Wiping HDD clean.

[Matt_TPrice]

What is the best way to wipe a HDD completely?

[Jimbo]

Reformat it.

[Matt_TPrice]

Reformat it.

I figured that would be the best way. Thanks

[mybeat]

Reformat it.

This won't destroy the data.

 

 

What is the best way to wipe a HDD completely?

Under windows, delete everything from the HDD and use Eraser to wipe out empty blocks.

There's also hdd nuke but it needs to be boot into separately. 

[swifty7]

low level format

[J-man]

There are different levels of erased.  I am no expert but I believe you have to run something such as Killdisk many times to clear everything.  For some reason, the numbers 16 and 32 pop into my head.

[orangecat]

Secure wipe is the only way to truly remove the information. Why do you need to anyways it won't affect performance are the feds after you LOL.

[fishymamba]

This: http://sourceforge.net/projects/dban/

Best way to wipe a hard drive completely, but it will take time. 

Use this to put the iso file on a usb drive: http://rufus.akeo.ie/  

[kirashi]

If it's not the system disk, or you can connect it to another PC, start with a format in Windows if you like, but as others have said, anyone with enough time and ability to learn simple recovery programs will indeed be able to access the "1975 Tax Files" folder we know you're trying to hide :D

 

Use Derek's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) or a similar tool to write over the drive with 0's or write over the drive with random data.

[xXxYOLOxSWAGxXx_420BlazeIt]

Boot up a Ubuntu disk and as root do:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdx

 

where x is the disk.

[Tigerbomb8]

if you are going to reuse the drive just reformat it. if the feds are after you smash that thing on the ground...