Re: erase hard drive
"someone" <someone@flibbernet.com> wrote in message
news:46e311e4$0$11435$db0fefd9@news.zen.co.uk...
|
| "dadiOH" <dadiOH@guesswhere.com> wrote in message
| news:uFmA0il8HHA.748@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
| > someone wrote:
| >> "dadiOH" <dadiOH@guesswhere.com> wrote in message
| >> news:ugseztj8HHA.4712@TK2MSFTNGP04.phx.gbl...
| >>> rc wrote:
| >>>> Hello group
| >>>>
| >>>> what is the best and cleanest way to erase a hard drive. Playing
| >>>> around with an older computer and basically want to start from
| >>>> scratch. machine has problems completing boot up. thanks
| >>>
| >>> You have no need to zap the HD...fdisk/format will do all you need
| >>> to do.
| >>>
| >>
| >> eh? I though that fdisk/format would erase the hard drive.
| >
| > No, it just sets up the partion(s) and file system. Makes the boot
| > sector.
| > _____________
| >
| >> What does zapping do, then? (And how do you do it?) Does it
| > involve a
| >> hammer? ;-)
| >
| > That depends on your degree of paranoia. One could use any of many
| > programs to write a byte pattern to all tracks, one or more times,
| > thereby replacing whatever is there. "Whatever is there" is what was
| > there before the drive was formatted. If it is a new drive, it is
| > filler bytes. If it is a used drive, it is the files that were there.
| >
| > The latter are no good as all information *about* them - what they
| > are, where they start, how long they are, etc. - is lost when the
| > drive is formatted. However, anyone that has a program that will read
| > a drive by tracks or sectors can view whatever snippets happen to be
| > in a given sector/track. Which is why some people like to use a
| > program to overwrite those snippets.
| >
| > If you *really* want to zap the drive, wave a magnet over it. That
| > destroys everything including all track info put there by the
| > manufacturer when he "deep formatted" the drive. Such a drive is
| > unusable until it is again "deep formatted"...a very lengthy process
| > given the size of today's drives.
| >
| > Time was when the word "format" meant what "deep format" does now.
| > Those times are gone.
| >
| Thanks for the interesting info. What do you think about using a utility
| like, e.g. Killdisk? Would it do the biz without a hammer or magnet? I
| want to recycle a PC I bought in 1993, but don't want to leave it with
| data/programs on it.
|
| Sorry to interrupt the original posting.
|
| someone
|
|
Killdisk MIGHT suit your purpose, though it may not work as well as
claimed.
You can also try MHDD [hard drive guru]
http://mhdd.com .
--
MEB
http://peoplescounsel.orgfree.com
________
