger.

Disc-at-Once (DAO) — Golden Hawk's CD recording utilities.

unrated

[added 1998-12-08, updated 2006-08-21]

'.A set of useful CD-R applications for MSDOS. They support every major CDROM recorder.' 16-bit DOS and 32-bit Windows console versions available (DOS version does not support IDE devices). The following freeware programs are included in the larger Disc-at-Once commercial distribution packages:

CD2CD.EXE		Copies a single-track data CD from any supported CDROM drive to a CD recorder.
CD2FILE.EXE and FILE2CD.EXE		CD2FILE copies a CD from any supported CDROM drive to a hard drive image file, which can then be written to the same or a different CD recorder using FILE2CD.
DISK2CD.EXE		Copies a SCSI harddrive block-by-block to a CD recorder.
CDTOOLS.EXE		Performs CDROM functions including 'Disc Finalization', 'Erase CD-RW Disc', 'Table of Contents', etc.

Author: Golden Hawk Technology (2004-06). Suggested by Dev Teelucksingh.

Versions
2004-10-06:		3.9h		DOS16
2006-03-20:		4.0c		Win32

Downloads
DOS16		dao39h16.zip		(2.0MB)
Win32		dao40c32.zip		(1.2MB)

Go to Disc-at-Once – DOS Programs for lots more info.

CD-BENCH — Benchmark program for CD-ROM drives.

unrated

Wd Drive Format Tool

[added 1999-04-17]

Evaluate the performance of your CD-ROM with CD-BENCH. Good docs, and includes options to defeat caching effects. From the docs: 'Many common benchmarks report a.wrong result because they suppose that the reading speed is constant, so they read only at the beginning of the disc. CD-BENCH.is the only benchmark that reads the disc in six different points and displays six results, so you can see if and how the speed varies.' Runs only in plain DOS mode (not Win9x).

Available options:

Note: Tested successfully on a generic internal 32X CD-ROM but failed to access a parallel port external drive. RLG.

Author: Pino Navato, Italy (1999).

1999-01-11: v2.1.

Download pn_cdb21.zip (14K).

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