Erase a Hard Drive?

There is no way to permanently erase a hard drive, you can format it by hooking it up to another computer. That will "erase" the drive, but data is still there that could be recovered by a professional.

But in short, the only way is to connect it to a computer.
 
If you wana "kill" your hard drive, just put a screw or two through it.
 
cohen said:
+ 1 :p
Click to expand...
BAHAHAHA!!!


look, umm if you use a strong magnet and swipe it over the hard drive a couple times that should work. they need to be pretty big though... ive used the ones found on the bottom of a 7" long magnetic tool tray. It had 2 big magnets that wiped it. note: this can permently f**k up your hard drive if the magnets are too strong.

also you can hook it up to a computer and format it like what was said but it is true a professional CAN recover information.

If you want to erase your hard drive but not take a risk of messing it up with magnets then use a program called killdisk. It is used by the dept. of homeland security it's so good. you can choose different levels anywhere from standard with 1 swipe or homeland security level with swipes it 17 times to make sure NOTHING can be recovered... may I also note I did the homeland security level and it took 7 hours aswell :eek:


Edit: If you want killdisk I have a copy of it. I would attach it but it's too big. If u need it send me a pm
 
Last edited:
I'm thinking you open it up to see what it looks like, the throw it against a wall like you would a baby bird
 
ThatGuy16 said:
There is no way to permanently erase a hard drive, you can format it by hooking it up to another computer. That will "erase" the drive, but data is still there that could be recovered by a professional.

But in short, the only way is to connect it to a computer.
Click to expand...

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

This is said to erase everything and other methods that claim to 'write zeros' should do the trick... I mentioned those other methods, if you have another PC to connect the condemned HDD to and will get the hard drive company's software, you can write zeros to an HDD by simply clicking a button. I know Western Digital has this ability..
 
if you every open up a hard drive, it is screwed for ever!
Click to expand...
With the right equipment, data off a HDD that's only been opened is quite piss-easy to recover. The only way to permanently to destroy all the data on HDDs is to smash the platters in to pieces and scatter the pieces around so that it's impossible to physically locate them.
 
Erasing a hard drive doesn't have to be destructive...

When you write zeros to a drive, it sets the value of the sectors to zero... Therefore, erasing all the data on the drive. End of story.
 
mb4 said:
Is there a way to erase a hard drive not connected to a computer, i.e. reset it?
Click to expand...


Well when I wanna clean a hard drive when I find working ones thrown away I connect it to my PC start a system format then hit "delete partition" which in my case would be D since C is my main drive.

Seems to work just fine for me...also seems to delete passwords on the drive too. People laugh but I find so many hard drives perfectly good...about 2TB worth now. (bunch of 100-200gbs)
 
/\E said:
Erasing a hard drive doesn't have to be destructive...

When you write zeros to a drive, it sets the value of the sectors to zero... Therefore, erasing all the data on the drive. End of story.
Click to expand...

Data off a HDD completely written full of zero's even several times can be recovered with fairly high rates. Of course you need specialized equipment and techies doing that, but the point is, without blowing the HDD into pieces it's almost impossible to wipe everything off your HDD.

Of course, for an average person, writing the disk full of zeros is sufficient even if he was planning to sell the drive, but we don't know what kinda life the OP's been living :P
 
hackapelite said:
Data off a HDD completely written full of zero's even several times can be recovered with fairly high rates. Of course you need specialized equipment and techies doing that, but the point is, without blowing the HDD into pieces it's almost impossible to wipe everything off your HDD.
Click to expand...

As to this date, nobody has demonstrated a recovery of a (modern) harddrive that has been overwritten with zeroes just one time.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top