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Wiping an HDD?!

LeeYoh
By LeeYoh
in Storage Devices
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Hey guys, so I have an old computer that got a rootkit virus and the pc won't turn on anymore. . .I want to use the hdd to my new pc but I'm scared the virus might transfer if I plug it in. My question is, are there ways I can format the old hdd so i can use it again?  Thanks in advance!

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yes, boot up Linux on the computer with the drive and wipe it with some partitioning tool like gparted.  That should do it.

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It shouldn't. Running a "clean all" through diskpart will get rid of it.

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14 minutes ago, LeeYoh said:

Wiping an HDD?!

I like to use microfiber cloths myself, but some people swear by baby wipes.

 
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12 minutes ago, MaxBunny said:

I like to use microfiber cloths myself, but some people swear by baby wipes.

I prefer to use my hand held vacuum with a brush head.

 

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You could use a WinPE disk/usb if you don't want to bother with Linux. From there, simply run any software that can "erase free space" like CCleaner and you should be good to go.

 

In case you don't know what "erase free space" means, long story short: Files are not really deleted when you delete them. Rather, the space they are taking up is "marked" as free and the data will be written over if and when needed. Using software to wipe your free space will essentially write unreadable data all over your disk then delete them. That way even if someone/some malware tried to recover deleted files there wouldn't really be anything there.

 
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