Wiping with no traces?

Slime101 · 9 Mar 2006 at 22:16

I need to do a re-install due to many progs going belly up...to avoid problems on re-install whats the best way of "killing" the drive so nothing remains as many progs manage to leave traces somewhere that last even though reformatting?

Trigger · 9 Mar 2006 at 22:25

I don't think you can ever 'wipe' a drive completley clean but the formatter in windows xp setup program should be fine

Caged · 9 Mar 2006 at 22:30

No program is going to leave traces which would interfere with a clean install if you just format the drive.

Slime101 · 9 Mar 2006 at 22:37

Caged said:
No program is going to leave traces which would interfere with a clean install if you just format the drive.

I can think of several...MS Office, Discreet 3DS MAX, etc etc. It needs to be properly cleaned...but how? (I know these progs leave traves even after fdisk and format from experience)

fallbayuk · 9 Mar 2006 at 23:13

That quilted stuff works well.

benjo plz. · 9 Mar 2006 at 23:19

fallbayuk said:
That quilted stuff works well.

lol

a low level format should do the job tbh.

Whitewater · 9 Mar 2006 at 23:23

Slime101 said:
I can think of several...MS Office, Discreet 3DS MAX, etc etc. It needs to be properly cleaned...but how? (I know these progs leave traves even after fdisk and format from experience)

I what way do these programs leave traces?

PinkPig · 10 Mar 2006 at 00:42

I don't get what you mean. If you format the drive everything is gone. Kaboom. It could be recovered, sometimes, with specialist software, so if you're looking to erase all traces of something then there are considerations, but there's no way that anything will remain to "interfere" after a full format, the particular software used is irrelevant.

Lagz · 10 Mar 2006 at 01:13

Slime101 said:
I can think of several...MS Office, Discreet 3DS MAX, etc etc. It needs to be properly cleaned...but how? (I know these progs leave traves even after fdisk and format from experience)

No. . .they dont (yes the data is technically still on the disk and recoverable by specialist software, but there is no way it can interfere with windows and new installs of the software).

AJUK · 10 Mar 2006 at 08:28

If you want to wipe a hard disk properly you need to overwrite it several passes of zeros and/or random digits. Active Killdisk or Autoclave are free utilities that will do zero overwrite for you from a bootable floppy/cd. These utilities are designed to minimize the risk of data retrieval if you sell the computer etc. and are a little over the top for just a reinstall. A good old fashioned format c:\ from dos on a floppy booted pc will do fine, then just reinstall windows.

dirtydog · 10 Mar 2006 at 08:30

Lagz said:
No. . .they dont (yes the data is technically still on the disk and recoverable by specialist software, but there is no way it can interfere with windows and new installs of the software).

Indeed - I dunno what the OP is on about tbh..

dirtydog · 10 Mar 2006 at 08:31

AJUK said:
A good old fashioned format c:\ from dos on a floppy booted pc will do fine, then just reinstall windows.

Or just boot off the Windows installation CD and let Windows setup do the formatting, even easier.

AJUK · 10 Mar 2006 at 08:41

dirtydog said:
Or just boot off the Windows installation CD and let Windows setup do the formatting, even easier.

Indeed.

Slime101 · 10 Mar 2006 at 08:42

Lagz said:
No. . .they dont (yes the data is technically still on the disk and recoverable by specialist software, but there is no way it can interfere with windows and new installs of the software).

YES THEY DO!

Install 3ds max....remove it or leave it then reformat and try and re-install and see what it says, it WILL know you have installed before on that hard disk, i would bet my 20K landy on it...the program leaves traces that are not removed with a format or fdisk.

dirtydog · 10 Mar 2006 at 09:16

Interesting...

Whitewater · 10 Mar 2006 at 09:55

Slime101 said:
YES THEY DO!

Install 3ds max....remove it or leave it then reformat and try and re-install and see what it says, it WILL know you have installed before on that hard disk, i would bet my 20K landy on it...the program leaves traces that are not removed with a format or fdisk.

It's not possible for such software to leave traces of itself on a hard disk after formatting. There may be a product code involved.

Edit: See below.

M0KUJ1N · 10 Mar 2006 at 09:56

Slime101 said:
YES THEY DO!

Install 3ds max....remove it or leave it then reformat and try and re-install and see what it says, it WILL know you have installed before on that hard disk, i would bet my 20K landy on it...the program leaves traces that are not removed with a format or fdisk.

....And this wouldnt have anything to do with the fact that 3DS-max uses a network-based registration system (FlexLM IIRC) which is based on your computer's MAC address? No amounts of low-level formats are going to change that fact Im afraid

You'll have to re-register or change your network card (which probably constitutes a breach of your licencing agreement)

/me wonders what the shipping charges on a Land Rover are

Slime101 · 10 Mar 2006 at 10:18

M0KUJ1N said:
....And this wouldnt have anything to do with the fact that 3DS-max uses a network-based registration system (FlexLM IIRC) which is based on your computer's MAC address? No amounts of low-level formats are going to change that fact Im afraid You'll have to re-register or change your network card (which probably constitutes a breach of your licencing agreement)

/me wonders what the shipping charges on a Land Rover are

Stand alone installation - no remote registration required so how's that work then?

Whitewater · 10 Mar 2006 at 10:46

Slime101 said:
Stand alone installation - no remote registration required so how's that work then?

There's either an active connection to the internet that the software's using to check the product code, MAC address, etc.

Slime101 · 10 Mar 2006 at 11:07

Whitewater said:
There's either an active connection to the internet that the software's using to check the product code, MAC address, etc.

Not without firewall permission, which it doesnt have!