How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

[Nitemare]

I just reinstalled windows...but I don't think I did it right because all of my old programs are still here...but I still had to reinstall drivers. I think it added everything again, but I'm not sure.

What I want to do, is clear my entire hard drive, not have one little thing on there, and just start over. How do I do this?

[Gunny Highway]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

Insert your Windows XP cd.

Restart PC, when it ask to boot from CD press any key. ***

During install delete partition where you install to and/or quick format to NTFS.

If you just select the same partition without deleting it or formatting it it will retain old old files.

*** If your PC BIOS isn't set to allow booting from CD/DVD then enter bios and make sure it boots from CD/DVD before HDD. Some BIOS also have a boot menu, where you just press e.g. F8 while BIOS is loading and then you can select which drive to boot from.

There a guide explaining most of this here:

http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/installxp/installXP1.htm

[Nitemare]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

Alright thx I'll try it.

[imported_bigpappa]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

i have a program that i use and now i cant remember what it is, i have the disk at my house...it writes binary codes on your hard drive which completely blanks it out...when i get home i will find out...

[imported_bigpappa]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

Insert your Windows XP cd.

Restart PC, when it ask to boot from CD press any key. ***

During install delete partition where you install to and/or quick format to NTFS.

If you just select the same partition without deleting it or formatting it it will retain old old files.

*** If your PC BIOS isn't set to allow booting from CD/DVD then enter bios and make sure it boots from CD/DVD before HDD. Some BIOS also have a boot menu, where you just press e.g. F8 while BIOS is loading and then you can select which drive to boot from.

There a guide explaining most of this here:
http://www.tweakhound.com/xp/installxp/installXP1.htm

you can still retrive old info on your hard drive by using a recovery program.

[Gunny Highway]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

you can still retrive old info on your hard drive by using a recovery program.

I don't think he's looking for security just a clean install.

i have a program that i use and now i cant remember what it is, i have the disk at my house...it writes binary codes on your hard drive which completely blanks it out...when i get home i will find out...

You can use KILLDISK to clean a HDD with. Others applications can also clean freedisk space and files, but the best way is to do a full sweep. Most ppl have no use for this though, unless they are paranoid or selling their harddrive.

[imported_bigpappa]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

KILLDISK thats what its called, thanks it was driving me crazy...

[ConscriptVirus]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

doesnt reformatting ur harddisk wipe it clean?

[imported_bigpappa]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

its wipes it clean but leaves pieces of information that can be extracted by using a hard drive recovery program...

[Gunny Highway]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

doesnt reformatting ur harddisk wipe it clean?

Deleting a file will only make the space available for the filetable to overwrite but the data is still there. For yuo to see it there in e.g. Windows it has to be in a file table, with each file listed. With recovery programs your just scan each sector on hardrive.

NSA/DoD recommends that you delete files with 7 or 3 pass wipes, probably depeding on securty environment.

[djstubbs]

Re: How do I clear my ENTIRE hard drive?

Reformat...