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Tom's Hardware > Forum > Storage > Hard Drives > [Solved] How to completly wipe a HDD?

[Solved] How to completly wipe a HDD?

Forum Storage : Hard Drives [Solved] How to completly wipe a HDD?

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marshalmelow   01-31-2012 at 11:46:26 PM

i have a SATA 2 320GB (283 usable) 5400 RPM by WD (western digital) hard drive in a old laptop i have. i want to sell this HDD. i have quite a bit of stuff on here that i deffinantly do not want other people to have. is there a way to delete everything so no one can retrieve the data in it? will it decrease the amount of GB usable? thanks.

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corroded   01-31-2012 at 11:52:23 PM

slave it to another system and do a low level format... OR LOOK UP LOW LEVEL FORMAT / WIPE DISK AND DO IT OFF A BOOTABLE CD.

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anort3   01-31-2012 at 11:55:40 PM

CCleaner has a drive wipe utility included. It has several preset wipe levels. DOD is 3 pass while the NSA specifies 7 passes. I would go with the 3 pass option since even that will take forever. If it's good enough for the Department Of Defense it should be good enough for what you need it for.

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

Message quoted 1 times
------------------------------ i7 2600K @ 4.5/P67A UD4/Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B/OCZ Vertex 2 120GB/2xWD 640 Blacks/Antec 1200/Samsung 23in LED LCD/EVGA GTX 460/2x4GB GSkill Ripjaws X DDR3 1600 7-8-7-24/Windows 7 Ultimate x64/Corsair 750TX
 Reply to anort3
medmn   01-31-2012 at 11:59:40 PM

anort3 is right on - you're probably looking at 10 to 12 hours maybe longer. A full wipe writes all zeroes to the drive - takes forever.

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marshalmelow   02-01-2012 at 12:51:36 AM

thanks guys. i love this website. ask a question and get atleast one great answer within 10 minutes.

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marshalmelow   02-01-2012 at 02:43:21 AM

its okay to do this on this computer im wiping right? or should i pop it in my desk top and wipe it from there

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GreyMachine   02-01-2012 at 02:55:38 AM

Darik's boot and nuke is what i use when wiping HDDs

http://www.dban.org/

Reply to GreyMachine
marshalmelow   02-01-2012 at 02:10:25 PM

anort3 wrote :

CCleaner has a drive wipe utility included. It has several preset wipe levels. DOD is 3 pass while the NSA specifies 7 passes. I would go with the 3 pass option since even that will take forever. If it's good enough for the Department Of Defense it should be good enough for what you need it for.

http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner



i did a 7 pass wipe on the computer the hard drive was in, and im on it right now. in other words everything is working fine and everything is still on my drvie. do i have to wipe my drive on a my desktop to delete everything including windows 7?

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anort3   02-01-2012 at 11:35:26 PM

marshalmelow wrote :

i did a 7 pass wipe on the computer the hard drive was in, and im on it right now. in other words everything is working fine and everything is still on my drvie. do i have to wipe my drive on a my desktop to delete everything including windows 7?




Did you select the whole drive or did you leave it at the default? I think by default it only does free space. You have to select entire drive.

------------------------------ i7 2600K @ 4.5/P67A UD4/Scythe Mugen 2 Rev B/OCZ Vertex 2 120GB/2xWD 640 Blacks/Antec 1200/Samsung 23in LED LCD/EVGA GTX 460/2x4GB GSkill Ripjaws X DDR3 1600 7-8-7-24/Windows 7 Ultimate x64/Corsair 750TX
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Area51reopened   02-02-2012 at 12:32:03 AM
Best answer

DBAN!

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Mousemonkey   02-03-2012 at 08:18:52 PM

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey

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Mousemonkey   02-03-2012 at 08:20:25 PM

Best answer selected by mousemonkey.

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