How to wipe :C and :D drives?

[Cat_in_awe]

I have a laptop and desktop that marginally work (WindowsXP), but I'm
through with them and want to sell/donate them to the local PC store for
spare parts. I want to wipe everything off both drives (on the desktop) and
the laptop's :C drive, leaving no operating system or user data.

How do I do this, SIMPLY? Both systems seem to not be able to boot from a
removable drive, but probably can boot from a CD. Attempts to reinstall
Windows(XP) won't complete because it says the operating system on the drive
is newer than on the install disk. Any other attempts with the DOS box or
disk management says the disk is in use and can't be formatted.

Alternately, should I just get out the power drill and perforate the disk
drives, and dump the whole think in the dumpster?

 

[Greg Russell]

In

I have a laptop and desktop that marginally work (WindowsXP), but I'm
through with them and want to sell/donate them to the local PC store for
spare parts. I want to wipe everything off both drives (on the desktop)
and the laptop's :C drive, leaving no operating system or user data.

How do I do this, SIMPLY?

We use a Win{95,98} bootable floppy containing maxllf.exe (Maxtor Low-Level
Format) which is freely available at many places on the web, as is the
boot98c.exe which creates the bootable floppy. You can find similar programs
to create a bootable CD/DVD onto which to place the maxllf.exe if you don't
have a floppy drive.

 

[Lawrence]

I have a laptop and desktop that marginally work (WindowsXP), but I'm
through with them and want to sell/donate them to the local PC store for
spare parts. I want to wipe everything off both drives (on the desktop)
and the laptop's :C drive, leaving no operating system or user data.

How do I do this, SIMPLY? Both systems seem to not be able to boot from a
removable drive, but probably can boot from a CD. Attempts to reinstall
Windows(XP) won't complete because it says the operating system on the
drive is newer than on the install disk. Any other attempts with the DOS
box or disk management says the disk is in use and can't be formatted.

Alternately, should I just get out the power drill and perforate the disk
drives, and dump the whole think in the dumpster?

I have used Active Kill Disk (http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm)
available as bootable ISO image to burn to CD.

 

[Mark Adams]

I have a laptop and desktop that marginally work (WindowsXP), but I'm
through with them and want to sell/donate them to the local PC store for
spare parts. I want to wipe everything off both drives (on the desktop) and
the laptop's :C drive, leaving no operating system or user data.

How do I do this, SIMPLY? Both systems seem to not be able to boot from a
removable drive, but probably can boot from a CD. Attempts to reinstall
Windows(XP) won't complete because it says the operating system on the drive
is newer than on the install disk. Any other attempts with the DOS box or
disk management says the disk is in use and can't be formatted.

The reason you are getting that message is because you are trying to
reinstall Windows from within the running operating system. You can't do
that. You must set the BIOS to boot from CD, then do the reinstall from the
disk.

You can't format the C: drive from within Windows either, that would be like
the OS commiting suicide-- it can't. Boot to the XP CD and enter Recovery
Console and use the Format C: command to format the drive.

 

[Peter Foldes]

Abby

Set the Bios to boot from the CD. Then put in the XP CD into the computer and shut
down with it in the drive. Open the computer with the XP CD in the drive and then do
your thing. It will work this way and only this way.

Another thing that you can do is use Fdisk which is the method I prefer for all
reformats. It wipes the HD clean and also removes all partitions and formats the
drive completely

--
Peter

Please Reply to Newsgroup for the benefit of others
Requests for assistance by email can not and will not be acknowledged.
http://www.microsoft.com/protect

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]]

I have a laptop and desktop that marginally work (WindowsXP), but I'm

through with them and want to sell/donate them to the local PC store for
spare parts. I want to wipe everything off both drives (on the desktop) and
the laptop's :C drive, leaving no operating system or user data.

How do I do this, SIMPLY? Both systems seem to not be able to boot from a
removable drive, but probably can boot from a CD. Attempts to reinstall
Windows(XP) won't complete because it says the operating system on the drive
is newer than on the install disk. Any other attempts with the DOS box or
disk management says the disk is in use and can't be formatted.

Alternately, should I just get out the power drill and perforate the disk
drives, and dump the whole think in the dumpster?

You should securely wipe them with a free program like DBAN. The
suggestions given to you would easily allow someone who knows
something about computers to restore the system to a bootable state
and get at whatever was there.

http://www.dban.org/download

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

 

[pjp]

I have a laptop and desktop that marginally work (WindowsXP), but I'm
through with them and want to sell/donate them to the local PC store for
spare parts. I want to wipe everything off both drives (on the desktop)
and the laptop's :C drive, leaving no operating system or user data.

How do I do this, SIMPLY? Both systems seem to not be able to boot from a
removable drive, but probably can boot from a CD. Attempts to reinstall
Windows(XP) won't complete because it says the operating system on the
drive is newer than on the install disk. Any other attempts with the DOS
box or disk management says the disk is in use and can't be formatted.

Alternately, should I just get out the power drill and perforate the disk
drives, and dump the whole think in the dumpster?

Boot with whatever means you can (e.g. usb flashdrive or cd/dvd) with an
Operating System on it. Easiest seems to be some Linux Live CD's. That
should give you access to the "not beiong used" hard disks at which point
using the OS's hard disk management facility simply delete the partitions on
the hard disks and if you want, recreate and reformat them (though XP's
install disk can/will also do this).

 

[Don Phillipson]

I want to wipe everything off both drives (on the desktop) and
the laptop's :C drive, leaving no operating system or user data.
How do I do this, SIMPLY?

Some drive makers e.g. Western Digital distribute utilities to
overwrite every byte of a drive with a null term. This will wipe
both OS and user data without impairing reuse of the drive.

 

[Mark Adams]

Some drive makers e.g. Western Digital distribute utilities to
overwrite every byte of a drive with a null term. This will wipe
both OS and user data without impairing reuse of the drive.

--
Don Phillipson
Carlsbad Springs
(Ottawa, Canada)


.

I agree. How can ANY data survive if the entire drive is copied to zeros?
It's the perfect vacuum.