The master boot record is located at cylinder 0, head 0, and sector 1
Even if you do a full format and receive the message: "Non-system disk or disk error - Replace and press any key when ready", this itself is printed by the volume boot code that is read from the volume boot sector on the disk. (ie the MBR still exists)
To remove the Master Boot Record: (I have decided to be a lot clearer)
- DOS: Fdisk /MBR
- Win2K/XP: Fixmbr (From the Recovery Console)
- Vista/Win7: Bootrec /FixMbr (From the Recovery Environment > Command Prompt)
- Linux GRUB: grub-install or dd (From the grub interactive console)
- Linux Lilo: lilo -mbr
There are also many "Disk Editor" programs that can edit the MBR Table as well, I'm sure you have used Ptedit and alike.
Regarding: "
science fiction"
Although the excessive 7 Wipes as stated by the "government wipe" is suppose to be the most secure wipe in the world. Gererally only 3 Wipes is all that is required (at most). Or as stated earlier replace the drive, to be even more trusting of a virus or filesystem is gone.
Generally, a "Clean Install" means removing any/all partitions on the drive
I would always recommend users to run a clean install if installing Windows clean