How do I wipe my hard drive???

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PCNewbie

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I want to entirely wipe my hard drive and reinstall windows. I have Partition Magic and it has a delete option. This deletes the C: partition but is that enough to delete it if a technical person wanted to retrieve data??? I could Fdisk it but that is very complicated for me. How do I do it so that no one here could retrieve any data???
 
I'm using 98SE.

I want to use Partition Magic's Delete and Secure Erase feature then reinstall windows. So is it OK if I do the following:

1. Select Delete and Secure Erase option in Partition Magic 7
2. After deleted insert Windows 98SE boot disk and install Windows from the installation CD.

Will this work???
 
It sounds like you're concerned that someone will be able to retrieve some data off of your hard drive. I'm not a computer genius, but I would use the delete and erase option of partition magic to get rid of the stuff you dont want. Then back up the files that i wanted to keep. (pictures, music,...). Finally i would format the hard drive and reload windows with the installation CD.

To format the hard drive, you'll have to start your computer in MS DOS mode and at the prompt "C:/" type in "Format C"

I think it should look like this: C:/Format C
the C might have to be in quotations.

It may work the way you have it. I don't know. I dont have a lot of experiance with Partition magic or Win 98SE
 
PCNewbie said:
This deletes the C: partition but is that enough to delete it if a technical person wanted to retrieve data??? I could Fdisk it but that is very complicated for me. How do I do it so that no one here could retrieve any data???

Partition Magic with it's sercure erase of partitions

Evidence Eliminator (nuff sed)

Under dos, FORMAT C: /u for an unconditional format
 
Yes but can I not just use the Partition Magic feature instead of "format c" or whatever and then Reinstall windows???

As in:

1. Select Delete and Secure Erase option for the C: drive in Partition Magic 7
2. After deleted insert Windows 98SE boot disk and install Windows from the installation CD.
 
PCNewbie said:
Yes but can I not just use the Partition Magic feature instead of "format c" or whatever and then Reinstall windows???

What is stopping you from using the PM's Sercure Erase Feature?


You use that, then use the BOOT FROM CD feature that is not Windows 98 disk.

ALL DONE.
 
It says "Warning: This is the active partition. After deletion set another partition active."

Does this mean I CAN'T do what I was saying and HAVE to mess around with partitions? If so what do I do??
 
Why is this forum so inactive??? Are there any general computer forums on the net which are more active??? Coz I really need the reinstall quickly.
 
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