HDD needs cleaning

[grimmace23]

Hey there,

I have an old computer that I want to clean out. The main reason we replaced it was because it was outdated and littered with viruses. So I was wondering, how I would be able to wipe hard drive?

Thanks.

[mjc]

Grab Eraser (http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/). With it you can create a Boot 'n' Nuke disk to totally wipe the drive...

Or you can grab the drive manufacturer's utilities and use them to 'zero fill' the drive.

[DragonTU84]

If you are running Windows XP or equivalent, you should be able to easily wipe the drive clean as MJC said, by writing Zeros to the drive. That is the safest and easiest way to ensure that all data on the CD is deleted. There are tons of utilities out there to assist you in Wiping/Erasing the drive.

BTW, what kind of comp. is it? If it is a Gateway (which I have-and have had TOO many problems with! >_< ), you don't need to install anything to wipe it. There is a utility on the DRIVERS CD called GWSCAN which enables you to wipe the drive clean... (one of the FEW good things about Gateway). If it is, I can give you directions on how to do it via the Drivers CD...

There is also a DOWNLOAD utility that enables you to use the same features of GWSCAN if you DON'T have a Gateway:

http://www.castlerain.com/Downloads/details/id=78.html

[DragonTU84]

EDIT: sorry for the double-post, but I found out that you can download GWSCAN and put it on a FLOPPY disk or CD. Directions on how to do so are HERE:

ftp://ftp.gateway.com/pub/hardware_support/drivers/win3.x_and_dos/mass_storage/hard_drives/GWSCAN511.txt

And another download link (from Gateway):

http://support.gateway.com/support/drivers/getFile.asp?id=20507&dscr=GWSCAN%205.11&uid=128628872

You can THEN boot from the floppy or CD, and run the utility from there. Once in the utility, you can choose the option "Write Zeros to drive" to erase the entire drive.

Hope this helps! :)

[grimmace23]

Hey,

Thanks heaps for the replies...

The computer runs on Windows 98 and is a Dell Dimension V333c from '98.

Thats all I can tell you at the moment due to the lack of cooperation from the computer.

Thanks.

[Sylvander]

Do you need to make the previous contents irrecoverable?
If not, why not just repartition and/or reformat it?

The best [FREE] zero-fill program [loads from a bootable floppy (or CD)] that I've come across so far is KILLDISK (http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm).
It gives a really nice display of HDD partition info and allows you to write [one set of] zeros to either the whole HDD, or to any number of chosen partitions.
Because it only writes one set of zeros, it's MUCH quicker [therefore better in my view] than "Darik's Boot and Nuke" [made by Eraser which is REALLY GOOD].
If you really wanted to make the previous contents practically irrecoverable [even by those with special means], then that is when "Darik's Boot and Nuke" is best because it will write multiple patterns of 1's and 0's [slow but thorough].