OSNN Forum » Hardware Support & Discussion » General Hardware » Wipe out hard drive
Reply
Old April 10th, 2003 Top | #1
 
hndlthis's Avatar
Can you handle this?
Joined: January 2003
Location: Seattle, WA
Posts: 117
Reputation: 0
Power: 115
Question Wipe out hard drive
I am getting rid of my old lap top and I need to wipe EVERYTHING off the hard drive, zero it out, null everything on the hard drive, or whatever. It has a lot of personal information on it and I can't have any of that be passed on. How could I wipe everything off the hard drive?

Lap top: Windows 2000 OS, IBM ThinkPad
hndlthis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 10th, 2003 Top | #2
 
daddyo's Avatar
OSNN Addict
Joined: December 2001
Posts: 151
Reputation: 10
Power: 128
Default
Symantec Wipe Info does the job for me. It's part of Norton Systemworks. There may be a few free utilities on the net. Just do a google search and you should be able to find something.
daddyo is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 11th, 2003 Top | #3
 
kreation's Avatar
OSNN Junior Addict
Joined: February 2003
Posts: 30
Reputation: 0
Power: 114
Default
Just do a low level format this will fill the drive with zero's and wipe everything.

you should be able to find a utility for this from the hardrive manufacturers website.
kreation is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 11th, 2003 Top | #4
 
sboulema's Avatar
OSNN Veteran Addict
Joined: June 2002
Location: Amstelveen, The Netherlands
Posts: 2,846
Reputation: 120
Power: 150
Default
just boot to dos and fdisk it
sboulema is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 11th, 2003 Top | #5
 
kreation's Avatar
OSNN Junior Addict
Joined: February 2003
Posts: 30
Reputation: 0
Power: 114
Default
Contrary to most people's belief, formatting a drive does NOT erase the data that is stored within. It only tells the operating system that the existing data on the drive is available to be overwritten with new data
kreation is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 11th, 2003 Top | #6
 
Taurus's Avatar
hardware monkey
Joined: May 2002
Location: Sacramento, CA
Posts: 3,206
Reputation: 90
Power: 155
Default
Originally posted by sboulema
just boot to dos and fdisk it
this won't actually fll the hd with "0"s. fdisk only clears the TOC and cluster headers (?). and when you make a partition, it checks the integrity of the drive, ie. a scandisk.

for a true wipe (merely for extreme security's sake, no other reason) get a utility like ibm's DFT. that should work.

but if you're not worried about the government confiscating your laptop, then just repartition and reformat the drive. that's plenty.
Taurus is offline   Reply With Quote
Old April 11th, 2003 Top | #7
kitct
 
kitct's Avatar
Unregistered
Posts: n/a

Default
Download free data or hdd erasers here:

http://www.webattack.com/freeware/se.../fwerase.shtml
  Reply With Quote

Reply

Bookmarks

« Previous Thread | Next Thread »
Thread Tools

Posting Rules

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Need Software to Wipe Hard Drive Clean XpGuy1 Windows Desktop Systems 10 February 18th, 2010 4:08pm
Wipe DVD firmware? lancer General Hardware 2 June 22nd, 2006 3:09am
hard drive and dvd+rw drive issues - need help heyjude85023 General Hardware 2 January 4th, 2006 1:25pm
Western Digital hard drive boot sector messed up, how to make drive bootable again?!! ThePunkerGuy General Hardware 9 May 25th, 2003 2:52pm
complete HD wipe RobbieSan Windows Desktop Systems 7 October 19th, 2002 3:58pm

Privacy Statement - Top