How to wipe HDDs from Windows XP?

[Carson Dyle]

Right now I don't have a computer setup at home that will allow me to conveniently run DBAN to wipe a bunch of old hard drives. I have my current desktop PC, a 24x7 headless file server, and my previous Windowx XP desktop PC, which is also headless. I can use the old PC to wipe the drives, but I can only use it through remote desktop.

I don't need DoD level wiping for hard drives that held nothing more than some Seinfeld episodes and my collection of lesbian midget porn. What's a decent Windows based disk wiping utility that will give me some reasonable degree of security? I'd prefer to be able to wipe multiple drives at once. I've tried HD Tune Pro, but it only permits one drive at a time to be done.

 

[razel]

Multiple drives at once? Just do a format from Windows and uncheck 'quick format'. After which use diskpart to clean the beginning and ends of the disk. Removes the MBR, partition tables.

 

[BFG10K]

Just do a format from Windows and uncheck 'quick format'.

Not on XP; the XP version doesn't zero data when you do a full format, its just checks each sector for errors.

 

[razel]

Yikes. diskpart is still in XP. Do the 'clean all' command instead. At least you don't have to launch it again later. I suppose you can launch different command windows to do multiple drives. Let us know if it does.

 

[Z15CAM]

Boot DOS using a WinME Boot disk from a Floppy, Optical or USB and run a Win 3.1 app named "Delpart.EXE". This will Delete all Partitions on the HDD's including NTFS. Fast and Simple, other wise, use XP's CMD Diskpart as mentioned.

Delpart.EXE DL: http://www.juliatexas.com/delpart/delpart.htm

Delpart.EXE is only 32-Bit, I do not believe a 64-Bit version is available, and should would under CMD XP, Win7 and 8 32-Bit.

Of course upon preparing the HDD's for loading you will have to rebuild the Partitions.

 

[Carson Dyle]

I tried HD Tunes Pro, but I notice that after I've run it once on a drive under Windows, I can't run it again. Seems that it requires the disk to be initialized in Windows. At least, that's what it looks like.

After playing with it a bit, I keep coming back around to the notion that it can't be done properly from Windows. I think I'll go back to running DBAN, even if it means digging out an old monitor and keyboard to hook up to the old machine.

 

[mikeymikec]

Delete all partitions, install TrueCrypt, create an encrypted container partition and format the whole drive?

Bit expensive CPU usage wise. Unless you do AES only with a CPU that has AES acceleration, I guess.