How to wipe a hard drive

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ZombieBunny

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Feb 2, 2014
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I have a new computer i just built and I want to install a hard drive from my other computer as a secondary hard drive but im not sure if it has a virus and my other computer no longer works how can i wipe the hard drive without worrying about giving my new computer a virus
 
Solution
drtweak
Well 1) A virus usually needs to start first. A lot of times they get onto the Boot Sector, or a DLL Driver, or get tossed in the Startup Programs. If you are slaving one of these drives is very unlikely you will get anyting espically if you don't even open any files. You can just plug it in, start windows.

Then Right click on Computer then Click on Manage. Then Click on Storage on the Left and then Disk manager again. Then find your hard drive, Right click and Delete all the partitions. Once they are all gone (The bar will be all Black. No blue, green, or gold is present) then right click on it and Create new simple volume. Then just say how big you want it (Just hit next if you want it to be the whole thing) give it a name and a...
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drtweak

drtweak

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Sep 17, 2012
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Well 1) A virus usually needs to start first. A lot of times they get onto the Boot Sector, or a DLL Driver, or get tossed in the Startup Programs. If you are slaving one of these drives is very unlikely you will get anyting espically if you don't even open any files. You can just plug it in, start windows.

Then Right click on Computer then Click on Manage. Then Click on Storage on the Left and then Disk manager again. Then find your hard drive, Right click and Delete all the partitions. Once they are all gone (The bar will be all Black. No blue, green, or gold is present) then right click on it and Create new simple volume. Then just say how big you want it (Just hit next if you want it to be the whole thing) give it a name and a drive letter. Only need to do a quick format. Not need for a long one and drive compression is up to you. It can save quite a bit of space in the long run.

But if you're paranoid you can use DBAN as USAFRet said.

http://www.dban.org/

Just burn it to a CD or USB and boot from it and do a 1 pass erase. Thats enough to erase everything on it. Only need a 3, 7 or more pass if you're trying to get ride of the hard drive and you want everything off of it so no one else can get it.

I would recommend unplugging all other hard drive i you do this just so that you don't accidently nuke your Data and OS
 
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Solution
Kratos47

Kratos47

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Jan 26, 2014
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Viruses can be dealt with without loading that drive as primary. Install Malware Bytes+Avira Anti virus update them and then run a scan. Delete anything they detect as problematic.

Still if you prefer wiping it off then you can do that when installing windows on the new drive, on windows installation screen you will see that old drive and its partition and you will get the option to format them:
http://www.dimexpro.eu/en/computer-support/windows_7_instaliavimas/Windows7-a7l.jpg
^Somewhat like this.

If windows on the new drive is already installed even then you can try this method and then restart computer instead of going forward with windows installation.
 
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