clearing hard drive

[DRojo]

Does anyone know how to completely clear a hard drive?

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

Does anyone know how to completely clear a hard drive?

Yes.

You can simply format the drive several times, or use special hard drive
utilities to do the job.
Click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into the address box
if using the web based newsgroup.
Format XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/format_XP.htm

Look here for more.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Michael Stevens]

In

In

Yes.

You can simply format the drive several times, or use special hard
drive utilities to do the job.
Click on the link below, or copy and paste the link into the address
box if using the web based newsgroup.
Format XP
http://michaelstevenstech.com/format_XP.htm

Look here for more.
http://www.majorgeeks.com/downloads8.html

A better link.
http://www.tucows.com/harddrive95_default.html
--
Michael Stevens MS-MVP XP
(e-mail address removed)
http://michaelstevenstech.com
For a better newsgroup experience. Setup a newsreader.
http://michaelstevenstech.com/outlookexpressnewreader.htm

 

[Ron Martell]

Does anyone know how to completely clear a hard drive?

Absolute security requirements generally specify that the hard drive
has to be physically destroyed in order to prevent any possible
recovery of the data.

There are utilities that will perform multiple overwrites of your hard
drive which provides a high, but not absolute, degree of protection
against data recovery. A 7 pass solution (where the hard drive is
completely rewritten with a random data pattern and then erased 7
times) is the general standard but even then the original data might
still be recoverable if it were important enough to warrant the
expenditure.

For general purposes simply deleting the existing hard drive
partition, then creating a new one and formatting it will provide
acceptable security. Use a Windows 98SE or WindowsMe Startup Disk
(get one from www.bootdisk.com) and use FDISK to first delete the
existing partition (non-DOS partition if it is NTFS) then create a new
FAT32 partition if that is what you want and format it.

Good luck


Ron Martell Duncan B.C. Canada
--
Microsoft MVP
On-Line Help Computer Service
http://onlinehelp.bc.ca

"The reason computer chips are so small is computers don't eat much."

 

[jeff]

This site has a bunch of freeware file deletion software. I recommend
ERASER. It has the 7 pass wipe mentioned earlier but also 35 pass and
customizable options as well. It will not only wipe out the unused file
areas but also cluster tips. I use it instead of recycle bin now for all
deleting, simply right click on any files or directory and it adds 'erase'
to your options. You can also set up regular maintenance wipes for any time
and day of the week.
http://www.snapfiles.com/Freeware/security/fwerase.html