reformat my hd (to scrap it!)

[guest]

Hello, I have been looking for a very simple way to reformat my computer but all I can find is a way to reformat it and install OS again. I just want to reformat it as clean as possible, and SIMPLE! Does anyone know how?

[kitto-chan]

Do you have your HD partition? If so then you could reformat the partition that does not have the OS on it. But if you have other things on that partition you will lose it. If you have no partition then you will lose everything on that HD and you will need a new OS.

[Ledgem]

You're looking to wipe your HD to clear off any sensitive data, correct? Look into something like Darik's Boot and Nuke. Free solution, it'll wipe your HD. Don't settle for something like a "quick format" because data is recoverable from those. Just an extra note if you decide to use this, disconnect your other hard drives when booting this. From what I can see, once it's booted, it automatically wipes all HDs that it can see. I've never used it before, but the instructions seem to indicate that. So be careful with it, and don't wipe your other HDs.

If you're just going to junk the HD, you could also take a magnet to it... (poor HD)

[Phantom-Takaya]

Ledgem's right. If you're just going to trash it, a strong enough magnet will wipe it clean and possibly render it inoperable.

Another way, although Ledgem's way may be far easier, is going through command prompt and manually typing the commands to completely erase and format it, which is practically what Darik's Boot and Nuke is all about.

[guest]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

You're looking to wipe your HD to clear off any sensitive data, correct? Look into something like Darik's Boot and Nuke. Free solution, it'll wipe your HD. Don't settle for something like a "quick format" because data is recoverable from those. Just an extra note if you decide to use this, disconnect your other hard drives when booting this. From what I can see, once it's booted, it automatically wipes all HDs that it can see. I've never used it before, but the instructions seem to indicate that. So be careful with it, and don't wipe your other HDs.

If you're just going to junk the HD, you could also take a magnet to it... (poor HD)

Thanks. Yeah, I am going to wipe all the data. Let's see if I can get a magnet. It is not that easy to get, you know.

Originally Posted by kitto-chan

Do you have your HD partition? If so then you could reformat the partition that does not have the OS on it. But if you have other things on that partition you will lose it. If you have no partition then you will lose everything on that HD and you will need a new OS.

I am not looking for a way to reinstall anything. I am looking for a way to erase it permanently and hopefully, not recoverable.

[Phantom-Takaya]

Actually, it's easier than it looks. A hardware store typically has one that's strong enough. Or, you can be inventive like me and get a battery, copper wires and a metal rod. Just make sure you keep a lot of magnet-sensitive objects away.

[Ledgem]

Originally Posted by Phantom-Takaya

Actually, it's easier than it looks. A hardware store typically has one that's strong enough. Or, you can be inventive like me and get a battery, copper wires and a metal rod. Just make sure you keep a lot of magnet-sensitive objects away.

Right on! Almost a year ago I mentored fourth graders about physics, and one of our activities involved making a magnet by wrapping a wire around metal rod. The experiment was to see how the strong the magnet was, based on how many times the wire was wrapped around the rod. Strength was measured by how many paper clips (or something like that) the road could hold up. The kids loved it.

Then again, I don't know how many people have copper wiring and a small rod sitting around like that... I'm not sure that it'd be any cheaper than buying a regular magnet. But hey, you'll feel cool

[Phantom-Takaya]

Heh. Sometimes, the fun in creating it is well worth it. I like to build things as it is anyways. You're on the dot about the strength of the magnet depends on how many times you've wrapped the rod with the wire. Another thing that helps is the sizes of the items you use. Bigger and longer rod means you get to wrap it with the wire more. Larger and stronger battery also means you can generate a stronger electromagnetic field.

And this concludes our electromagnetic class for the day. Anyone have questions? Heh.

[Gundam Master]

Originally Posted by Ledgem

You're looking to wipe your HD to clear off any sensitive data, correct? Look into something like Darik's Boot and Nuke. Free solution, it'll wipe your HD. Don't settle for something like a "quick format" because data is recoverable from those. Just an extra note if you decide to use this, disconnect your other hard drives when booting this. From what I can see, once it's booted, it automatically wipes all HDs that it can see. I've never used it before, but the instructions seem to indicate that. So be careful with it, and don't wipe your other HDs.

If you're just going to junk the HD, you could also take a magnet to it... (poor HD)

Darik's boot and nuke is a good tool because it lets you set how many times to write over the hard drive. When you want to get rid of a hard drive you should use a tool the writes over the whole hard drive because data on a hard drive is not actually erased until it is written over again, and even in that case the data can still be retrieved. A good number of passes to write over the hard drive is 3 to 8. Although this will take a while it is a very good safety measure.

[Jinto]

And even then data is recoverable if the newly written data was homogenous (all 1's or all 0's). I am not entirely sure what the nuke tool does, but I think it writes with random data n-times and then zeroes it (complete format).
The inhomogenous rewriting makes a tracing of low magnetic fields useless since the original fields became overwritten with random fields several time. The random fields mask the appearance of the original erased data fields. In Unix/Linux there exist command line tools that write directly to the disk, disregarding the filesystem (e.g., dd). The tools could be used in a shell script that overwrites the whole disk with random values n-times repeatedly.

Afaik that is what the nuke tool actually does...

[mist2123]

you could put the hdd in the microwave for 10 mins see if it works How about creating a electro magnet
find a Big scarp metal(palm size) cover it in bronze wire then put electricity into it

[Jinto]

The microwave might harm the hdd itself but not the platters, since the platters are located in a metal cage.

[Phantom-Takaya]

Not to mention you run the risk of starting a fire...