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Clean Hard drive ?

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jasno   05-19-2008 at 12:59:56 AM

I am rebuilding my computer this week when my newegg shipment arrives, and I thought this was would be a good time to reformat.

But I was wondering if there was a way to really make sure I wipe every last thing off my hard drive before I reformat?

Also is there any other advice you might have for someone who is about to reformat and start there PC from scratch?

thank for your time, and btw these forum are awesome I have gotten a lot of great advice here when picking out my parts this week :bounce:

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phonicsmonkey   05-19-2008 at 01:47:34 AM
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I always "write zeroes" to the hard drive. This is also known as a low-level format. Just go to your drive manaufacturers web page and download the latest drive diagnostic tools from their support section. This is the easiest way to do things, but there are other programs available if you want to totally clean a drive to government specifications.

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jasno   05-19-2008 at 02:01:58 AM
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well i have reformatted before and then i will immediately download spybot and adaware.. run them and they will find junk in the first 5 minutes of reformat.

so this time i want to just wipe it clean.

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phonicsmonkey   05-19-2008 at 02:13:00 PM
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A low-level format is different from just formatting the drive to use for an operating system. It essentially returns a drive to a like new state. Just go to your drive manufacturers web site and download the proper tools under the support section.

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