Hard Drive Wipe

Pauley

Im getting a new comp. im gonna give this one away. I was gonna use a program like BC Wipe or Eraser to do it, but it takes the operating system with it. Ive got a reinstallation disk, but is it a s simple as using the wiper and then just sticking the reinstallation disk in and thats it? IM guessing its more complicated.

BlackHawk

My HDD manufactures have program that you can download that do low level formats, which is what you want to do. After that, run the restore disk but don't finish the installation by entering the serial key and other info.

Pauley

I just dont wanna wipe it with one of these progs, and find out that when the operating system goes, and I put the installation disk in its more complicated than following the onscreen instructions.

MediaMan

Get a cloth and some windex. Wipes great. No steaks.


j/k


The disk wipe programs will perform one of many "wipe" settings. These do not really wipe, per say, but write data over top of the old data thus rendering the original data unreadable.

When you reboot the computer you can then reformat and repartiton per normal.

You may also want to consider the low level format route which does much the same thing.

MERRICK

Question(s),

Getting a used HD and wanting to make sure it's totally free of a virus, how many low level format runs do you suggest?

And if giving someone a used HD but you want to insure that the data is completely unretrievable how many low level formats should you do?

I guess both are the same question in a way.

I heard that overwriting a drive 7 times is the official NSA recommendation (?)

Pauley

So... I wipe the drive, and then stick the windows reinstalltion disk in the drive? follow the onscreen instructions and thats it?

Tex

All you need to do is boot from the cd and do a normal "full" format unless your a spy or something. no "normal" user or most very skilled users either can recover data from a full format performed on the install. Not a quick but a FULL format.

Yes the goverment can use their immense resources to recover faint magnetic traces etc... If your that worried then pay a hundred bucks and get a new drive. But for 99.999999994 percent of the time a simple FULL format on the install cd works fine

Tex

Pauley

How do i know if my Windows XP Home Edition cd-rom is bootable or not?

Tex

If its a legit copy from MS its bootable. They all are. If its a copy then just try and boot from it?

Tex

Pauley

Its the original disk that I got with the comp.

Straight_Man

MERRICK wrote:

Question(s),

Getting a used HD and wanting to make sure it's totally free of a virus, how many low level format runs do you suggest?

And if giving someone a used HD but you want to insure that the data is completely unretrievable how many low level formats should you do?

I guess both are the same question in a way.

I heard that overwriting a drive 7 times is the official NSA recommendation (?)

These days, try 15 times for a simple overwrite, 8-10 full low levels, to make it so underlying layers cannot possibly be read.

As fasr as virals, they typically cannot recover from even ONE full low level format (NOT a quick form of this, rather a full form that zeros ALL sectors on HD).

Tex

You never ever need to low-level to remove a virus.

Tex

MERRICK

Thanks for the info