Reformatting a variety of Savins

Xenovic · 07-22-2009

We have a large number of Savin copiers carrying hard drives. I have been tasked with wiping the data from the drives and reformatting them.

It is obviously easy enough to wipe the data, but I'm a bit unsure about how to reformat the drive when I replace it in the machine. From what I can tell there is a different reformat code then the general service code. Is that correct?

Also, is this code shared among most of the Savin copiers?

Thanks for your time.

**schooltech** · 07-23-2009

Generally, it's a service-mode level code that you use for reformatting, and it's pretty fast. I am not sure exactly what you're referring to about "general vs reformat" code. There is also no one exact "code" that is shared, as the reformatting procedure is buried a bit differently depending on the model.

If you are going to play around with service modes, you need to have a manual, as you can completely hose your machine and then it's a 400 lb paper weight.

**Scott_Lewis** · 07-23-2009

Perhaps you are already aware of this. If so, just ignore me. Most do.

If your intent is to destroy all the data on the HDD, then simply deleting the files and reformatting will probably not do it. I haven't done any research on this for the older machines. So, don't know if that capability is built-in. But, you need to do an overwrite of the data space/HDD.

**msaeger** · 07-23-2009

What is happening to the machines after you get done ? Are they going to be used any more or just go to recycling ? If they are just going to recycling and you are totally paranoid just destroy the drives.

How are you erasing them taking them out and connecting them to a pc ? If you are doing that just put them back in and your should be good.

ADRIANL · 07-23-2009

Howzit gents,been readin your request for info concerning the hard drive formatting, and as i have the same task to complete am interested to know what the easiest way to do this would be.I believe the HDD in our ricoh equipment have a unix partion at 0, and that only using a disk utility such as ACTIVE KILL DISK or similar is the only way to do this.Any other advice would be greatly appreciated, oops i forgot to mention i need to put these drives back into the various models that we service.

**Vulkor** · 07-23-2009

I've not had too good of luck formatting these HD's with a PC. Xp, Win2000 or Vista. I just swap them into any similar machine and Format it via SP modes. Obviously some HD sizes don't belong in some machines so use caution. We have lots of similar machines so taking one and putting HD in them and formatting them chain to chain wouldn't be hard.

But I rarely have to format a HD unless its going to be resold.

Xenovic · 07-23-2009

The machines are going to be resold when they leave our organization, so we are concerned about the new owners recovering data from the machines.

We do know that simply deleting and reformatting won't work, so we are working on a way to wipe the drive. The problem is we then need to put the wiped drive back into the machine and have it work.

I'm guessing that the file system on the disk is proprietary to Savin, not standard Fat32 or NTFS/HTFS because I can't mount the disk in either Windows or Linux.

So, from there I'm looking for a way to reformat the drive after its been wiped so that it will work in the various copiers. Using one copier to reformat all of the drives sounds like it may work. I will have to try it with one or two and see what kind of results I get.

**Vulkor** · 07-23-2009

Works on Most Machines unless the HD is the newer 80GB. Those won't work in most older machines unless Savin says it will with Firmware update.
Also you have your machines that use Laptop HD's.

The 80GB HD are formatted a special way on older machines that normally come with 40GB, but the 40 got discontinued due to supply.