Deleting a hard drive

[koozey]

Hi there

I was just wondering if there is any software which basically wipes your hard drive completely of all previous formats, installations and previous activity. The reason being that my friend has given me his old one and I want to make it, I suppose the same as brand new. I know how to format, but that doesnt really rid evrything, Im looking for something that can basically make the hard drive think it has never been used before when I install xp. Can anyone help me?

Yours sincerely

Kooz

 

[waylman]

if you happen to have the current maximumPC they mention an app that does just this. The mag is at home right now though. You can also download an app that will do a low level format of your HD. Check with the manufacturer's website.

 

[koozey]

right ok, so this software completely doe sthe job? does anyone know what it is called?

 

[Harvey]

It depends on what you mean by "getting rid of everything." If you intend to use the same format (FAT32, NTFS, etc.), and security is not an issue, a complete format will be fine. For a little extra security, once your new setup is installed, defragmenting the disk will pretty much make hash of whatever fragments are left.

If you are going from Win 98 to Win XP, and you intend to change formats from FAT32 to NTFS, you can start by removing any FAT 32 partitions using a Win 98 version of FDISK. Then, Win XP will format the drive as NTFS as part of the installation process. You can cut to the chase with software such as Partion Magic. That will remove, convert, and resize existing partions, as well as removing them in any format.

If you want strong security, you can do a low level format. One way to do this is with the manufacturer's own diagnostic software, which you can probably download from their site. Another would be to use a program like WIPEFILE, part or Norton Untilities. System Works, etc., that writes all 0's to the whole disk. You can even program it to overwrite them multiple times down to government security levels.

 

[koozey]

what i wanna do is basically delete evrything that has ever been on that hard drive. Formatting does not delete everything, I basically want to rid all files and structures and just install a fresh copy of xp on it. Is that possible? It is NTFS at the mo and xp should do that for me onve the disk is wiped no?

 

[waylman]

low level formatting deletes everything. go to your HD's manufacturer website and download their low level format utility..

 

[koozey]

is there not any software which i can burn to cd then just use on startup? I tried the maxtor website and there isnt one, and the norton approach seems complicated or is it? Do i really just select the files and it completely removes them? Then after do I just reinstall windows? Surely not, there must be some kind of software to make this easy

 

[koozey]

no one knows of one?

 

[waylman]

http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/powermax.htm

 

[koozey]

sorry man, but someone has just suggested I use max blast for my hd. Do you know which one for defo?

 

[Bootprint]

dban will wipe a disk and write 0s to all locations.