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Re Format Hard Drive

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by jsah

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We have a couple of computer that we are giving away but they are loaded with important info. I thought the best way to get this off was just re format the hard drive and then re-install win98se.
What I need to know is the best way to do this?
My way is C:\format c:\
Will all my info be gone?

9 replies

by admin-stuart

You can boot from a Win98 boot floppy and enter the command format c:, however, if you have truly sensitive information that you want wiped thoroughly, just reformatting will leave your data fairly easy to retrieve by anyone with a little knowhow.
I would get a program such as WipeInfo from Symantec (part of Norton Systemworks) or some similar software and use it after reformatting to overwrite all space on the drive, perhaps multiple times before reinstalling Win98 or whatever you want.

Good luck.

by thechas

If you just perform a simple format, the data is relatively easy to retrieve.

Formatting from DOS with the /u switch will make it a lot harder for someone to reconstruct the data. But, not impossible.

To some extent, what you need to do depends on how critical the data is, and the odds of someone who gets ahold of the computer would make the effort to find and recover the data.

I would use fdisk on the drive and delete all partitions.
Re-fdisk the drive, and set up a different partition structure.

Format the drives, and install Windows.

You can take the extra step of running a drive wipe utility.

If you want to have absolute security for the information, the only way is to melt down the hard drive.

Check out this TechRepublic article, the link to the original Q&A session, and the discussion.

Don't let old data come back to haunt you

Feb 14, 2002
James Detwiler
? 2002 TechRepublic, Inc.

Chas

by timwalsh

The Symantec WipeInfo utility is the way to go. This utility includes an option called a "Government Wipe" (I have also seen other delete utilities refer to this as a "DoD Wipe" also. The "Government Wipe" is actually a DoD specification to deleteclassified information from magnetic media. This spec works on the premise that data is never truly deleted until the area in which it resided on disk is overwritten. Therefore this spec calls for the disk to be completely overwritten with 1-s andthen 0-s three times in succession and finally to be overwritten with another character. If it's good enough for the government, it is probably sufficient for your needs. ;-)

by hinrgman

Symantic Wipe-info is the way to go - also I assume the copy of win98se is a legal copy and accompanied with the disks for it. If not I would rethink what software I install on the machine before i give it away and make sure it is a legal copy.

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