Hard Drive Clear

hemp

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I have a HDD that needs to be completely wiped and not just formatted. It has sensitive material that I would like to disappear and never be accessed again.

It is 1 40gb HDD and I need some software to pretty much put it in it's original state from when I bought it.

Rep for help guys
 
:p formatting it is wiping it. I'm sure you can still get some of the data back, but after fomatting it a program like GetDataBack (what I use) wont get it back. They only work if your computer crashes or a boot sector goes bad. to totally wipe it you can pop in a Windows OS cd and reinstall. That means formatting it and deleting all of the partitions as well.

-Q
 
DBAN is the way to go. Just run 3 passes should be plenty. Google DBAN.

:p formatting it is wiping it. I'm sure you can still get some of the data back, but after fomatting it a program like GetDataBack (what I use) wont get it back. They only work if your computer crashes or a boot sector goes bad. to totally wipe it you can pop in a Windows OS cd and reinstall. That means formatting it and deleting all of the partitions as well.

-Q

Formatting in that way will NOT wipe the drive. Just an FYI. It will simply tell the HDD that "any info past this point (beginning of drive or partition being formatted) can be OVERWRITTEN". He needs that info deleted, not just flagged to be overwritten.
 
Don't listen to Dude! Just reinstall Windows!

Nah, I'm kidding. Didn't know about DBAN though. Thank for the info ;)
 
:p Normally, I'd just say to reformat normally, but he said he has sensitive data, so if he wants it truly gone for good, that'll do it.
 
If you truly want the drive info to be inaccessible, take it out back and beat it to a pulp with a sledge hammer.
 
Indeed, I'll second that AR. If it's really really important material that is life or death, do the above.
 
Get the brand name off the drive and go to that website. Get the drive setup software. Run the recertify section of the software. It will write all zero's to all of the sectors.
You want it gone? That's the way to do it.
 
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