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How to wipe hard drive clean 1
- Thread starter rufus40
- Start date
Just boot up from DOS diskette with fdisk.com & format.com on it.
After booting type
a:>fdisk<Enter>
In fdisk menu select "3. Delete partition.." and delete all partitions on your hard disk following onscreen instructions. When "no partition defined" appears, select "1. Create partition..." and create one or more partitions as you wish. If more then one partition will be created you will have to define logical drives in extended partition. Just do it. Exit from fdisk with Esc and reboot the system.
After rebooting type
a:>format c: /s<Enter>
and type "Y" when asked to process.
If more than one partition creted, repeat last command for d:, e:, ... drive without "/s" option.
Eject floppy from drive and reboot the system. The system must to be booted from HDD containing nothing but system.
After booting type
a:>fdisk<Enter>
In fdisk menu select "3. Delete partition.." and delete all partitions on your hard disk following onscreen instructions. When "no partition defined" appears, select "1. Create partition..." and create one or more partitions as you wish. If more then one partition will be created you will have to define logical drives in extended partition. Just do it. Exit from fdisk with Esc and reboot the system.
After rebooting type
a:>format c: /s<Enter>
and type "Y" when asked to process.
If more than one partition creted, repeat last command for d:, e:, ... drive without "/s" option.
Eject floppy from drive and reboot the system. The system must to be booted from HDD containing nothing but system.
zerocool32084
Technical User
fdisk doesnt delete all info even if u delete partition i have seen forensic software recove many deleted partition and the info on it. If you really want to clean your hard disk drive to DOD (Department Of Defense) standards I recommend WIPE DRIVE by Access Data. If you are interested you can find this software at
ciscogeek36
IS-IT--Management
you can also use the 'debug' command to wipe a drive, usually for an ntfs partition, but works for all. and it wipes a drive by writing zeros to the disk. fdisk is the easiest, but i like using debug just because it's fun
Further to tyrantSSV's post, if you have more than one partition you first have to run 'fdisk' by allowing your computer to boot from an emergency boot floppy as he described (by typing fdisk at the prompt when everything has finished loading - opting to not have CD-ROM support at this stage).
First you must DELETE LOGICAL DRIVES WITHIN THE EXTENDED DOS PARTITION, then you must DELETE EXTENDED DOS PARTITION, then DELETE PRIMARY DOS PARTITION.
It is a good idea to exit fdisk and re-start the computer between every step.
I'm not entirely sure if this is necessary, but I have experienced problems when not doing that.
My suggestions are what I would try myself. If incorrect, I welcome corrections to my rather limited knowledge. Andy.
First you must DELETE LOGICAL DRIVES WITHIN THE EXTENDED DOS PARTITION, then you must DELETE EXTENDED DOS PARTITION, then DELETE PRIMARY DOS PARTITION.
It is a good idea to exit fdisk and re-start the computer between every step.
I'm not entirely sure if this is necessary, but I have experienced problems when not doing that.
My suggestions are what I would try myself. If incorrect, I welcome corrections to my rather limited knowledge. Andy.
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