SafeGuard Base Encryption could not be started. System Halted

Question

Hi,

I try to clean completely my HDD in my Lenovo ThinkPad t500 Notebook, because the Safeguard Enterprise 5.35 that was connected over the network to a management server of this software, gets damage.

I try different things like tools from Sophos do unencryptir and decommiss the HDD but withour results and sucess.

Now when I boot it it says,

...

SafeGuard Base Encryption could not be started.

System Halted !

...

and the Notebook stops in that point.

I want to clean completely the HDD to reinstall a fresh Windows XP from company.

I format already the HDD with an Ubuntu 10.10 Live CD, but when the Notebook starts, always appear the Safeguard messagem before loading anythin from the HDD.

How can I delete completely this software ?

Thanks in Advance.

F. Paulo

This thread was automatically locked due to age.

ssij · Accepted Answer

It sounds like you need to clear the master boot record, which can be acomplished in a couple of ways.

one method is using the windows utility diskpart. To do this, you need to boot from a Windows PE disk, or boot a Windows Vista / 7 install DVD and click "Repair". From there, go to the command prompt (if using the Repair option on an install disc), and type DISKPART. afterwards, diskpart will start, and you should type CLEAN. This should wipe out the entire drive, including the master boot record and partition tables.

If you want to try using Linux, try running the following command as the root user from a Ubuntu (or other Linux) live CD:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=1

(assuming your hard drive is /dev/sda). This should wipe out the partition table and the master boot record.

Finally, there is one more option, which is somewhat overkill. You can use a secure erase program and write zeros across the whole drive. One example of this DBAN, which can be found here:

http://www.dban.org/

You can use that to write zeros (or random data) over your entire disk, which will definitely delete everything.

One thing to note : ALL of the above methods will delete EVERYTHING on your hard drive and you will end up with a completely blank disk. I assumed that this is what you wanted, but please make sure you have recovery media or a reinstallation CD before doing any of the methods above. :8767