I have to give my computer to someone and I want to delete all of my files before then. Everything I have read requires a boot disk and my A drive does not work. I am using Windows XP. I know I can select boot from CD/ROM in the BIOS, but I do not want to reinstall an OS or any other software. Is there a way I can wipe my hard drive clean without having to reinstall anything, as I do not have a Windows CD to reinstall?
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How do I reformat my hard drive? 3
- Thread starter pcstupid
- Start date
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First, download a correct boot disk image from here.
Place that image on a floppy and reboot the PC (from the floppy, of course).
Use FDISK to erase all partitions and create a new one.
Technically, you can even stop before creating a new one, since the new user will have to do so to use the disk.
If you have any personal details of importance, you can download a wipe program and use that before removing the partitions.
But really, if the new user does not know much about PCs, I wouldn't worry about him stealing info once the partition has been removed.
Pascal.
Place that image on a floppy and reboot the PC (from the floppy, of course).
Use FDISK to erase all partitions and create a new one.
Technically, you can even stop before creating a new one, since the new user will have to do so to use the disk.
If you have any personal details of importance, you can download a wipe program and use that before removing the partitions.
But really, if the new user does not know much about PCs, I wouldn't worry about him stealing info once the partition has been removed.
Pascal.
Ouch, bad read. You don't have a working floppy drive.
Do you have a working CD-RW drive ?
In that case, burn the image to a bootable CD with whatever CD burning app came with your drive.
If you have no CD burner, I'd suggest investing $10 in a working floppy drive, or arranging with someone else to lend you one.
Or take the drive out of the PC and have someone else erase it.
Pascal.
Do you have a working CD-RW drive ?
In that case, burn the image to a bootable CD with whatever CD burning app came with your drive.
If you have no CD burner, I'd suggest investing $10 in a working floppy drive, or arranging with someone else to lend you one.
Or take the drive out of the PC and have someone else erase it.
Pascal.
- Thread starter
- #4
Nope, the CD-RW drive doesn't work either. The person I have to give it to is a network engineer and, unfortunately, my ex-husband. He is only going to use it for parts, which is why I am not concerned about reinstalling anything. I was told to just hit F8 to get the boot screen and then go the command prompt and enter format C: My only concern is that there is a way for him to go back in and retrieve my files as sneaky as he is. I have financial files that I do not want him to have access to.
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- #5
No, once you format the drive and put a file on it thares no way you can recover it, after you format it just creat a blank folder on the desktop or in dos or whatever, but once a hardrive is formated and writen to it is very very very hard to get information off of its beviouse format. unless hes a obsessed phyco that will do anything to get your info you should be fine. just do that i told you to, it should work fine.
Maybe you can download a shredder program and destroy the content of your financial files before formatting.
A shredder program takes a file, fills it with random, meaningless content, and then deletes it.
Even if he is a raving psycho, he doesn't stand a chance of recovering anything of value from that.
Pascal.
A shredder program takes a file, fills it with random, meaningless content, and then deletes it.
Even if he is a raving psycho, he doesn't stand a chance of recovering anything of value from that.
Pascal.
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- #7
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