Can I Format Hard Drives without a Disc?

D.K.

Hi,
I have a couple of old computers I want to give away and for security reasons I thought it best to format the hard drives.
I've read some web sites and they say you need the boot disc which I don't have.
Is it still possible to format the drives or is there another way I can wipe everything?
The OSs are Windows98.

Cheers,
D.

superscaper

Use DBAN, that way info should be pretty much unrecoverable without serious forensic hardware.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

D.K.

That looks just the thing.
I'll give it a go tomorrow,
Thanks
D.

PistonBroke_2

Not a 100% sure on this as it's been a while since i worked on 98 but i think you can reboot into Dos mode and just Format C:

superscaper

Although if you're worried about security, merely formatting doesn't get rid of the data and can be recovered.

D.K.

superscaper wrote: »

Use DBAN, that way info should be pretty much unrecoverable without serious forensic hardware.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Hi Superscraper,
I wonder if you could give me a hand with this? I down loaded DBAN onto a floppy but I'm having a spot of bother changing the boot order to load it.
I can get "CMOS setup Utility" but I can't change anything. Am I in the wrong menu, because I can't seem to get anything else?
Thanks,
D.

superscaper

Every BIOS menu is slightly different but you should see a "boot sequence" somewhere. You should be able to exit with saving. If you can't, it sounds a bit strange to me.

BritBrat

XP has a format option, place the drive you want to format in a XP computer NOT the "C" drive and from the OS go to manage from my computer and locate the drive letter and format it.

spud17

D.K.

IIRC there is a CD variant available, if you're having a problem with the floppy this could be an option, because PC's now often boot CD then HD.
So could save you going into BIOS.

Found page, check out CD and DVD media.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

TheMadMan

hi DK

Doesn't format your hard drive but wipes all your free space on your drive and you can select how many times it overwrites. I've always used this software before selling a machine. Anyway, it's called 'Eraser' (and it's free). Link: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

D.K.

spud17 wrote: »

D.K.

IIRC there is a CD variant available, if you're having a problem with the floppy this could be an option, because PC's now often boot CD then HD.
So could save you going into BIOS.

Found page, check out CD and DVD media.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

I.ve tried putting a CD in then booting and it doesn't load dban says somewhere that old machines could have problems with CDs and recommends using floppies.

Thanks for the suggestion, if I get stuck I'll try this again....the PC is SO slow it takes forever to do anything. Very frustrating, its funny how I used to think it was so good!

D.