writing to zeroes?

[BrokenPen]

Hi, I have a IBM 120GXP 120GB HDD, and I want to write all zeroes to it, but i'm not sure how. It didn't come with any software, and I tried the WIPE program that IBM had on their website, but it didn't do the entire drive, just one section of it. I was wondering if anyone knows of any other programs I could use? I tried to see if my old Wester Digital diagnostic tools disk would by chance work, but no luck....

Thanks in advance,
Matthew

 

[cjohnson]

If you're using a UNIX you could use dd

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda

should fill /dev/hda (master drive on the primary ide controller) with zero's. If you aren't using UNIX and want to do that, you could probably get one of those tiny one-floppy-disk linux distributions and boot off that or something (see linux.org). Hope that helps.

 

[SemperFi]

IBM has on the site a diagnostic program that will test your drive for errors. The utility is in that program.

Semper Fi

 

[eplebnista]

Drive Fitness Test

Low-level format utility (use DFT Utility option: Erase Disk)

 

[corkyg]

DFT does it - so does ZTree, Xtree Gold, and so does Norton System Works, NU, System Maint, Wipe Info.