Hard drive formatting

[watkid]

Hi

I need to format a hard drive so that my info on it at present cant be recovered. Does anyone know of any software I can use?

Thanks

[GreenV8S]

watkid said:

Hi I need to format a hard drive so that my info on it at present cant be recovered. Does anyone know of any software I can use? Thanks

You could make it hard to recover by using fdisk and format to delete the patitions and reformat the disk from scratch, or use a shredder to delete the sensitive files (Spybot has one for example), or just wave a strong magnet over the whole thing.

[HarryW]

Um all depends on what you've got to hide .

Seriously though the only method to make a hard drive untraceable is to physically destroy it i.e. take it apart cut the disc up and burn it. Take it from me, 'they' can recover just about anything, except from dust.

Harry

[arcturus]

You can format the hard drive with a windows startup disk, however your data will still be recoverable after the format. I am afraid it is a common myth that formatting erases all the data.

There are plenty of utilities available that will recover data from a formatted disk.

What you need to do is securely erase the disk and this is best accomplished with a specialist tool such as Eraser (www.heidi.ie/eraser/). This free tool will get rid of any sensitive data by repeatedly overwriting it with random data sequences.

[dcw@pr]

If you are on a Mac there is an option to write random data onto every sector 8 times, which should take care of your needs.

[watkid]

Thanks guys, gone for the Eraser prog

[simpo two]

I opened up my old HD and keep it as a curio on the shelf. I'm sure a good beating with a lump hammer would solve your problem. Sandpapering old client CDs is good too

[warmfuzzies]

Lol, if you're using an IBM it shouldn't take too long, just keep using it...............hahahahahahahah

Most drive manufacturers have wiping util's but I would guess seeing as nearly all the hd's today have the sector,heads,cyls data etc stored on a chip it may prove difficult to truely format your HD.

Kevin.

You could always just kill it completely........they are only afterall iron oxide on alluminium or glass platters........ ;-)))))

[squirrelz]

The only way to guarantee that data cannot be recovered off it is to physically destroy the platters.

However, writing garbage over all currently addressable sectors a number of times will be sufficient for most people.