I have my old Windows 98 machine I'd like to give to my daughter, but the thing crashed and only opens in safe mode now. I want to wipe the hard drive clean and start over with XP and all the updated programs.
Can I simply go into the add/delete programs area and start deleting everything? Or is there a better way to ensure it's all removed?
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Good question. I was thinking about this very thing recently except I don't have any software I want to add or anything like that. I just want to know how to completely erase every bit of data on a HD. So that any/all information is irretrievable.
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Install windows again and there is an option when you are installing whether you want to do a fresh install, re-install (over the old one), etc, etc. Just do a fresh install and there is also the option to format the drive, do that and it will be clean as a whistle (all your Pr0n will be gone)
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Quote:
Originally Posted by SRT Mike
Install windows again and there is an option when you are installing whether you want to do a fresh install, re-install (over the old one), etc, etc. Just do a fresh install and there is also the option to format the drive, do that and it will be clean as a whistle (all your Pr0n will be gone)
Thanks Mike.
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
If you want to nuke everything...
boot to a Dos bootable floppy (must contain fdisk.exe)
run FDISK and delete all the partitions on the drive
exit from FDISK
type in FDISK /MBR this will kill the master boot record.
Reboot.
All data is now toast. Now, this info could still be mostly recovered by gov't agencies and what not. If you want to *really* nuke it, I'll hook you up with some utilities.
If you install XP, make sure you go ahead and upgrade to an NTFS scheme.
MM
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Depends on how clean you want it...
For the question asked, just re-install like was mentioned. For those that want to get rid of those pipe-bomb plans for your stint as Una-bomber II, you need to go a lot further.
The first step is to re-write over every single bit on the drive. "erasing" files or "formatting" will still leave enough data that it can be recovered by a pro. Believe it or not, its my understanding that the NSA can retrieve data that has been written over one or two times even. It has something to do with the physical media and there is some sort of "memory" to it.
So, use a utility to "wipe" the disk. These utilities re-write data over the existing space to at least make the old stuff unrecoverable under normal circumstances. If you were the gunman on the grassy nole, then do what makara said and use salt-water, as in go drop it overboard in the ocean.
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Nightstalker
Use a Program called DISK WIPE.
After seven passes not even the FBI could recover the data from it.
I was under the impression that IRIX systems could completly erase data on the first pass because SGIs were originally made for government use. Was my UNIX professer blowing smoke out his ass?
Re: What\'s the easiest way to wipe out a hard drive?
