Windows Forum

Ask something
Discussion Locked

Wiping Clean a Hard Drive

0 helpful
14 replies

by mckaytech 1 view

Closed to new repliesThis discussion is closed. It stays readable, but it takes no new replies.

I have a couple hundred de-commissioned PCs that need to have their hard drives wiped clean before they can be sent to surplus.

Bulk erasing with a powerful magnet has been proposed but I'm concerned that this will damage the drive mechanism. I'm inclined to use a wipedisk utility although this will be time-intensive.

Can anyone offer any opinions or experiences on methods they have used?

paul

14 replies

by mikeheitz

I would go with FDISK. It will abviously blow away the entire drive partition, but if that is what you are looking to do, it is fairly quick.

From a DOS prompt, just run FDISK...option 3 allows you tro delete a Primary DOS partition. It blows away the entire partition, so data, OS, everything is gone.

If you are looking just to remove the data and leave a generic OS image on each PC, you can try using Ghost, setting up a generic image on the first machine, and then put that image on eachmachine after it.

by mckaytech

Unfortunately, the data is still recoverable - we're a government agency so we have to make sure no confidential data can be recovered. But thanks for the Ghost idea - I'll have to give that some thought!

by lewey04

Our company does this routinely and we use a program called
* DECLASFY: WIll overwrite (declasify) hard drives. Its predecessor was certified by Air Force Cryptographic

There is another program out there called Erasor 2.0 that does a decent job. You can go to : www.lunerouge.com/freeware/freeware_e.htm

As far as the Fdisk idea. That isn't bad but the data is still physically there. Hope this helps. Good luck.

by sonnysan

On startup, boot from the os disk. A blue screen will appear and ask you for clean install. The next option will ask you to go along with the install, create partitions, or delete partitions. Press C to delete selected partitions, select the drive, and press L to complete the process. It will take about 1 second to unformat the drive. This is the equivilant of fdisk. Just wanted to tell you about another option.

by rogerndgreen

If the PCs are to be sent to surplus, do they still remain your problem? If not, what is the problem with bulk erasing via magnetic fields?
You could always put a disclaimer as to the future (un)reliability ;-)

by mckaytech

Well, one of our department heads suggested just drilling a hole through the drive, if that tells you anything. But these will be recycled to other agencies, most likely.

by tech

Try Fdisk with the switch /w - this will wipe the disk and the FAT records. Remove all partitions and the disk should be clean.

JOHN

by aaron_wurthmann

I started to answer this question with a "Paul, why are you asking us how to fdisk or type format from a boot floppy I know you know to do that?" Then I reread the question.. How many machines/drives? I have seen / heard of a device that is made to image hard drives for manufacturing purposes. I.E. Compaq takes 100 drives plugs them into this baby and propigates an image to them. Sort of like a hardware version of Ghost or DriveImage. I'll see where you could get one and e-mail you. Then you could just format one drive call it the master and plug the other drives into it. I guess you could also boot the machines via a scipted boot floppy to format them, but that still sounds like a lot of work.

by mckaytech

I'm starting to think this might be on the right track - I want to make any data unrecoverable without damaging the drives. Thanks!

by mckaytech

Aaron - remember I live in Arizona! We have to steal our water from other states... :-)
But thanks for the thought!

This discussion is closed to new replies.