Help wiping out hard drive

[mlweber]

I have a custom built desktop with an OEM version of Windows XP Home. I am selling the desktop but I want to wipe everything off of the hard drive including windows so that the new user will install the windows. I don't want any of my personal info on the hard drive when I get rid of it. How can I go about doing this? I tried to format C: in the command prompt but it says the drive is attatched. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks.

 

[MadModMike]

I have a custom built desktop with an OEM version of Windows XP Home. I am selling the desktop but I want to wipe everything off of the hard drive including windows so that the new user will install the windows. I don't want any of my personal info on the hard drive when I get rid of it. How can I go about doing this? I tried to format C: in the command prompt but it says the drive is attatched. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks.

The best way I find is to throw that drive into another computer, go into Disk Management, and do Full Format about 3-4 times, that way it 0's out most of the information and reduces heavily the chance of somebody getting your information back. I know there are 3rd party programs as well as DoS Command prompts, but I find the idea I said to be the easiest for me.

~~Mad Mod Mike, fixin' the world 1 rig at a time

 

[stillerfan]

Killdisk...

 

[mlweber]

I only have this one computer that I want to wipe out so it doesn't work very well for me to hook the hard drive up to a diff computer. Any other ideas??

 

[ZOldDude]

I have a custom built desktop with an OEM version of Windows XP Home. I am selling the desktop but I want to wipe everything off of the hard drive including windows so that the new user will install the windows. I don't want any of my personal info on the hard drive when I get rid of it. How can I go about doing this? I tried to format C: in the command prompt but it says the drive is attatched. Any help would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks.

Reformating will NOT get rid of the information on a HD.

Google and d/l Boot-N-Nuke (free) as it will over write everything on the HD as well as the ZERO track/sectors that even no other program from the HD makers (that I know of) will do.
Some crafty virus use this track to avoid deleation.

I doubt that the FBI/NSA will be able to recover anything after this.

Z

 

[ms2005]

Partion Magic has a utility to overwrite the disk then format. Works as a DOS boot with 2 froppies.

 

[roncpem]

i use a program called wipe drive, works well.

 

[MrsD]

Another perv that doesnt want anyone finding his child porn.... :roll:

No really, a format should be fine, unless of course theres something implicating you in a crime that you dont want found. Otherwise, I highly doubt the next owner is going to pay out the wazooo to have the drive analyzed by an expert in data recovery just to see what was on the drive, unless theres an underlying reason.

 

[nobly]

If you want to be careful, you need to either zero out the drive or write random bytes to it. Format is NOT enough. There are software recovery systems that you can use to pull stuff off a formatted drive. Tax documents, personal documents, etc can be accessed.

You can try downloading the HDD manufacturer's utilities - they typically have a format option to zero out the drive. (some do do it, and some don't, so some research would be a good double check.).

Good strong magnet would probably do the trick too...

 

[fluxpunk]

killdisk owns as mentioned before

 

[nugundam93]

try the debug script. you'd need to get to a dos prompt first and not the winXP recovery console.

A:>debug <enter>
-F 200 L1000 0 <enter>
-A CS:100 <enter>
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 <enter>
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 <enter>
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 <enter>
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 <enter>

(80 for hd 0 or 81 for hd 1 )

xxxx:010C INT 13 <enter>
xxxx:010E INT 20 <enter>
xxxx:0110 <enter>
-g <enter>
Program terminated normally
-q<enter>

 

[PCcashCow]

try the debug script. you'd need to get to a dos prompt first and not the winXP recovery console.

A:>debug <enter>
-F 200 L1000 0 <enter>
-A CS:100 <enter>
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 <enter>
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 <enter>
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 <enter>
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 <enter>

(80 for hd 0 or 81 for hd 1 )

xxxx:010C INT 13 <enter>
xxxx:010E INT 20 <enter>
xxxx:0110 <enter>
-g <enter>
Program terminated normally
-q<enter>

Done this before, works well. The manufactuers utility disks works just as well, Sets to Zero everytime.

 

[chooky78]

Hi

There's a free program called "Eraser" which is up to version 5.7 (5.8 Beta) which basically lets you "permanently" delete almost anything of your choice (Hard Disk, Floppy Disk, Free Drive Space, Re-writable CD's & DVD's, etc.

It also lets you completely delete a Hard Drive on boot-up, using Darik's Boot and Nuke, as mentioned earlier in the forum.

Go to "http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/" to learn more about it and download it.

Mark