How to completely wipe a hard drive?

[jkosydor]

I was wondering if anyone knew any links to some free software that would completely wipe a hard drive of 100% everything(including the operating system), like it was brand new and out of the box. Thanks!

 

[DJ-CHRIS]

Windows XP CD

 

[Alex81388]

A Win98 Startup disk would do the trick as well.

Or a huge Magnet.

 

[idiotec]

Any boot floppy with format on it will work. There are some good custom boot disks you can download that are nice with format, fdisk etc.

But also, as mentioned, if you have an XP CD, it has the utility right on it.

 

[Osiris]

Here are some utlilities:

http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/low-level-format.html

 

[wongb18c]

I prefer the huge magnet resolve......
Just use 2000/xp boot from disc.

 

[jkosydor]

I do have an XP disk, but are you sure it will erase EVERYTHING. I have heard a lot that formatting a hard drive doesn't really erase everything for good. Thanks.

 

[EricB]

http://downloads.maxtor.com/_files/maxtor/en_us/downloads/powermax.exe

insert a floppy after you download this. it will install the program and it will do a low level (full) format

 

[switch]

It will erase everything, to the point that a clean install of an OS will only show the files you put on from that day on...

If you are worried about it not being completely wiped clean, you will need to run a good hard drive utility that will low-level format the drive. This essentially re-writes the platters over with a series of ones and zeros, so that it is nothing can be recognized as actual data. (as mentioned above)

If that does not ease your mind, physically destroy the hard drive. Smash it into hundreds of pieces, then burn the remains.

I doubt you are trying to be that discreet with the data on that drive though,..right?

 

[psydesign]

sounds like a newbie hacker hehehehehe