I am building new computer for the first time and I bought everything new except for some parts that I am going to use from my old computer, namely my hard drive, floppy drive, cd rw drive. I read from other posts that taking an old hardrive that already has an os would have problems with the new hardware so I want to clean the hard drive so that I can install a new os when I finish building the computer. what I would like to know is how do I clean the hard drive. thanks.

Shiroi Tora >^-^< :)

The most complete way is to zero fill the drive... this involves writing random ones and zeros to the drive which erases all the data on it. You can download and run a utility from the hard drive maker to do this or you can use another utility like this one at PCWorld Downloads... (http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file_description/0,fid,22920,00.asp)

You will, of course, lose all data on the drive, so back up what you want to save first. Also, when you get it installed in the new machine you will need to partition and format it...

And Welcome to http://www.pcguide.com/ubb/pcgubb.gif

Trying to run a new computer with an OS configured for another computer can be tricky and often not worth the effort.

The best strategy is to remove the old operating system from the hard drive. The easiest was to do that is to simply reformat the drive, and I would recommend that unless you have data on the drive that you need to save.

To reformat the hard drive, boot the computer using a floppy boot disk like a Windows 98 StartUp disk. When you finish booting you will be at the a:> prompt. Type 'format C: /s' then <enter> and the C: drive will be reformatted. The '/s' option will place system files on the hard drive.

You can also use the harddrive manufacturer's installation software (on floppy) to reformat the drive. Sometimes this software will allow you to "zero out" the drive (write zeros to the whole drive) in order to remove every last bit of data (to prevent recovery).

You might also want to repartition the drive (to divide the drive into two or more drives (like C: and D:).

Let us know what size drive you are using, which manufacturer and what you use your computer for and we will recommend how to partition the drive.

Zero filling (or zeroing out) a drive is the most thorough method to wiping a drive, however, it is really only necessary if you have sensitive information that you don’t need and don’t want anyone else to have a chance to recover and see. For most home uses, a simple format or even quick format (“format /q” at the command prompt) is adequate.

If you have a lot of data on the drive that you need, and can’t back it all up, you can use the deltree command to delete the windows folder, and leave the rest of the drive intact. However, everything on the desktop, and in My Documents will be cleared when windows is reinstalled, so you’ll have to move that stuff to a different folder on the drive. You’ll also have to manually delete all your program folders and reinstall them. This approach can get a bit messy, so ask for details on how to make it work.

If you have any questions about any procedures, feel free to ask.

Zero filling also returns the drive to a fairly pristine condition, so it may make it less likely to cause problems down the line, especially if there are any nasties hiding on the drive somewhere....

Beta Geek:

Deltree if definitely cool. Thanks for sharing that. I've been looking for a way to just delete the Windows folder easily.

Thanks for the advice guys. I have been a previous situation where I used the old OS system discs to delete the old windows and reinstall them without deleting the important programs, but like you said Beta Geek, it can get messy, heh heh. I think just reformating the drive will be sufficient enough for me so thanks, although I don't know how to make a floppy boot disk, help anyone. thanks

ShiroiTora >^-^<

If you have Win98, you can use it to make a boot disk from Add/Remove Programs in the third tab. If not you can download the files needed and instructions from Bootdisk.com.... (http://www.bootdisk.com/)

Thanks budfred, you guys have been big help, I will let you guys know how it goes and if I have any other guestions, thanks.

ShiroiTora >^-^<

The relevance of "zero-filling" relates to two main areas.

(1) It allows for areas OUTSIDE the partitions themselves to be "zeroed". Thus the MBR - (INCLUDING THE PARTITION TABLES), disk overlays, boot sector viruses, other partition boot records and areas of unallocated space are all "zeroed".

(2) It allows for file slack and other unused space to be "zeroed" within the partitions as well as the files themselves. Since file slack can contain the ghosts of previously deleted data, zeroing out these areas is mainly to ensure, as much as possible, that this data cannot be retrieved.

If "shredding" ones data is not a concern and there have been no problems in booting to the drive previously a simple format (or simply deleting the files on the partition) is quite ample.

If "shredding" ones data is not a concern and there have been problems with the boot processes, it is quite ample to just obliterate the MBR (including the partition tables) using utilities such as wipeout, which is much quicker and easier - particularly on large HDDs. When this has been done, the drive will "think" it is a completely new one. ;)

Wipeout-type utilities also can correct a problem sometimes encountered when reinstalling WinXP onto previously formatted partitions when the old drive letter of that partition is maintained due to the details being hard-encoded onto the HDD.

To be pedantic, "zeroing" of course doesn't actually write zeros but instead writes patterns to the drive.