Best way to reformat/remove partitions?

[kevin-h]

I have a hard drive that I partitioned into 2 seperate partitions.

Now I would like to re-format the drive and return it to it's original out-of-the-box condition.

What is the best way to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help proffered.

Kevin.

 

[Artheas]

I have a hard drive that I partitioned into 2 seperate partitions.

Now I would like to re-format the drive and return it to it's original out-of-the-box condition.

What is the best way to do this?

Thanks in advance for any help proffered.

Kevin.

If you use any software that enables you to delete partitions (PartitionMagic, or even Windows setup disk), after you delete it, the drive will be seen as non formatted and cannot be used until it is formatted (like when new). But the data that was on your drive can be 'recovered' by someone unless you go out of your way to remove it, which most people do with secure erase software.

Also there's the SMART data stored by the disk, i'm not sure if that can be erased by home users, but i know even less about that.

 

[noxidjkram@hotm]

Just use your Windows disk (or an old Win98 floppy boot disk), and remove the partition on the drive.

Then put one partition (whole disk) back on it and format.

To all intents and purposes its then as new.

M