Wipe hard drive

[Johnathan]

hey everyone do you know if there is any way to completly wipe my hard drive without it being inside the computer? so i need to wipe everything off it so i can install xp again so any help apreciated and please make it as detailed as possible.

[P.Jovanović]

You can do that frow Windows XP installation disc. When setup ask you to choose the hard-disc partition where you want to install XP, you will find someware this text "Press THISKEY to delete partition". I forgot what key you should press, but, you shouldn't have problems, it's all written in setup.

[Johnathan]

i already tried that, thats y i was wanting to do it oputside of the actual computer

[P.Jovanović]

You can fomat you hard-drive from Hiren's Boot CD, that a bootable CD with all tools you'll ever need.

[Tomi]

I dont think theres a way to do it 'outside' the computer. Only thing you could do is put it inside a different pc and use a windows disk...

[nighthawk]

How could you format disc when it is not connetced to computer!? You could "wipe" it out with a hammer, or strong magnet.

You can delete all partitions from windows instalation, or you can delete all partitions but system partiotion from windows (computer management). Hiren's boot is also good, but maybe a little bit harder to use that win xp installation.

If you have some sensitive data that you want to destroy then you should use zero fill method.

[Tomi]

Question: Why can't it be connected to the computer?

[Johnathan]

well it can b connected to the computer but i cant actually load windows because its an old work computer and theres a system on it that i cant get into and ive tried some win 98 boot disk with fdisk on it but dat didnt really work. anyone kno wat to do with the magnet?

[nighthawk]

Dude I was joking about magnet, don't do that, that would destroy your hard drive!

Try some of the partition tools on Hiren's boot CD, if they don't work then maybe something is wrong with your hardware.

[Tomi]

Can't you get another one, i understand you may not have much money or any other reasons but hard drives are hardly expensive.