How is the best way to wipe a hard drive before I do a clean install, I may have to do it with an external program, VIA USB, is it possible and what software would be the best way to completely clean the HDD? Can I reformat the HDD while doing it, I am thinking that reformatting would be the best because it has had so many bogus OS's installed I don't want traces of them on it, there are no files or folders to save or backup, so losing things is not a concern. TY if you can help.................
- just load a windows DVD or USB
- select every partition on the hard drive
- select format
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I always prefer
DBAN nothing like a secure erase, takes a while but at least you know data stealing is unlikely.
yes Dban great is but for what you are doing with the hard drive it would be over kill
(07-08-2015, 08:51 PM)Compton Wrote: [ -> ]yes Dban great is but for what you are doing with the hard drive it would be over kill
He did ask to
Completely Clean the HDD.
yes he did ask to completely clean HDD
but I am looking at what he's going to do with the hard drive
but you are right if he wants to completely format the hard drive Dban would be best
you also have to look at how old is the Hard drive and the health status before using Dban
I would say if you are going to be using the drive again for yourself, I would just wipe the drive.
If you are selling the computer, keep the drive and use it as a external drive and buy a small drive so you can sell it with the computer, it will save time and your have peace of mind.
Getting rid of the computer and taking to the dump. Remove drive and destroy it.
But here are some other software you can use.
Eraser
Active@ KillDisk
Disk Wipe
Shredit for Windows
Actually DBAN seems to be a bit more thorough after reading on all of the above, but will I have to reformat? and can I reformat? ie will it give me the option when I go to reinstall Windows? as I will try and use this HDD again, in fact will I have to reformat with all of these? I would really like to repartition as well, as I said I want to try and use this HDD and laptop again............
Ashampoo File Wiper is also good for cleaning free space.
With all of them you will have to format the drive as secure erasure of a drive reverts all blocks back to 0 and yes you will be able to format / reformat the drive.