Stupid question about drive wiping

[dizmo]

I'm looking to delete the data from 2 drives; one had Windows on it.

Can I simply plug these into a different computer and wipe them that way, or will the fact that there's 2 drives with Windows on them cause some kind of conflict?

[SeanAngelo]

1 minute ago, dizmo said:

I'm looking to delete the data from 2 drives; one had Windows on it.

Can I simply plug these into a different computer and wipe them that way, or will the fact that there's 2 drives with Windows on them cause some kind of conflict?

afaik, you need to plug one in, wipe it. plug second, wipe it.

[ProjectBox153]

As long as you don't need the data, put them in a computer, go into Disk Management and delete all partitions from the drives to be wiped.

[TheGlenlivet]

If both drives have windows take your time and make SURE you have the correct drive in the correct place before you start deleting stuff.  

[sanosuke001]

Just set the proper boot device in the BIOS and it won't try to boot from the wrong drive. Then, format away!

[dizmo]

5 minutes ago, Jamiec1130 said:

As long as you don't need the data, put them in a computer, go into Disk Management and delete all partitions from the drives to be wiped.

So it won't try to boot from the drives that I plug in? It's a friends old rig, we can't wipe them from the old PC because it has cooler and BIOS issues, and I just don't want it to somehow screw up his current rig.

2 minutes ago, TheGlenlivet said:

If both drives have windows take your time and make SURE you have the correct drive in the correct place before you start deleting stuff.  

They're both pretty different so I think it'll be fine that way

Just now, sanosuke001 said:

Just set the proper boot device in the BIOS and it won't try to boot from the wrong drive. Then, format away!

It doesn't change the boot device from the one that's already selected right?

[ProjectBox153]

Just now, dizmo said:

So it won't try to boot from the drives that I plug in? It's a friends old rig, we can't wipe them from the old PC because it has cooler and BIOS issues, and I just don't want it to somehow screw up his current rig.

If they're SATA drives, just boot your system fully and then plug them in. Make sure they have SATA cables and power cables available. It's fine, I do that all the time.

[dizmo]

1 minute ago, Jamiec1130 said:

If they're SATA drives, just boot your system fully and then plug them in. Make sure they have SATA cables and power cables available. It's fine, I do that all the time.

Ok cool.

You boot the system and then plug them in? Not before? They show up without rebooting?

As you can tell I never really install new drives

[Mira Yurizaki]

11 minutes ago, dizmo said:

Ok cool.

You boot the system and then plug them in? Not before? They show up without rebooting?

As you can tell I never really install new drives

SATA is hotswappable, but it's not configured by default. So you have to install them before you power on the machine unless you configured your SATA ports to be hotswappable.

[dizmo]

58 minutes ago, M.Yurizaki said:

SATA is hotswappable, but it's not configured by default. So you have to install them before you power on the machine unless you configured your SATA ports to be hotswappable.

Didn't know that! Learn something new every day.

I'm guessing the setting is in the BIOS?

[ProjectBox153]

1 hour ago, M.Yurizaki said:

SATA is hotswappable, but it's not configured by default. So you have to install them before you power on the machine unless you configured your SATA ports to be hotswappable.

Really? I've heard of this, but never had to do it on any of my computers. 

[Mira Yurizaki]

1 hour ago, dizmo said:

Didn't know that! Learn something new every day.

I'm guessing the setting is in the BIOS?

Yes. As a side effect it causes Windows to also think they're removable drives like USB drives.

1 hour ago, Jamiec1130 said:

Really? I've heard of this, but never had to do it on any of my computers. 

It's probably more useful for servers or other computers that often switch drives.

[sanosuke001]

On 2/27/2018 at 2:10 PM, dizmo said:

It doesn't change the boot device from the one that's already selected right?

It might; depending on what ports your were using previously the new port might be more "perferred" e.g. if you had a SATA HDD/SSD plugged into SATA port 5 and then plugged something new into SATA port 1 it might switch it to port 1 to boot from. When you change around your hardware setup (especially with drives) it's always a good idea to check your boot order settings.