What software is there that will COMPLETELY ERASE a hard-drive?

[Aztech]

Originally posted by: malak
Why not just fdisk?

Yeah? Or even just format?

 

[corkyg]

Hitachi/IBM Drive Fitness Test has a utility for erasing a hard drive. It's a free download - works for me on a bootable floppy or CDR.

DFT

 

[nageov3t]

Originally posted by: PlasticJesus

Originally posted by: loki8481
professional version of kill disk + Gutmann's algorithm.

the free version of killdisk will probably do what you need it to do, though. only downside is that it can easily take several hours.

Several hours? How many is several?

it's been awhile since I've had to use it, but I remember it taking somewhere in the neighborhood of 6-8 hours for an 80 gig ide drive.

 

[PlasticJesus]

My question was meant to be rhetorical, but given your answer I guess it was actually a valid question.

These programs certainly aren't designed for the impatient.

 

[bradley]

Eraserd is a great program. It has a DOS executable, small enough to fit on a floppy. and best of all it's free.

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/default.php