found this in a skip

[jetfire]

Use DBAN on UBCD to nuke the drive contents

ill give it a go when i have some spare time.

I hate to be a party pooper, but I hope you had permission to take stuff from the skip

yes i did but there must have been about 50 of them in there and when i went back the next day to get some more they had all gone even all the bags of cables as well.

all my pcs are in rack cases so it saves me buying another one, just wish i had chance to get a few more.

[Pob255]

It'll weigh a ton because server cases are useally made of really thick steel, 1.5mm-2mm normally (most desktop case are 0.6mm-0.8mm) makles them heavy, very solid and a to cut up if you try to mod them.
As I discovered back when I modded a server case, they eat rotary tool discs like anything.

And as Saracen said, get permission first, ahhh brings back memories from art colledge, the number of strange looks I got from people when they answered the door to a scruffy looking, long haired teenager, to be asked "Excuse me sir, would it be exceptable for me to have a root around in your skip?"

[mikerr]

I'm always amazed (and saddened) at the stuff that gets skipped.

I try to give way pc stuff to keep it in use instead of scrapping it,
but local schools won't accept anything less than a year old ( must have installed & licenced os too )
and in business the support costs usually outweigh equipment cost anyway

That leaves home PCs, and they want slim black cases, none of the big old beige boxes,
even for free

[Funkstar]

I should have a full rack unit coming my way. The place a freind works has been rationalising their servers and networking equipment in head office, they were just going to skip the spare rack unit, so he phoned to see if I wanted it.

No idea where I'll put it, but if I don't find something I can always bin it myself.

[caliston]

If you want to get into the Linux on it, look for a boot menu or something that'll let you edit the boot line, and add 'single' to it. That should get you into a root prompt (I think, can't remember if it'll ask for a password). 'fdisk' will partition and 'mkfs.vfat' will format partitions as FAT. Type 'man fdisk' for the manual as to how these work.

But if you want to format to install Windows/etc, add an IDE CD-ROM and boot from the Windows CD. Or use DBAN if you just want to wipe the HD.

[peterb]

If you want to get into the Linux on it, look for a boot menu or something that'll let you edit the boot line, and add 'single' to it. That should get you into a root prompt (I think, can't remember if it'll ask for a password). snip--->

Depends on the distro - but single user mode doesn't usually require a password, which is why it is a good idea to password protect the bootloader to prevent any user from taking control of the machine! (That is the *nix bootloader, not the BIOS password).

Alternatively boot from a live CD and edit the required files that way - or reformat using GPARTED - again from a CD.

Howeve I think the problem the OP had was configuring the BIOS for use with the installed CPU, or just salvage the case!

Welcome to HEXUS by the way - good to see new members contributing to the tech forums (especially with *nix knowledge )