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#1 (permalink) |
Senior Member
Join Date: Mar 2011
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I have just sold my Windows 7 PC. It has 2 drives, one a system drive, the other a data drive.
What is the best method of wiping all information from the data drive & wiping the OS from the system drive? I have never had to do this, only reinstall Windows which gives you the option to format a drive before the install starts. But if I do this will the computer be bootable for the new owner to install their OS? Cheers |
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#2 (permalink) |
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: India
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There are a few free tools available.
Eraser: http://eraser.heidi.ie/ Darik's Boot and Nuke: http://www.dban.org/ Disk Wipe: http://www.diskwipe.org/ Active@ KillDisk: http://www.killdisk.com/eraser.htm However, please use caution as it is not clear whether these are meant to just wipe the hard drive, so they can be used later... or just trash them totally. So, use them only when you are quite clear of what they do exactly. Better to wait for someone with a definitive answer on that.
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Anupam |
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#3 (permalink) |
Site Manager
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: South American Banana Republic, third bunch from the left
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The first item listed here would seem to be the way to go.
http://www.wikihow.com/Permanently-E...f-a-Hard-Drive
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#4 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Mar 2011
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Both suggestions are great. My thinking was that I would use Eraser to wipe the data from my data drive, but I got confused thinking about how to wipe the system drive I have the OS installed on.
Can it be done via the method in the link you posted MC? I'm assuming if I did that the guy that bought the PC would just put his Windows install disc into the PC and boot to install like you would with a brand new hard drive? Would using my Windows install disc on boot & going through the stage of reinstalling Windows work also? I know the step before actually installing Windows you get the option to choose which disc to install it on & whether to format it or not first, could I get to the stage where it has formatted the drive and then just turn the PC off? Or is it actually necesarry to wipe the OS drive? I have no personal data on it, only Windows install & program installs. |
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#5 (permalink) |
Super Moderator
Join Date: Jul 2008
Location: India
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If you didn't have any personal data, then just a format will do the job. There are a number of bootable CDs which you can use for the job.
As in the link that MC provided, Darik's Boot and Nuke(DBAN) will work just fine by making its CD, and booting the computer from it. I checked, and wiping the disk with DBAN, will still leave the hard drive in a usable state. So, that option looks good to me. Other options are Gparted CD: http://gparted.org/ It's mainly for partitioning, but can format the hard drive too. Another one is Ultimate Boot CD: http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ which has disk tools which can format the drive. It has DBAN too. You can also use a hard drive diagnose utility from the drive's manufacturer, like Seagate Disk Tools from Seagate, using which you can perform a low level format of the drive.
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Anupam |
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#6 (permalink) |
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Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: England
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I'd say it depends how paranoid you are ... while you might have no personal files stored on your system drive, personal details can still be recovered from temp files, swap file, MFT, etc.
Privazeer is very good I think, it can do a complete privacy clean up and overwrite everything it deletes. It includes a free space wiper as well. I fully appreciate though that I'm generally more paranoid than a lot of people : ) |
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