Complete format on a old Hard Drive

[svance76]

I am getting rid of a old computer. I have stripped it of useable parts. The hard drive has windows XP on it and I want to just completely wipe the drive and put it into another computer to use it as extra storage and or for back up? I did not want to just throw it in the newer computer without wiping it first, didn't know if that would cause a problem when starting up cause there is 2 hdd with two different OS's plugged in. Guess the question is how do I nuke the drive clean like it just came out of the box?

[Godlygamer23]

You can put a Linux image on a flash drive or DVD, boot off of it, and use the partition manager found in there to do a format. In addition, when having both drives plugged in without reformatting the aforementioned one, you will likely get an option to boot off of one of them. Picking the main drive should work just fine.

[Arty]

insert installation media

and hit format. 

Applies to all oses.

windows xp-10

and all linux distros.

[FizzyFantom]

If you are keeping the drive yourself then the solution mentioned by @Arty will suffice. Insert any install media, start the installation, wait until the drive has been formatted then turn of the PC. The dive should then be formatted with a little data on it and can easily be reformatted in your other PC to delete said data.

 

If you want to securely wipe the drive for use by someone else I recommend you run DBAN over it. This will wipe out all the data securely (depending on the settings you use):

http://www.dban.org/

 

I hope this helps

[flibberdipper]

D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-D-DBAN!!!!!!!!

[svance76]

Thanks guys, I used Remo Drive wipe. Found it before the dban suggestion. For a while there it just looked like it was not going to take the OS off. as soon as it finished and I hit exit the screen went blue with info on it, and just to make sure I tried to start it back up and it would not boot. Said something like no bootable media found.

 

Thanks, Im just not good with the software but I can build.