# Cleaning the hard drive?



## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

How do I wipe the hard drive clean? Want to sell our old Dell but don't want all our "STUFF"
to go with it.

Backwoods


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## Kari (Mar 24, 2008)

Some different methods:

1) Remove the drive from the old pc then either connect it via USB adaptor to the new pc or slave the slave the drive into the pc then wipe it.

Once either above option is done, download either Fileshredder or Eraser of which both are free. Install the program on your new pc *then carefully select the drive* you want to wipe. If you are not 110% sure on this process, then find* someone who is competent.*

Depending on the size of the drive, it may take anywhere from an 1 hour to several hours to securely wipe it.

Other options include: sledgehammer, axe or drilling out the drive in several places. I usually prefer wiping the drive first then let one of the able teenage boys around take out a few rounds of pent up energy on the drive with the sledgehammer. 

With the above in mind, what steps you take to wipe/destroy the hard drive is dependent on what is on the drive...and your own level of paranoia that the data could fall into the wrong hands and be used for malicious purposes of varying degrees. 

Lastly, formatting the drive does not erase the data. I just recently recovered an 80 GB hard drive for client that had been formatted 2x. The reason for the recovery was to prove a point and I was able to show the client many of his saved emails, photos (some photos were a bit embarrassing...I'll leave it at that) and other personal info.


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## JohnP (Sep 1, 2010)

If it has a floppy drive or has the ability to boot off the cd rom you don't even need to remove the drive. You can run one of the prior mentioned programs from a "bootable" disk. If you really want it clean there are programs like killdisk which is a mil spec wiping program that writes zeros and/or random characters etc to the entire drive multiple times. (the free version makes one pass of zeros)http://www.killdisk.com/
Since it's a dell, there's a real easy option. "Most dells" have a hidden restore partition to be able to restore the computer to the way it came from the factory. It will be loaded fresh with windows and all the correct drivers etc just like new. There's two options IIRC. One is non destructive meaning it keeps all your files and the other is destructive which wipes everything and that's the one you would want. To find out if it has this capability, hit Ctrl+F11 while the Dell splash screen is showing during PC start up. If it's got it, it will take you to a welcome screen in the restore program. If not, it will just go to windows. (then of course there's system restore CDs if you have them)
Information/files can still be recovered by someone like Kari who has the programs and knowledge to do so but to most people it will just be a clean fast as new PC. (at which point you may want to keep it) LOL


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## rean (Nov 18, 2008)

http://www.fdisk.com/fdisk/


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## Kari (Mar 24, 2008)

Restoring an image whether it be a factory image or an image that someone has made still has some security disadvantages. For example, if the image is 40-50 GB in size (common for Dell Win 7 pc's, my laptop has 39 GB recovery partition.) Once the image is restored, any files that you saved outside the size of the imaged space on the drive and assuming the restored image exactly overwrites the installed OS and related files, are easily recovered with any free or paid file recovery tools.

Again, it all comes to down to how sensitive the info on the drive is and your sense of paranoia that someone will attempt to recover the data.

JohnP made a good point. In my daily work, I usually just pull the drives and attach them to another pc via USB adaptor and did not think about the Bootable CD option which can be done by most people as long as the drive does not have multiple partitions that may be mistakenly wiped....which sadly happens every day.

As for using FDisk or some home-brewed flavor thereof, I would never, ever recommend this for people with limited pc tech skills...


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## chickenslayer (Apr 20, 2010)

I've sold at least 25 old computers both personal and older machines from my office, I always replace the HDD and destroy the old one.


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## fratermus (May 11, 2009)

You can make a bootable flash drive using something like the System Rescue or UBCD, and use the wipe utils there. 

I have also used a Mossberg 500 to decommission drives, but it is a bit louder and is not well-received in the suburbs.


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## rcornish (Apr 4, 2005)

I will further say that doing fdisk, does not necessarily erase all the data either. It can depending on the options and such, but if you wiped, repartioned to the sames sizes you had before, and most likely files are still there below the service.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

rcornish said:


> I will further say that doing fdisk, does not necessarily erase all the data either. It can depending on the options and such, but if you wiped, repartioned to the sames sizes you had before, and most likely files are still there below the service.


That's correct. Fdisk rewrites the partition markers, but the old data is still there. There are data recovery specialists who can recover data after a drive partition. It's expensive (a few hundred) but if someone wants your data badly enough it's possible to get it. But no one is going to do that to random hard drives without some reason to believe that there's something on the drive that will be worthwhile. 

As Keri pointed out, zero-writing the drive is the way to make your data unrecoverable.

I wouldn't go chickenslayer's route of destroying & replacing the hard drive. Hard drives are pricey, so destroying the hard drive will also destroy a lot of the financial incentive to sell a used computer. There are better options than destroying the drive.


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## chickenslayer (Apr 20, 2010)

I realize that replacing the drives does reduce the return on the sale of old machines, however in my case I deal with clients sensitive financial data so I take the better safe than sorry route.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

chickenslayer said:


> I realize that replacing the drives does reduce the return on the sale of old machines, however in my case I deal with clients sensitive financial data so I take the better safe than sorry route.


I believe zero-writing to be safe. It's free too, since most drive manufacturers provide zero-writing software that you can download for free.


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## backwoods (Sep 12, 2004)

Whew! Thanks everyone.This helps a lot.Our stuff isn't that senitive,just private.Don't
worry about anyone trying hard to get it,just don't want it to be easy.

Backwoods


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## Kari (Mar 24, 2008)

chickenslayer said:


> I realize that replacing the drives does reduce the return on the sale of old machines, however in my case I deal with clients sensitive financial data so I take the better safe than sorry route.


Same here. The drive is wiped then destroyed then returned to the owner in a small box at which time they sign off on it. What he/she does with drive after this up to them and none of my worry/concern.


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## Gary in ohio (May 11, 2002)

Since most people dont get rid of computer for 5+ years, Most hard drives have served there life and I usually don't include a hard drive when I sell a computer. A drill press and a couple of minutes will secure any data I had on the disk and the trash man can take a way the rest.

We do a similar thing at work. We work with financial data and NO disk leaves the building when computers are sold disk stay, Every few months a shredder truck shows up and we dump the disk into it, Out comes a box of meta and plastic pieces that we then dispose of.


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