Can you completely erase a HDD?

[Cokeman]

For my new upcoming build I was going to get a WD blue 1tb HDD. But I do have a 500gb WD blue drive in my old computer that's full of viruses and junk, so can I take that HDD and completely erase it?

[Excon]

You can reformat it. The way harddrives work the data is never really gone

[Askew]

For your purpose yes, easily just format it.

[strawberrymaker]

For your purpose yes, easily just format it.

And uncheck the "fast format" option

 

~Straw

[DigitalHermit]

@Cokeman

This should do the trick: http://www.dban.org/

 

The best way to actually erase all the data on the drive is to overwrite everything, even the empty sectors...

 

Edit:

If you really want to get rid of the data, you can physically break it, or expose it to a strong electromagnet (like the ones used in junk yards)...

[Askew]

And uncheck the "fast format" option

 

~Straw

 

Won't make any difference, it'll just slow it down for nothing.

[loepa]

Use program called Dban or Nwipe to erase a hdd. But the best way to wipe a hdd is by destroying it.

[Tro]

A kill disk works. 

[Geekazoid]

You can reformat it. The way harddrives work the data is never really gone

Which means the "viruses and junk" is never really gone. From my memory it just gets really

compressed and put to an unreadable part of the HDD. But I could be wrong about that. :unsure:

[strawberrymaker]

Won't make any difference, it'll just slow it down for nothing.

really? thought with fast format it will just erase the table of content

 

~Straw

[DigitalHermit]

Which means the "viruses and junk" is never really gone. From my memory it just gets really

compressed and put to an unreadable part of the HDD. But I could be wrong about that. :unsure:

 

The sectors where those things are stored in are just marked as blank until they are overwritten...

[juretrn]

It's actually really hard to completely erase a HDD, the NSA would be able to read it even if it were formatted. 

To be completely safe, only a "hard format" would work -> phisically shredding the drive.

[Geekazoid]

If you're the "strawberry maker", can I have a strawberry please? (JK)

@strawberrymaker

[Geekazoid]

It's actually really hard to completely erase a HDD, the NSA would be able to read it even if it were formatted. 

To be completely safe, only a "hard format" would work -> phisically shredding the drive.

A paper shredder should do the trick. (JK)

[Askew]

really? thought with fast format it will just erase the table of content

 

~Straw

 

It does, which is good enough for his uses of repurposing the drive in a new pc, none of the old data will be seen by the computer and it will get written over.

[Geekazoid]

The sectors where those things are stored in are just marked as blank until they are overwritten...

Ah I see. Learn something new everyday.

[Speedbird]

Use a Linux Live DVD with GParted on it and write a new partition table. To software, the disk is completely blank.

[R2D2_WD]

Hi there,

If you need an effective way to erase your data, I advise you to use the WD software, Data Lifeguard Diagnostics. Use the Write Zeros option (Full Erase), which writes zeros to each drive sector.
Have in mind that the process may take a little longer to complete.

 

http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?groupid=810&sid=3〈=en – Download Data Lifeguard Diagnostics
http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1211 – How to write zeros with DLG

 

Hope this helped

[13CA350]

Technically yes, but you can always get back whats erased on an HDD. Google punctures a 3 inch circular hole through the middle of their HDD then breaks it into little pieces