erasing HDD

[lalani]

Anyone know of a free utility that I can use to completely erase a HDD?

 

[goraj]

It is easy bootup with bootup disk using win 98 sartup disk, a: prompt type fdisk, then at a: type
format c: all the data will be arased,
If u dont have boot disk download here bootdisk.com

 

[sohcrates]

<< It is easy bootup with bootup disk using win 98 sartup disk, a: prompt type fdisk, then at a: type
format c: all the data will be arased,
If u dont have boot disk download here bootdisk.com >>



yep, that will effectively reformat you're disk, BUT, it would still be recoverable with certain utilities

the only way to TRULY get rid of it all would be to do several low level formats in a row...and even then it might not all totally be gone. there are third party utilities out there that can do low level formats for you....

note though, that these low level formats are really only needed if the cops are about to bust you and your computer or something...."format c:" is FINE for all normal purposes.

 

[lalani]

I'm actually returning a home computer to work. I want to do a secure erase (sector for sector rewrite).

Formatting, and fdisking both allow for recovery of data. Any suggestions for a free utility I can use?

 

[sohcrates]

check out this link

replace 'subscriber' with 'forums' if you're not a subscriber

basically , you're first low level proggie choice should be to see if the disk manufacturer offers one.

if not, that link has some links to other third party versions

 

[Zenmervolt]

ZDNet has a program called "Shred" that will do a sector for sector rewrite with varrying bit patterns and a repetition of up to 10 times (a 3x repetition is what the government uses to destroy files). Shred is freeware too. I would suggest first deleting everything you don't want in the normal way, then running Shred and selecting "shred free disk space", that will write random bit patterns to all free HDD sectors multiple times, effectively eliminating any chance of data recovery. Oh yeah, you may want to install Shred to a removable disk (like a ZIP) so that the cannot recover the shredding program.

ZV

 

[teddymines]

If your goal is to make the data on the drive inaccessible, just transfer it to an IBM 75gxp (ducks)

Actually, PGP freeware comes with a wipe program that can be configured to run up to 26 times. I believe it wipes only free space, so you will need to delete all files on the disk first. I'd recommend a single partition that takes up the whole disk, format it to fat32 so it is recognizable by your OS, then run the wipe.

You can find the free PGP package here.