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How to format hard drives with viruses

BurntNewt

My friend has a hard drive that has viruses and wants to format them to get rid of the viruses. My question is is there a safe way to format them and refurbish them if that's even possible 

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3 minutes ago, BurntNewt said:

My friend has a hard drive that has viruses and wants to format them to get rid of the viruses. My question is is there a safe way to format them and refurbish them if that's even possible 

what do you mean by "refurbish"?

 

just format it normally and it should be good.

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Do you mean overwrite them?

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Depends on how bad the virus is.  simply running Malware bites could fix the issue or plugin it in and reformatting it could solve the problem also.  But it the virus is deep and the drive is old your better off drilling the drive and getting a new one 

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1 minute ago, SeanAngelo said:

what do you mean by "refurbish"?

 

just format it normally and it should be good.

will it get rid of the viruses and the os. also is there a safe way to do it without getting the virus

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2 minutes ago, ELSknutson said:

Depends on how bad the virus is.  simply running Malware bites could fix the issue or plugin it in and reformatting it could solve the problem also.  But it the virus is deep and the drive is old your better off drilling the drive and getting a new one 

well if i format it will there be a way for me to tell if the virus is still on the drive

 

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the safest way? remove all other drives from the system, you boot from a linux live distro (USB / DVD) and delete the partitions from the HDD

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2 minutes ago, BurntNewt said:

will it get rid of the viruses and the os. also is there a safe way to do it without getting the virus

boot a Linux live cd and format or throw a windows installer and do it. 

 

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2 minutes ago, vorticalbox said:

boot a Linux live cd and format or throw a windows installer and do it. 

 

 

3 minutes ago, zMeul said:

the safest way? remove all other drives from the system, you boot from a linux live distro (USB / DVD) and delete the partitions from the HDD

is there a place i can get the linux cd  or file 

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5 minutes ago, BurntNewt said:

will it get rid of the viruses and the os. also is there a safe way to do it without getting the virus

just use any drive formatter. Your just overwriting the first 4kb of the drive, and once you do that, the system doesn't know where the viruses are. You won't get a virus doing this, esp if you don't moun the drive.

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3 minutes ago, BurntNewt said:

My friend has a hard drive that has viruses and wants to format them to get rid of the viruses. My question is is there a safe way to format them and refurbish them if that's even possible 

Wat just wat

I will try to decode what you are trying to say

Format = Destroy all Data by getting rid of the partition table

Safe = Save files you want

If both of these are what you were meaning then you should manually copy all of the files you want to keep to an external drive and make sure you have the windows product key. Then put your windows installer disk in the computer, boot it up select custom mode and delete all of the partitions on the os drive, and proceed to install windows. Note you will lose all of your installed programs and any data you did not back up. There is no way for a virus to still be present if you go this route

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3 minutes ago, zMeul said:

the safest way? remove all other drives from the system, you boot from a linux live distro (USB / DVD) and delete the partitions from the HDD

This ^^^ When you use linux, there's no way for a sneaky virus to copy itself to your usb or back to the drive after it's formatted, since a windows program won't run on Linux (at least not without special apps and workarounds).

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Just now, Zando Bob said:

This ^^^ When you use linux, there's no way for a sneaky virus to copy itself to your usb or back to the drive after it's formatted, since a windows program won't run on Linux (at least not without special apps and workarounds).

except when the HDD's firmware is infected - yep, that happened

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Just now, zMeul said:

except when the HDD's firmware is infected - yep, that happened

Then it's probably a good paperweight. Or shooting target, in super slo-mo.

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1 minute ago, zMeul said:

except when the HDD's firmware is infected - yep, that happened

Your talking nsa level stuff lol

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1 minute ago, NinJake said:

DBAN is your answer as long as you have a way of reinstalling Windows.

DBAN is way overkill

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if i use a external hdd reader and format thru that will it work

 

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1 hour ago, BurntNewt said:

will it get rid of the viruses and the os. also is there a safe way to do it without getting the virus

yeah it will get rid of the virus and you have to install a fresh OS.

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