Devia Eleven Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 WipeDrive is the perfect tool for anyone who needs to: * Wipe and erase hard drive data before selling or donating a computer. * Wipe and erase the hard drive of all personal data before returning a computer to a company or employer. * Wipe and erase the hard drive before discarding the computer to prevent identity theft. * Completely wipe and erase a damaged operating system with possible hidden viruses. If you are keeping your computer and operating system, but need to clean it up to improve performance, then check out SecureClean. Wipe Hard Drive - Delete Hard Drive Features 1. Listed as an Approved Disk Sanitizing Tool by the U.S. Department of Defense. 2. Wipe any size hard drive (IDE or SCSI). 3. Contains optional command line parameters that enable the user to wipe hard drives from a DOS batch file. 4. Permanently wipe out operating systems, program files, and all other file data on the drive. 5. Wipe ALL data from your hard drive. 6. Wipe all partition tables and drive formats, including FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, and Linux. 7. Verify that your data has been wiped clean. 8. View individual drive sectors. 9. Option to create an audit log to capture verify and wipe hard drive events that can be imported into Microsoft Access® and Excel®. The point of this thread was to ask any advanced computer users, if this is a program that is sufficient with wiping a harddrive. I don't know if this program will damage my harddrive, my main question is if I run this software, will it delete my Operation System, or will it delete all files that were put onto the harddrive after it was purchased. I'm looking to fully format my harddrive without using an installation CD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mooney Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 "Wiping" a hard drive usually means that everything on it will be deleted. So yes, your OS will be deleted, too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibathedog Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Yeah, what I'm guessing this program does (especially with the line about the US DoD) is it follows the standard procedure the DoD uses when they dispose of a hard drive. So what its going to do is re-write random data to every sector of your HDD 7 times. Effectively erasing every bit of data on the HDD to the point where it cannot be recovered. So yes, your OS, and everything you've ever put on the HDD will be permanently erased. Will it damage it? No, but thats a lot of wear on an HDD, If your HDD is next to dying I wouldn't run this, otherwise you should be fine. If you just want to format it and re-use it or your not really that concerned with someone going through all the bother of trying to recover your data, there are other less time consuming tools available as this is going to take a long ass time, especially if its a big HDD. If you want to go this route, let me know and i'll post again, Are you running the OS from the HDD that you want to format? or is it a secondary drive? Also do you WANT to delete the OS? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devia Eleven Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 (edited) I'm looking to completely reformat my harddrive and install a fresh copy of Windows Xp on my harddrive. My main concern are the old user accounts that refuse to be erased. I lost the installation disk that came with my computer, so I downloaded a copy from the internet, and when I install that copy it doesn't give me the option to reformat my harddrive. The ISO is 558 MB large and I hear that the average installation disk is 700 MB. Edited December 4, 2007 by Devia Eleven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibathedog Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 mine was about 620MB, so depending on what version you have that could be right. Anyway when you format/re-install it WILL get rid of those user accounts. When you boot from the XP CD it will ask you where you want to install windows, and give you a menu where you can select various hard drives/partitions, You want to delete every partition on the hard drive, (I think you press the L key, its something weird and random, read the text on top it tells you), then create a new one, and it will then give you the option to format the partition if I remember right. Try a different disc, that sounds like it might be a sketchy copy if its really not giving you the option. That or format using a free linux distro disc because then you don't have to go to possibly illegal places to get it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devia Eleven Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 When I use that installation CD, when it asks me to choose a partition, there are 3 partitions. 2 are unused, one isn't, and when I try to delete the partition that is used, it says it can't because the partition I want to delete has setup and windows files that are required to complete the installation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibathedog Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 ah okay, I think what you have there might be an upgrade disc as opposed to a full install disc then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_cinder Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Actually, I've noticed that XP discs, don't offer the format option if an existing XP install of any kind exists. You MUST delete the partition XP is on and create a new one. You can format over any other Windows install though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devia Eleven Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 Actually, I've noticed that XP discs, don't offer the format option if an existing XP install of any kind exists. You MUST delete the partition XP is on and create a new one. You can format over any other Windows install though. It won't let me delete the partition XP is on, it refuses to because there are already files on the partition that are required to continue the setup. Ever since I re-installed windows, when I come to the boot screen, before it goes to the "choose your user account screen" it says: Please choose an operating system to run: Windows XP ProfessionalWindows Xp Professional When I click the second option , it says :We cannot run this OS because something is wrong with the hardware or something like that, I don't know how to get rid of this dual boot option. In the process of re-installing, there are 3 partitions. 1: unused 3400 bytes2: (NTFS) 76791209984 bytes3: unused 7445 bytes When I try to delete partition 2, the stubborn som' biatch won't let me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ken_cinder Posted December 4, 2007 Share Posted December 4, 2007 Try finding a boot disc online, or if you have a copy of Win98 use FDISK off that and clear the partitions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devia Eleven Posted December 4, 2007 Author Share Posted December 4, 2007 (edited) Do you mean a Windows XP boot disc? And can't I download FDISK online? And is this an option? http://i7.tinypic.com/8aarthy.jpg Edited December 4, 2007 by Devia Eleven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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