mike4287

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I have a semi-old computer I dont really use much cuz its gotten slow over the few years. I dont need anything on it anymore so I was wondering whats the best way to completely wipe out everything on the hard drive. I have a bootable windows XP disc I have to reinstall so the OS wont be the problem. Is there a program that can do this, if not what is the best way to go about it do you think? I thought I saw a norton program that might have done this but I am not sure. Any information would be helpful tho! Thanks

drktitan56

The best way is to reformat it by finding out what type of hard drive you have and the model then going to the manufacture site and download there software to do this.

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I have always been a street hacker if you want to put it in those terms. I prefer to call it guerrilla research of todays machines and the never ending thirst for finding out just what the hell is out there. You fear us only until you want something for free.

siopawman

yeah, find the manufacturer then download their "format files" on their website.

i use disk manager, seagate, you can still use it even if your formating other brands, so i guess the software wouldn't matter, coz i think most hard disk have the same hardware.

drktitan56

Actually you have to use the program from the manufacturer of the hard drive. Seagate prog will work with Maxtor for they are together now but seagates prog will not work with western digital hard drives. At least the last time I tried it which was last night would not work.

___________________________________________
I have always been a street hacker if you want to put it in those terms. I prefer to call it guerrilla research of todays machines and the never ending thirst for finding out just what the hell is out there. You fear us only until you want something for free.

Mnbowr

Ok ya'll just giving the guy a run around. Just take that win xp os disk and pop it in. Boot it up from a restart and just delete the partition, don't do a quick format. That will completely format your harddrive.

drktitan56

That doesnt completely reformat the drive. Specially if his hard drive is having problems with the OS.

___________________________________________
I have always been a street hacker if you want to put it in those terms. I prefer to call it guerrilla research of todays machines and the never ending thirst for finding out just what the hell is out there. You fear us only until you want something for free.

mike4287

Thanks for the advice ill try it here in a few days once finals are over!

Sechi

Mnbowr has a point. The quickest way to wipe a disk is to use FDISK, to delete the partitions, and it will wipe everything, including the MBR.

You only need the manufacturer's this and that when you need the software to perform a low level format if you suspect serious disk error.

stutz

Download eraser and make a nuke disk too overwrite data (gutmann 35 times).

elfoozo

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Grab the link to oDownload DBAN for installation on CD and DVD media. which is an ISO, make that image into CD and boot into dban then shred your disk.

wolf68k

Kill Disk has a free version; floppy, CD ISO and Windows version
No need to format the drive, right? Just clean it.

If you look on the torrent sites you can find the Pro version which will do a USDoD level wipe, which is about 7 or more passes writing random characters over the drive.

Ultimate Boot CD http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
A must have for all computer geeks, has Kill Disk and a bunch of other tools on a CD ISO that you can boot from.