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Wiping a Hard Drive

Toysoldiers35
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Hi, I have a 2 TB hard drive with windows 7. I have nothing on it that i need to keep and I need to wipe the drive completely. Can anyone point me in a direction to doing so. I will be running a new os (windows 10) on it afterwards. Thanks!

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If you want to delete the os then use DBAN (Derek's Boot and Nuke)

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8 minutes ago, Toysoldiers35 said:

Hi, I have a 2 TB hard drive with windows 7. I have nothing on it that i need to keep and I need to wipe the drive completely. Can anyone point me in a direction to doing so. I will be running a new os (windows 10) on it afterwards. Thanks!

If you're going to use the drive for a new OS...  Just do a reinstall of the OS following my guide below.  It will rewrite all of the data on the disk anyways, making the old data completely irretrievable.

 

Please spend as much time writing your question, as you want me to spend responding to it.  Take some time, and explain your issue, please!

Spoiler

If you need to learn how to install Windows, check here:  http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/324871-guide-how-to-install-windows-the-right-way/

Event Viewer 101: https://youtu.be/GiF9N3fJbnE

 

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9 minutes ago, PokeCatz said:

If you want to delete the os then use DBAN (Derek's Boot and Nuke)

Only use DBAN if you need to perform Data destruction. If you were doing shady stuff with your PC and you need to wipe the slate totally clean, then use DBAN. Keep in mind though, it puts a LOT of stress on your HDD.

 

If you're just looking to bomb Windows 7, I think Win10 has a format HDD option in the installation process, but I could be wrong. If so, Use a Linux live CD (or USB flash drive) and open GParted. Create a new Partition Table. Then format it for NTFS or FAT32 or whatever. If you can use Windows to format the drive from a separate boot device, that would be best, but formatting with GParted in Linux works just fine.

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if oyu are just installing windows 10, when you boot up from the usb, theres an option to delete the old partition on the hdd

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Just upgrade to 10 and you'll get the same version of 10 as the version of 7 you have. Then you just reinstall windows 10 and do a clean reinstall, you continue without putting in a serial number and it will activate when it gets online. Then you have a clean install. That is assuming you WANT to use the free upgrade offer !\

 

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1 minute ago, royalcrown said:

Just upgrade to 10 and you'll get the same version of 10 as the version of 7 you have. Then you just reinstall windows 10 and do a clean reinstall, you continue without putting in a serial number and it will activate when it gets online. Then you have a clean install.

You can just do a clean install now.  No need to do a upgrade install.  Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 product keys will DIRECTLY activate a Windows 10 install.

 

Please spend as much time writing your question, as you want me to spend responding to it.  Take some time, and explain your issue, please!

Spoiler

If you need to learn how to install Windows, check here:  http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/324871-guide-how-to-install-windows-the-right-way/

Event Viewer 101: https://youtu.be/GiF9N3fJbnE

 

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3 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

You can just do a clean install now.  No need to do a upgrade install.  Windows 7, 8, and 8.1 product keys will DIRECTLY activate a Windows 10 install.

 

Don't you need to upgrade to tie the windows 10 key to the hardware and the windows 7 license ? I don't think it will just "upgrade" from a bare drive, will it ? If so, then I am surprised. 

 

EDIT: I mean the 1st time only.

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Is the upgrade offer for 1 year only or for as long as the pc works for windows 10. I do not want it to revert back to windows 7 a year down the line.

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7 minutes ago, royalcrown said:

Don't you need to upgrade to tie the windows 10 key to the hardware and the windows 7 license ? I don't think it will just "upgrade" from a bare drive, will it ? If so, then I am surprised. 

 

EDIT: I mean the 1st time only.

Not since the Feb 2016 Update.  It will AUTOMAGICLY know that xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx is a Windows 7 key, and they know that Windows 7 users are going to just upgrade anyways.

 

They realized its easier for them to allow you to just do a clean install, instead of reinstalling Windows 8, upgrading Windows 8 to a point where you can upgrade to Windows 8.1, then upgrading Windows 8.1 to a point where it can upgrade to Windows 10, and finally upgrading Windows 10 some more  so its current (of course each one of these puts massive amounts of strain on their datacenters hosting the update files.

Please spend as much time writing your question, as you want me to spend responding to it.  Take some time, and explain your issue, please!

Spoiler

If you need to learn how to install Windows, check here:  http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/324871-guide-how-to-install-windows-the-right-way/

Event Viewer 101: https://youtu.be/GiF9N3fJbnE

 

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3 minutes ago, JefferyD90 said:

Not since the Feb 2016 Update.  It will AUTOMAGICLY know that xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx-xxxxx is a Windows 7 key, and they know that Windows 7 users are going to just upgrade anyways.

 

They realized its easier for them to allow you to just do a clean install, instead of reinstalling Windows 8, upgrading Windows 8 to a point where you can upgrade to Windows 8.1, then upgrading Windows 8.1 to a point where it can upgrade to Windows 10, and finally upgrading Windows 10 some more  so its current (of course each one of these puts massive amounts of strain on their datacenters hosting the update files.

Okay, but you can also just go from 7 to 10 too and skip 8. My stepson had to do it, and had to just end up making a usb key and skipping the serial number, but he had 7 on the drive, so I assumed it checked for windows installs when he ran it off the USB drive. If that is no longer needed then that is even better. He did his in Jan, so it was a pain because he had no working OS except for an old 7 install from his dead laptop. We just hooked up the drive to his new desktop and tried to clone 7 to his new drive. then "upgrade it Acronis kept fucking up during the clone, so then we just made him a USB key and did a clean install to the empty desktop drive while leaving the old laptop drive plugged in too.

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40 minutes ago, royalcrown said:

Okay, but you can also just go from 7 to 10 too and skip 8. My stepson had to do it, and had to just end up making a usb key and skipping the serial number, but he had 7 on the drive, so I assumed it checked for windows installs when he ran it off the USB drive. If that is no longer needed then that is even better. He did his in Jan, so it was a pain because he had no working OS except for an old 7 install from his dead laptop. We just hooked up the drive to his new desktop and tried to clone 7 to his new drive. then "upgrade it Acronis kept fucking up during the clone, so then we just made him a USB key and did a clean install to the empty desktop drive while leaving the old laptop drive plugged in too.

Did I say you cant go from Windows 7 to Windows 10?  As a matter of fact, it would be impossible to do a upgrade from Windows 7 to Windows 8 without purchasing a separate key, at which point you could just do the clean install.

Please spend as much time writing your question, as you want me to spend responding to it.  Take some time, and explain your issue, please!

Spoiler

If you need to learn how to install Windows, check here:  http://linustechtips.com/main/topic/324871-guide-how-to-install-windows-the-right-way/

Event Viewer 101: https://youtu.be/GiF9N3fJbnE

 

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Not saying you said it, just throwing it out there. No offense meant if you already knew it.

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