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Erase everything

ASH1982

ASH1982

ASH1982

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Joined
29 Sep 2004
Posts
638
Location
Newcastle Upon Tyne
Im selling my old laptop so it needs to be fully cleaned

I have booted into DOS and used the command A:\>format C:

Is that enough to remove all data?

How many times should I format it :confused:

Cheers
 
Unless you have some highly sensitive data on your PC a single format should do. The guy you sell it to in the Loot is unlikely to have the thousands of pounds worth of hardware and software to extract the data :p

I would personally use your HDDs HardDisk utility... most vendors have one for their own HDDs. Run that and do a complete format. I am led to believe that some vendors' software can overwrite the whole drive then format it afterwards. This I have only heard second-hand so I can't tell for sure if this is accurate.

SiriusB
 
SiriusB said:
Unless you have some highly sensitive data on your PC a single format should do. The guy you sell it to in the Loot is unlikely to have the thousands of pounds worth of hardware and software to extract the data :p
Click to expand...

No but he could have downloaded it of the NET for nothing, recovering all the data from a a:/format c: is pretty easy, giving the right software it takes about 5 mins.

But as you say lots of HD manufacturers do "wiping" software.

HEADRAT
 
Yeah, e.g. WD have a write zero's to the drive function which doesn exactly as it says, making the drive RAW as if new. No data can be recovered after this I believe.
 
smids said:
Yeah, e.g. WD have a write zero's to the drive function which doesn exactly as it says, making the drive RAW as if new. No data can be recovered after this I believe.
Click to expand...

Correct. Unless they also bought a Class 100 Cleanroom and a Overhauser magnetometer from the Loot too :p

SiriusB
 
I always Low Level Format my HDs when I put them away as spares or using an enitrely different file system on them - just seems the sensible thing to do as thats how they are when they come out of the factory :p

ps3ud0 :cool:
 
Sorry to hijack slightly but this just reminded me, I'm selling an machines desktop PC soon and want to erase my hdd as I'm a bit of a shopoholic and don't want anyone recovering my debit card details. The PC i have has a restore disk with it so if i totally wipe my hdd would this restore disk still work or will i have wiped the partition off?.

Thanks in advance

Mark
 
If done from DOS, would wipe the recover partition as well I think. You would have to just format the windows one from within windows. i.e. this would require another hdu with windows on it so that you can use that hdu as a slave. i.e. put it in your current pc and format it in there.
 
cheers mate, what about if i filled the hdd with loads of video files and wiped them off would that totally erase data?, its only a 40gb hdd so shouldnt take long.

Mark
 
ps3ud0 said:
Just make sure whatever you use doesnt touch the partition table...

ps3ud0 :cool:
Click to expand...
Good point :D

/OT - what are you doing in [the HDU] forum, shouldn't you be playing with the 'big boys' in the graphics forum? :p
 
bit of a hijack... im looking to sell my old hdd's, can someone recommend a couple of decent pieces of software that will wipe my hd's safely enough to sell on? the best would be nice :)
 
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