How do i wipe my hard drive?

chris_uk333 · 12 Mar 2009 at 18:28

So i am selling my pc and wanna get rid of the OS (Wouldn't feel happy giving it since i have stuff on it) SO how do i wipe the hard drive? I can not figure out how!

Cheers

siumatfung · 12 Mar 2009 at 18:30

with a cloth

nah just joking just reformat the hard drive and it should all be fine i mean you can pay for products which claim it completely wipes all data but i dont follow that jargin

chris_uk333 · 12 Mar 2009 at 18:32

how do i reformat? And no, this isnt a joke lol

Grimley · 12 Mar 2009 at 18:35

Download & run this

Eraser

or this

http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

both should do the job & deter all but the most determined ID thief.

Paul11 · 12 Mar 2009 at 18:36

a reformat will leave the drive open to undelte programmes that can retrieve data from a drive *(even if it has been formatted)

depends how sensitive your data is.

if it is just some pics your holidays i wouldnt worry and a format will be fine

if you have all your bank details/ passwords/ accounts etc on there might be better to use a wipe programme that will permant delete the info

siumatfung · 12 Mar 2009 at 18:38

yeh what they said

andymac · 12 Mar 2009 at 20:13

When I decommisioned a hard drive in the past, I set it as a slave drive on an existing windows install, then format it using the slow format from windows, then fill it up with my external HDD full of video and music till it is packed full, then re-format it again. All data is then toasted to all but the most ardent ID theif.

However, at work the process now is to remove the used hard drive and send it to be incinerated it. New HDD are dirt cheap.

K1LLSW1TCH · 13 Mar 2009 at 01:35

how do i reformat? And no, this isnt a joke lol

Go to BootDisk.com and click "DOS — Windows 9X/NT4/2000/XP Excellent Bootdisks." Download the Windows XP Custom Install Disk and save it to a floppy. Restart the computer with the floppy in the A: drive. At the A: prompt, type Format: C. Answer "yes" to the warning; you want to wipe out all the data.

Or you can just put the windows disk in the PC, restart the computer and there are formatting options there also.

linktoinsanity · 13 Mar 2009 at 10:07

As said already DON'T JUST FORMAT!!!

I work in computer forensics and it is really easy to recover deleted data off a drive. If you use a special program such as ERASER (linked above by Grimley) and set it on maximum erase option, you should be reasonably safe. Really, though the safest option is to just remove the hard disk and buy a cheap one instead.

FaceplantSi · 13 Mar 2009 at 12:32

Mattf121 said:
As said already DON'T JUST FORMAT!!!

I work in computer forensics and it is really easy to recover deleted data off a drive. If you use a special program such as ERASER (linked above by Grimley) and set it on maximum erase option, you should be reasonably safe. Really, though the safest option is to just remove the hard disk and buy a cheap one instead.

Deffo agree. Could also try Killdisk. But a lot of these run off a floppy and lets face it who has one of those these days? So best to slave drive into another PC and run from there.

ecat · 13 Mar 2009 at 13:19

I believe the Military used to drop the drives in acid. Not very practical for the home user, but as we have the attention of someone who works in computer forensics, what are the best methods of physical destruction ?

Screwdriver and wire wool ?
Drill or jigsaw to the platter ?
Six months under a large magnet ?