Jump to content

How to completely wipe a hard drive to sell?

I have a spare 1tb hard drive with nothing on it but it's been used before and has had stuff on it. All I did was permanently delete everything. What's a good way to wipe the hard drive to be sure it's got nothing on it before I sell it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a spare 1tb hard drive with nothing on it but it's been used before and has had stuff on it. All I did was permanently delete everything. What's a good way to wipe the hard drive to be sure it's got nothing on it before I sell it?

Use DBAN...however it will take a long damn time

NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER STOP LEARNING. DONT LET THE PAST HURT YOU. YOU CAN DOOOOO IT

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I use active@killdisk. It completely zeros out the drives, and I've never been able to find any retrievable data after running it.

The projects never end in my line of work.

CPU: Dual Xeon E5-2650v2 || GPU: Dual Quadro K5000 || Motherboard: Asus Z9PE-D8 || RAM: 64GB Corsair Vengeance || Monitors: Dual LG 34UM95, NEC MultiSync EA244UHD || Storage: Dual Samsung 850 Pro 256GB in Raid 0, 6x WD Re 4TB in Raid 1 || Sound: Xonar Essense STX (Mainly for Troubleshooting and listening test) || PSU: Corsair Ax1500i

CPU: Core i7 5820k @ 4.7GHz || GPU: Dual Titan X || Motherboard: Asus X99 Deluxe || RAM: 32GB Crucial Ballistix Sport || Monitors: MX299Q, 29UB65, LG 34UM95 || Storage: Dual Samsung 850 EVO 1 TB in Raid 0, Samsung 850 EVO 250GB, 2TB Toshiba scratch disk, 3TB Seagate Barracuda || PSU: EVGA 1000w PS Platinum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

do full erase with seagate seatools or wd dlg according to your drive manufacturer

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a spare 1tb hard drive with nothing on it but it's been used before and has had stuff on it. All I did was permanently delete everything. What's a good way to wipe the hard drive to be sure it's got nothing on it before I sell it?

 

DBAN for sure.

 

http://www.dban.org/

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I use a program on the HironsBoot CD Called Vivard to wipe HDD.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Why bother selling it?  you'll get maybe $10 or  $20 tops.  is it worth the effort of listing etc? 

Grammar and spelling is not indicative of intelligence/knowledge.  Not having the same opinion does not always mean lack of understanding.  

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

I have a spare 1tb hard drive with nothing on it but it's been used before and has had stuff on it. All I did was permanently delete everything. What's a good way to wipe the hard drive to be sure it's got nothing on it before I sell it?

 

 

Hey YoloYuhan,
 
A simple format should delete the partition table of the drive and make it hard to read. If you want to make it nearly impossible to read, I would perform a "writing zeros" operation. This will put a zero on each bit and make the data practically unrecoverable. I could suggest using WD Data Lifeguard Diagnostic tool to perform the task. You can use either the quick or the full erase. The quick one will write zeros to the first and the last million bits, the full one will do the whole drive. Here's a link: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=VVh4Z9
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now

×