Wiping hard drive software question

[lakelover]

Is there any decent free software available to wipe the data off a hard drive before I sell or give away the computer?

It's been sitting unused for over 2 years now and I have all the data off it I want. I got a new one because I had what I was told was a power supply problem, and two trips to a computer repair shop didn't fix it. The computer just started shutting down at random times, with no warning. I decided I didn't want to put any more money into it, now it's just taking up space.

 

[tpenfield]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

Windows PC?

Try

FORMAT C:

at the DOS prompt

Mac:

go into disk utilities and repartition the drive.

 

[Fishing Dude too]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

I would remove the drive and scrap the rest

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

I would remove the drive and scrap the rest

That's my thought. And BFH the hard drive. If the PC isn't running, no programs are either. Otherwise, you have to plug it into a working PC to purge it.

Don't rely on format because it doesn't wipe data, just changes the file system. The data is still there if someone wants to take the time to pull it off. Watch more episodes of CSI.

Here is a decent tutorial on hard drive wiping. How To Wipe a Hard Drive

 

[lakelover]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

I thought about the BFH wiping method, I did that once to another very old omputer. The thing is, if it can be repaired & used, my brother has expressed an interest in it. I still would want the data gone however. It works great "when it's running" :laugh: , but what good is it if it's gonna make up its own mind about when. I could always restart it without any problem, so if my bro is inclined to invest in making it work, more power to him.

If I wiped it using data destruction software, and someone could remedy the random shutdown problem, would it be able to be reused and what would it take to get it going again? Or just drop a new hard drive in it?

I can't say I know a lot about this subject, as you see. It is a PC by the way. And thanks for the link, GA.

 

[GA_Boater]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

After it's wiped, you can load a new operating system. The install should tell you the drive needs formatted and will format and install the new OS.

 

[rockyrude]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

I'm thinking with the cost of new drives these days ( I just picked up a 320gb for $50) , I'd put the old one near a big honkin' magnet and pitch it.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

I keep external hard drive enclosures around, just so I can do this, I have software to do low level formats and then I partition and put back into the computer I want to sell and install a new operating system.

Another way, is if you have a CD/DVD drive, download a copy of Linux, set your computer to boot from the CD drive, then use the utilities in Linux to low level format the hard drive and then you can put your windows CD in and boot and reinstall a new operating system, almost all computers made in the last 15 years will boot from the CD drive, if you set it up to do it in the BIOS

 

[CharlieB]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

If the new install does not totally over-write all previously used sectors then those sectors left can be recovered.

PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) used to have a very good overwrite, you could select how many times to overwrite, Feds can't recover anything from it.

Norton Utilities has to be bought, then has a decent wipe feature.

Personally, I think the PGP outstanding. And used to be free, I haven't looked in years so not sure now.

 

[MTboatguy]

Re: Wiping hard drive software question

One of the problems of installing windows again, while windows still resides on the hard drive, it will store the old version of windows as well as all data associated in a file called windows.old, I just did this on a computer I am selling to a guy at work, so I had to boot to CD and then do a low level format, and then install windows again, to get rid of the old data.