Free Utility - Format Hard Drive??

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

Are there any good free utilities to overwrite hard drives to erase data?

 

[woodie1]

The manufacturer of your hard drive should have a utility to do that. Go to their site and check what is available.

 

[MikeyIs4Dcats]

They have one to just format it, but that doesn't prevent someone from digging into the data...looking for something to overwrite it...

 

[Fokks]

Here's a free one

http://dban.sourceforge.net/


'Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

Features
Free.
Fast. Rapid deployment in emergency situations.
Easy. Start the computer with DBAN and press the ENTER key.
Safe. Irrecoverable data destruction. Prevents most forensic data recovery techniques."

 

[psy44]

Can't you just use fdisk? I wouldn't use it if you're going to give the HD to someone, or sell it.

 

[woodie1]

Originally posted by: MikeyIs4Dcats
They have one to just format it, but that doesn't prevent someone from digging into the data...looking for something to overwrite it...

All the manufacterers I know of have a low level format utility and one that writes zeros to the drive.

 

[EeyoreX]

Often hard disk manufacturers include some low-level format utility to write zero's all across the drive, to return it to "factory condition". I know Western Difgital includes such a utility. Not sure about the rest. I could check Maxtor, as I have a Maxtor floppy around somewhere.

\Dan

 

[DannyBoy]

I would love to find out why some people want to format their drives to a point where forensic data recovery techniques cant be used

Are we amongst criminals here or sumthin?

 

[kdb003]

Originally posted by: MrFiTTy
I would love to find out why some people want to format their drives to a point where forensic data recovery techniques cant be used

Are we amongst criminals here or sumthin?

Umm... I don't know about a lot of people have lots of sensitive data(ie credit card #s, passwords to various things) stored on their computer, which you don't want to give to other people. I would not recommend selling your drive because it just isnt worth the risk.

 

[oldfart]

KillDisk is free, works very well. The mfgrs utilities will only work on their drives. This will work on any drive.

 

[saber800]

KillDisk - Link

A great program to wipe your hard disk. It creates a bootable floppy with the program on it. Completely wipes info on your disk. You can also do multiple passes (freeware version, you have to reboot to do another pass).


Quote from Web Site:

"Active@ KillDisk - Hard Drive Eraser is powerful and compact DOS software that allows you to destroy all data on hard and floppy drives completely, excluding any possibility of future recovery of deleted files and folders. It's a hard drive eraser utility.

If you use FDISK, FORMAT utilities, or DELETE standard operating system command for data removal, there is always a chance to recover deleted data and use against owner's will. We highly recommend you to run this FREE utility for the hard and floppy drives you want to dispose of, recycle, re-use, sell or donate to somebody.

Active@ KillDisk conforms to US Department of Defense clearing and sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M. You can be sure that once you clean up with Active@ KillDisk, sensitive information is purged out forever."