how do you disable the card reader in HP BIOS on a dv6693us

[boatwrench]

I'm trying to wipe the hard drive using Dban, it keeps hanging up on the pci sysfs which is a known problem with HP and the Ricoh card reader. ALL forums say to disable it but for the life of me I can't find it in the BIOS. I've disabled the only other thing I can, the only one that was enabled was the CD ROM drive.

I'm not the most experienced in there but I've never had a problem before. I just need to turn it off or else I'll have to open the case and physically disconnect it... that I'd prefer not to do.

I tried using Secure Erase from the Center for Magnetic Recording Research but it didn't work either, looks as though it was developed for Windows up to ME. Figured I had nothing to lose so burned the disc and it froze up before starting to run.

Now after reading some of the reports I'm not so sure any software writing program is "unrecoverable" but I'm not too worried, I don't have that much for personal info on here ever. I have other computers for that. I just want something that does a great job and works well. I've wasted days trying to get Dban to run so far.

Thanks in advance,

Rob

[CherylG · Accepted solution]

I have looked through the BIOS on a DV2810us that I have, which is smaller 14.1" lil brother of the DV6000/DV9000 series laptops. There is no place to disable Card Reader that I can find.

Try something else like Partition Wizard,my personal favoite.Scroll down on the page and get> Bootable CD ISO and> ImgBurn to burn the iso image to cd-a guide on using ImgBurn to write an ISO to a disc is Here. Once created, boot from it. Delete any hdd partitions, create one and format.

[boatwrench]

At least I know I'm not just blind and can't find what everyone else was talking about!

The main reason of wanting to disable the card reader was so that I can use Dban to clean it, this hdd is from someone elses computer, a HP laptop that had the Nvidea solder problem, I fixed it for him, it worked for a short time then had another problem so he said just take it. I don't know what he had on it but I'd imagine he surfed sites I wouldn't go to!!!

So I'd like to make sure everything is gone from it, then use the recovery discs to start off with a new slate only a larger hdd. I've heard if you type in Secure Erase on the newer hdds it wipes them just as well as Dban. Have you heard if that's true?

I'll try the software you recommended. Is there a chance I can mess up the computer irrepairably?  Things I should watch for etc. 

From what I gather from your post: I should use partition wizards bootable CD, delete all partitions, create a single partition, format that and then run Dban? 

Then when I use the recovery discs or USB thumbdrive it should create it's own partions with the recovery portion intact?

Let me know if I'm right or wrong on that.

I've never created or deleted partitions, I've always just let the install determine what it needs,

I know it's a few questions so answer what you can, the rest I'll keep after,

thanks for your help.

[CherylG]

After booting with the cd and deleting partitions all data should be gone-no need to use dban. Actually I have seen  a few posts reporting issues with using Recovery Discs after running dban on a hdd.

And-yes,booting with Recovery Discs they  will create the proper partitions.

[boatwrench]

Thanks, I'm about to go ahead now with the downloads.

Just for more info for you, I've used that Dban program on 3 other computers, 2 HPs and a Dell, it "worked" well but not sure how complete it was. With the HPs I used the recovery software and brought them back to factory. I'm sure there are problems out there with Dban but I've had good luck so far. 

let you know how things work out... as well as changing the two files so I can make a good set of recovery discs

Cheers!

[boatwrench]

As an update:

I downloaded the partition wizard program, it had the option of "wipe disk" and further options of different methods. I went with the DOD 3 wipe version which said it was "very slow" but compared to Dban it was a fraction of the time.

After that was done I installed the original hard drive.

I couldn't find the file to delete in the C drive but I did find the one in the D drive, changed the extension so I can go back if necessary and then tried to make my recovery disks. They worked!! It took 2 DVDs.

I reinserted the wiped hdd, used the two recovery disks and it worked! THEN I had to do all the updates, it took too long but all done and the system seems to work fine!! 

Thank you Cheryl? so even though I haven't figured out how to disable the card reader I was able to do what I needed to do so I'll consider it solved for now. The PROBLEM will again surface I'm sure when or IF I have to format the hdd again and need to wipe it unless I managed to keep that partion disk... good luck! 🙂  The help was really appreciated, take care and best of luck to you in the New Year.

Now if ONLY I can figure out how to save all those updates I just wasted hours doing! 

Rob