How to wipe hard drive?

"Haimatox" (haimatox) 03/10/2015 at 23:08 • Filed to: None

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I need a second hard drive for my PC, as my current one is almost out of storage space. I've managed to get a 250GB out of my old computer, but it may have viruses on it. Is there a way to wipe it without installing it inside my computer? I don't want to run the risk of transferring a virus onto my good PC.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:16

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Have any magnets?

Haimatox > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 03/10/2015 at 23:18

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Haha notice the "I need to use it" part.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:19

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There shouldn't be a problem plugging it in if you don't open it and just format it right away, or even better, from the BIOS.

E92M3 > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:22

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You could boot from an Ultimate Boot Disk, and wipe it. That way you're not booting up in windows to format it, and allowing a virus to propagate. There's probably utilities you can put on a thumb drive too and boot from that accomplish the same.

vert304 > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:24

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System Restore usually does the trick.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:24

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Won't magnets erase all the data? Is that not what you want? No data = no viruses.

Can it not then be reformatted for use?

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:24

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Never mind what I said in my other post. With your current computer:

1. create a bootable Ubuntu from USB using these instructions: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/deskt…

2. unplug your current hard drive, plug in the old one, and boot from the USB you just made.

3. Use Ubuntu to format the disc

4. Go back to windows on your other disc.

phenotyp > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:24

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Just format the shit out of it.

BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. > ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) 03/10/2015 at 23:25

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Magnets will destroy the drive.

ADabOfOppo; Gone Plaid (Instructables Can Be Confusable) > BmanUltima's car still hasn't been fixed yet, he'll get on it tomorrow, honest. 03/10/2015 at 23:25

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Okay.

JGrabowMSt > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:26

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Download and burn a copy of GParted Live.

Take the old drive and plug it into the new computer. Unplug your current OS drive to avoid mishaps that will not be recoverable.

Delete the drive, format it as NTFS, if you get the option do not select "Quick Format" go for the full monte and let it run through it's paces (expect it to take a few minutes).

Once it's done, shut it down, plug the OS drive back in, boot up, and delete and make a new partition within windows to avoid any issues with the filesystem.

Whatever you do, make sure you delete every partition from the old drive, including the service partition and boot sector. If you skip those, there's no guarantee you're doing the best to prevent a virus.

If that doesn't work, magnets.

extraspecialbitter > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:34

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http://www.dban.org/

Tohru > Haimatox 03/10/2015 at 23:45

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Smash with hammer. Buy 1TB drive for $50.