Trying to wipe clean my old hardrive.

tomanders91

tomanders91

tomanders91

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My dad told me today t opower up our old computer to wipe clean the hardrive so he can sell it on to somone, so i powered it up, went to format disc drive (i think you do that dont you?) And tried to wipe it, but i kept getting a message saying i cant do this, please excit any disc utility programs and try again or something similar.

Any other ways i can wipe it clean?
 
Unless you hit the HD with a hammer and smash it to pieces, this is not as easy as your Dad thinks. Obviously, you will need to replace the HD, and reinstall Windows, if you take this route.

Alternatively, you will need to reinstall Windows and then wipe clean the remaining space with a suitable tool. Or wipe clean, and then reinstall.
 
tomanders91 said:
My dad told me today t opower up our old computer to wipe clean the hardrive so he can sell it on to somone, so i powered it up, went to format disc drive (i think you do that dont you?) And tried to wipe it, but i kept getting a message saying i cant do this, please excit any disc utility programs and try again or something similar.

Any other ways i can wipe it clean?
Click to expand...
Windows won't let you format the drive it's running from so you'll need to use another tool.

DBAN is a pretty good secure wipe tool.
 
Two days! I thought his site says "emergency data destruction". Must be a slow emergency :P

If you have Seagate drives you could check their website. They have a utility to zero wipe drives.
 
Window washer link to trial download, bit buggy latest version but if you install it and click on wash utilities you can create an erase boot disk to floppy disk OR CD. :) Used a few times but have yet to test it for accuracy by using all recovery software just to check it is 100% at deleting data beyond recovery by normal means.


http://sales.webroot.com/downloads/registered/links/wwsetup411_.exe

I did use Blancco once, worked great BUT they charge per USE!! :eek: £15 for one deletion of hard drive and then you need to buy another licence for another £15. I was gutted. :( The pro version is 52.95 per ONE use! :eek: Some of the recycling pc companies use it but obviously get a MEGA discount! It works VERY well but at this price I prefer the old sledge hammer. :)
 
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Kemik said:
Two days! I thought his site says "emergency data destruction". Must be a slow emergency :P

If you have Seagate drives you could check their website. They have a utility to zero wipe drives.
Click to expand...


Gutmann Wipe is a 35 pass wipe! Thats why it took 2 days. :) A wipe of 3 or 7 passes is what I normally use and I was unable to recovery any data with 3 passes and I tried all the recovery software I could find! Not really used DBAN so I can't say how good it is, but I would expect 7 passes to be more than enough. :)
 
firewallblocked said:
Not really used DBAN so I can't say how good it is, but I would expect 7 passes to be more than enough. :)
Click to expand...

I think after 7 passes it is supposed to be secure enough so that the US DoD will not be able to recover data from it but if anyone is willing to go to those lengths and has the technology you have bigger problems than being able to securely wipe a disk. :)
 
Sorry to bump an old thread but would this technique of wiping a disk work for say a phone memory stick?

I want to sell my phone and want to completely wipe the contents of the 512mb memory stick so I don't get even the half knowledged people around snooping over old texts / photo's etc :)

Ta.
 
I don't actually know for certain but I see no reason why not, provided you can select the drive/memory stick using DBAN I'd have thought the process would be exactly the same. :)
 
iirc its different with solid state memory, theres not the magnetic after effects from a normal wipe
try using a prog like getdataback on a USB flash drive and see if it works
 
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