Best way to wipe a laptop hard-drive

[sgopal2]

Hi all,

I borrowed a Win2K Pro laptop from a friend and now I have to give it back. It has some sensitive info on it that I'd like to delete (old Microsoft Money files, word documents, etc) that I know will still be around if I just delete everything.

I thought format might be an option as well, but I don't think I can just type "format c:" from the command prompt. (I remember trying this once a long time ago on an another computer and it wouldn't work).

Is there another program out there or command I can use to completely wipe the hard drive? Isn't there something out there that will let me just write a bunch of zeros and 1s onto the hard drive a few times, so that anything on there can't be recovered?? The guy I'm giving it back to is pretty knowledgeable about computers and will probably try to see what was on it before.

 

[tyee]

heres a debug script. You have to boot to a command promt with a boot floopy then run this script.
-F 220 L1000 0 (ENTER)
-A CS: 100 (ENTER)
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 (ENTER)
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 (ENTER)
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 (ENTER)
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 (ENTER) <---"80" for hd1, "81" for hd2 >
xxxx:010C INT 13 (ENTER)
xxxx:010E INT 20 (ENTER)
xxxx:0110 (ENTER) <-------BLANK LINE "VERY IMPORTANT" >
-G (ENTER)
Program terminated normally
- (CTRL)-(ALT)-(DEL) to reboot system

 

[corkyg]

If you are not into scripts - it is available in Norton System Works 2002 under System NMaintenance and "Wipe Info." A DoD level wipe repeats the process three times.

 

[sgopal2]

Can I run the script above or even the Norton program even though everything is on drive C???

Since this is a laptop, I don't have two separate drives, will that matter?

 

[Cyberian]

I am very surprised that anyone here still knows/uses 'debug'!
Do you still remember 'edlin'? - I think I have forgotten 95% of it.


<< heres a debug script. You have to boot to a command promt with a boot floopy then run this script.
-F 220 L1000 0 (ENTER)
-A CS: 100 (ENTER)
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301 (ENTER)
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200 (ENTER)
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1 (ENTER)
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80 (ENTER) <---"80" for hd1, "81" for hd2 >
xxxx:010C INT 13 (ENTER)
xxxx:010E INT 20 (ENTER)
xxxx:0110 (ENTER) <-------BLANK LINE "VERY IMPORTANT" >
-G (ENTER)
Program terminated normally
- (CTRL)-(ALT)-(DEL) to reboot system >>

 

[tyee]

I dont use debug very often, Only when I know that the box I'm working on has been infected with an virus. I've honestly never used Edlin before lol.







<< I am very surprised that anyone here still knows/uses 'debug'!
Do you still remember 'edlin'? - I think I have forgotten 95% of it.[ >>

 

[kduncan5]

Necro File searches your HD for deleted info & overwrites the data with algorithms. If you choose to download it, I'd do as the author suggests & download the version with the installer. -kd5-

 

[DaiShan]

<< A DoD level wipe repeats the process three times. >>

I think it is 7, but that is really excessive, is your friend going to pay for a data retrieval specialist to come in and get recover your old files for him? if not I would suggest just reformatting, do this by first deleting the primary dos partition in fdisk, then create a primary dos partition, the reboot, and install windows (don't know if this is the exact sequence for 2k, if it is like xp you will be able to do it during the install)

 

[manly]

You want Eraser.

 

[Nothinman]

Deleting or formatting is fine, because if anyone really wants the data they cant get it no matter how you get rid of it, minus melting the platters.