Wiping HDD's?

[No.72]

Can you actually completely wipe a hard drive from the BIOS because I cant get into windows due to 'I think a virus' and the data on the hard drive is not that important.

[Clunk]

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

[Fabula]

If you are wanting to wipe the data, you can do it while re-installing windows by selecting to format the drive.

Or just boot with a boot floppy and use fdisk to delete and recreate a partition.

[No.72]

Ok I see nice one .

[Splash]

DBAN or Killdisk if you're wanting to secure wipe.

[amjedm]

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

DBAN or Killdisk if you're wanting to secure wipe.

Thank you for the info guys.

[Steve B]

is there any data that you actually want to keep on board?

[DanceswithUnix]

I use a Knoppix boot CD to boot the machine into Linux. Then type:

cp /dev/zero /dev/hda

which clears the boot sector and all that critical stuff at the start to zeros pretty fast. Hit Ctrl-C when bored and reboot into you OS install CD.

Also gives you an infection risk free chance to poke about the drive before you vape the contents.

[amjedm]

I use a Knoppix boot CD to boot the machine into Linux. Then type:

cp /dev/zero /dev/hda

which clears the boot sector and all that critical stuff at the start to zeros pretty fast. Hit Ctrl-C when bored and reboot into you OS install CD.

Also gives you an infection risk free chance to poke about the drive before you vape the contents.

What if you have more than one hd and want to wipe the second drive?

Ta.

Edit: just to clear up any potential misunderstanding - I'm asking if you know what the command may be to wipe HD number 2 if the computer has one.

I always wanted to learn Unix from years ago but the sight of around 10 SCO Unix CDs (for one installation) put me off.

[DanceswithUnix]

cp /dev/zero /dev/hdb

Or first scsi drive:

cp /dev/zero /dev/sda

Mind you these days you get a bootable DVD edition that has the whole damned kitchen sink in there, so there might well be a method more friendly to Windows types

[dangel]

If you are wanting to wipe the data, you can do it while re-installing windows by selecting to format the drive.

The format of the Windows Installation does _not_ wipe the whole disk - both quick and normal format do the same thing (the latter just does a disk check post formatting which is why it takes so long) in that they mark the files as deleted (in effect) rather than physically erasing the data. Just in case anyone thought their data had been safely erased by a windows-based format..

[Fabula]

The format of the Windows Installation does _not_ wipe the whole disk - both quick and normal format do the same thing (the latter just does a disk check post formatting which is why it takes so long) in that they mark the files as deleted (in effect) rather than physically erasing the data. Just in case anyone thought their data had been safely erased by a windows-based format..

If you're just deleting the data, format should be fine.

If you are wanting to make the data totally unrecoverable from the drive, something like active kill disk is fine.

[Steve B]

If you're just deleting the data, format should be fine.

If you are wanting to make the data totally unrecoverable from the drive, something like active kill disk is fine.

and if you really want to make the data unrecoverable from the drive, boiling water is fine
although u do lose the drive

[dangel]

and if you really want to make the data unrecoverable from the drive, boiling water is fine
although u do lose the drive

I go with the hammer solution..

[Steve B]

industrial strength blender for the win
problem is with a hammer, you might leave some of the platter untouched, so you really need to mash it up good.

[dangel]

industrial strength blender for the win
problem is with a hammer, you might leave some of the platter untouched, so you really need to mash it up good.

Only if you hit like a girl