System Recovery disks and HDD reformating.

[gradius]

I have two questions. Thanks in advance.

1) What program do you reccomend for making system recovery disks. Im not looking for backup but for something that lets you create a disk and in case your system failed just slide it in and go back to normal.

2) How do i do a TOTAL cleansweep of my hard drive. As in getting it back to factory fresh state instead of reformatting.

 

[The_Prophecy]

1. I believe you are thinking of Norton Ghost. Version 10 is the latest one out.

2. There are 2 ways you could do this.
a. Your hard drive's manufacturer might have a utility to perform a low level format. Find this program.
b. Use a thrid party application like Webroot's Window Washer. It contains a feature that allows you to create a bootable floppy to wipe your hard drive, sector by sector.

 

[INeedCache]

You could go to www.ultimatebootcd.com and download the file to make a bootable cd which contains the programs you need to do what you want to do. This collection of software is free. Of course, as The_Prophecy mentioned, there is also Norton Ghost, which is not on this cd, that you may be able to get a demo or free copy of to clone as well. This is a nice collection that comes in handy nonetheless.