How do you clear a hard drive

Minxy

I need to clear the hard drive on a computer. I know very little about the inner working of a PC so any help anyone can give will have be explained in a very basic step by step way.

ianian99

is it the only hdd in the pc?

smcicr

1. you need to start the pc from a source other than the hard disk (ie a floppy disk)
2. if you have an old win98 boot disk lying around that is perfect
(if you don't then you can download a copy and make one yourself - search for 'win98 bootdisk' in google)
3. once the pc starts from the floppy disk you will see the DOS environment (basically a black screen with white type on it)
4. at this point if you type 'fdisk' (without the apostrophes) at the prompt (where the cursor is flashing) it should load the format disk utility which is fairly self explanatory iirc

Mr_Skint_2

Just one of my quick guides....

Reinstalling win98

First thing to do is to backup any important documents or files
by saving them to CD or floppy disc.

Secondly, find out what drivers you have got for, Audio, Display
Modem, etc etc, you can find this out by entering device manager
Microsoft Windows 95, 98, and ME users enter the Windows device
manager by clicking Start, Settings, Control Panel, System icon,
and finally clicking the Device Manager tab.

If you have no Antivirus I recommend downloading AVG free,
and for a firewall I recommend SYGATE, download these
files and also save to disk. for later installation

If you have found the names of the drivers and manufactures
go to https://www.driverguide.com and get them there it is free to register.
and save the drivers to disk.

So now you need a win 98 boot disk so insert one floppy disk.
You can make a boot disk in Windows 95 or 98 by going to Control Panel
Add/Remove Programs, Startup Disk and clicking the Create Disk button.

So make sure you also have a full version of win98 in the CDtray
and the boot disk in the floppy slot.

Now restart your PC, you will be asked Iyou wish to start the machine with CD support
click yes to this, Now wait until everything has loaded from the floppy and
until you have A:\ on the screen when you get to this point type in format c:/s
so it looks like this on screen A:\format c:/s

And then you will be asked if you want to do this, so just hit Yes or OK
just follow the onscreen instructions, once done the PC will be fully formatted
now when this is 100% done restart the machine, by turning off the power
for 2mins then back on again.

Now with the Floppy still in the drive and the Win98CD still in the CDrom drive
start the PC up again, and as before choose Start PC with CD support.

Ok when all the drivers are loaded from the floppy and you see A:\ on screen
type \ if D is the drive letter of your CD rom which it usually is.

Now with \ on screen type setup.exe so the screen looks like \setup.exe
and you will be prompted to run windows click yes, and your install will
now begin.

Once the install has finished install your drivers that you saved to disk
your important files you saved to disk, and then your Firewall (SYGATE)
and Antivirus (AVG).

Then lastly re-establish your internet connection with your ISP disk.

John_Gray

It might be a good move to ask you what precisely you mean by "clear the hard disk" and/or why you want to do this?

Do you want to get rid of absolutely everything on it?
Or just remove all the files you don't want?

The answers, as you see above, vary accordingly!

John

Mr_Skint_2

John_Gray wrote:

It might be a good move to ask you what precisely you mean by "clear the hard disk" and/or why you want to do this?

Do you want to get rid of absolutely everything on it?
Or just remove all the files you don't want?

The answers, as you see above, vary accordingly!

John

Well they are offline now so maybe its being done as we speak :rotfl:

Minxy

Sorry for not replying sooner. A friend is getting rid of his old computer and wants to clear everything that is on the hard drive.

danmanchester

I used iolo's Drive Scrubber to wipe an 80GB HD, you can download it on the 30 day free trial from here

-TangleFoot-

Minxy wrote:

A friend is getting rid of his old computer and wants to clear everything that is on the hard drive.

Something like DBAN would make a reasonable stab at clearing a hard disk drive of any legible data.

John_Gray

If your friend wants to absolutely ensure that no data from the drive can never, ever, be read again, then the use of a Very Large Hammer is generally regarded as the only infallible method!

John

Mr_Skint_2

John_Gray wrote:

If your friend wants to absolutely ensure that no data from the drive can never, ever, be read again, then the use of a Very Large Hammer is generally regarded as the only infallible method!

John

And a 6inch nail....