# How to wipe a hard drive



## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

I need a program or instructions on zero out a hard drive becuase my computer will not run any programs.

The only thing that wors properly are the startup menus such as the f12 boot menu and f2 system setup (So far those are the only startup menus I have been on). 

If I start Windows regularly it will load with huge lag and also many error message popups. Tried to run AV programs but it only got worse. I need to know how to wipe my hard drive clean. I have a dell dimensions 8400.


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## erocker (Apr 24, 2009)

Insert your Window disk and set your bios to boot from the CD Drive.  Once it starts up you will come up with an option to format your drive.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

erocker said:


> Insert your Window disk and set your bios to boot from the CD Drive.  Once it starts up you will come up with an option to format your drive.



Sounds good, but I can't load any cds upon boot or even in windows.

 I tried to run Win XP pro cd my friend made for me. It wouldn't work becuase The software is so corrupted. The hard drive itself is fine I just need a way to completely wipe the hard drive of everything.

 I don't want to just reinstall over the corrupt mess of windows. I want to start over not reinstall brand new OS and have corrupted programs, settings, or info


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## sneekypeet (Apr 24, 2009)

Take the drive out and do it with another PC through windows disc management.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

I did use the cd my friend gave to me. It is a copy of win XP pro on cd that worked fine for everyone else(I know it is not the cd).The cd started a program and it looked like what I expected - a good copy of windows (doing what it is supposed to), but the result is a screen with options like press enter for complete erase, press r for recovery assistance, or esc for exit and reboot. 

Then I press enter to completely erase, that leads to another screen where it says that there was some kind of software failure and offers only one choice which is rebooting. I loaded the cd from boot menu again and pressed the r button instead of the enter key and the same exact screen came up to it limited my choice only to reboot.

Sadly that did not work out for me and I need this done soon...

Thanks for all the help guys


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

I like sneekypeet's idea. I will try that peet. Can you give me any ideas on how to do that. After I remove the hard drive then I plug to new computer. Then how do I manage this hard drive? Thanks for the post.


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## 2wicked (Apr 24, 2009)

Killdisk is a good hard drive eraser if you are still looking for suggestions.
http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm


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## MoonPig (Apr 24, 2009)

rightclick 'My Compuer' and select 'Manage', then select the drive and format it.


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## A Cheese Danish (Apr 24, 2009)

floridajerseyguy said:


> I like sneekypeet's idea. I will try that peet. Can you give me any ideas on how to do that. After I remove the hard drive then I plug to new computer. Then how do I manage this hard drive? Thanks for the post.



First you have to get to Control Panel then select Administrative Tools. Select Computer Management. In the left hand side of the window, select Disk Management, it will be under the Storage tab.
After that, look for your drive on the right side. If you found it great! Right click the drive, either the top or bottom portion of the screen, select Format. Keep the settings it has unless you want to change the label of the drive.
Then just select OK and it should be done in no more than a half hour.


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## Polarman (Apr 24, 2009)

The drives manufacturer should have a diagnostics/utilities disk to help you out. It usually contains a zero-fill program inside.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

*Thanks guys*

My Special thanks goes out to all those involved with posting a reply on this thread. 


I have been helped tremendously by a few who suggested I take out the hard drive and clean it up on another system. 


That is something I had not tried yet. I have another system readily available and it makes a lot of sense.


I do have a few questions though: After I take out the hard drive and connect it to a new system, 


Will I be able to run something more advanced than the built in OS drive manager to more completely wipe the drive (i.e. kill disk)?


What I am asking is: Can I run "kill disk" on the old hard drive from the other computer instead of the Windows program that does the same thing? 


I am going to try to disconnect the hard drive today, but I don't know if running the kill disk program from the other computer would be the most efficient and complete way to clean the drive.


Is that something that I would even want to do, Peet? Would that work? What do you think, cheese?


Does kill disk cost money? Do I get the free download off that site you gave me, 2wicked?


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## Kreij (Apr 24, 2009)

If you cannot even boot from a CD then I would think your motherboard BIOS has a problem.
I would reset the BIOS on the MB so it only has the default settings and try again.
When you boot your system from a CD, the HD should not even be in the picture.
If when you attempt to access the HD it gives you errors, I would suspect something wrong with the drive.
You should not be having this much problem trying to do a simple reformat.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

Hey guys 

Ok so I got kill drive going in safe mode. The problem was that was trying to run the cd before windows booted up.

 I just booted safe mode and after a couple of boot trys I got safe mode running. 

Then I went to my computer and accessed the iso cd with kill drive on it and ran it. 

Now I have the cd my friend gave me with win xp pro. So I should be fine. 

Thanks to kreij and modder for the additions.


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## Kreij (Apr 24, 2009)

If things do not go well for you post more information.
The people on TPU are all about helping people with problems (or at least trying).


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## Shadin (Apr 24, 2009)

The best utility to use to wipe a hard drive is definitely DBAN.  You can do an all-out wipe, or simply write all zeroes to the drive.

http://www.dban.org/


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

I really appreciate the help. I ran Kill Disk and it worked fine. Is there a reason to run dban too? 

Now I get a prompt for A: drive

I have the windos xp cd and now I am just not sure how to initiate the cd to install windows.


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## sneekypeet (Apr 24, 2009)

go into bios and tell the boot devics to boot CD/DVD first then HDD second, you can disable the rest for the time being. ( you can leave "other boot devices" on enabled)

Seems to me its booting to floppy first as any bios will do in stock settings.


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## Shadin (Apr 24, 2009)

floridajerseyguy said:


> I really appreciate the help. I ran Kill Disk and it worked fine. Is there a reason to run dban too?
> 
> Now I get a prompt for A: drive
> 
> I have the windos xp cd and now I am just not sure how to initiate the cd to install windows.



If you got the desired result and everything is working fine, then I wouldn't worry with running anything else.   DBAN would be a good choice to run if you ever sell the drive and want to make sure it's completely unrecoverable.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

*Almost out of the woods*



sneekypeet said:


> go into bios and tell the boot devics to boot CD/DVD first then HDD second, you can disable the rest for the time being. ( you can leave "other boot devices" on enabled)



The Kill Disk worked just like it advertised.

Ok so I went into bios and enabled the cd/dvd and then I exited setup and did the 

ctrl+alt+delete to reboot. Then I turned it off and I came back after a couple minutes. 

Computer boots directly into cd setup when I turn it on. Windows setup tries to run and actually runs for about

three or four minutes, but it goes to a blue screen just like before. The blue screen with option 

to install windows and recover windows is just leading me to a screen that reboots and 

quits setup no matter what option I chose. None of the options offered by the screen go anywhere. 

It did the same thing it has always done when I try to boot to that cd, but the Kill Disk worked.

It is probably the format of the cd. I am going take care of that ASAP


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## eidairaman1 (Apr 24, 2009)

fgguy here is right, killdisk does a pretty good job of zeroizing a HD, even in its free version, Id recommend it for clean starts.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

ARghhh! I am still getting the damn blue screen saying that the hard drive is not able to be read. 

What do I do?


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

I have this screen.
http://web.qx.net/rburgess/storage/XPrepair/2.gif

But not this screen
http://web.qx.net/rburgess/storage/XPrepair/3.gif

How do I get to this screen?
http://web.qx.net/rburgess/storage/XPrepair/bios.gif


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

Kill disk


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## sneekypeet (Apr 24, 2009)

floridajerseyguy said:


> How do I get to this screen?
> http://web.qx.net/rburgess/storage/XPrepair/bios.gif



Get into bios by resetting the PC and tap delete repeatedly till you get to bios. Then look at the top left menues. One of the first two or 3 selections will show you the boot priority window you seek. I will say this much, it wont matter if the XP disc is already being seen and attempting to boot.

The issues really seems more serious to me. 3 things I would check at this point.

I assume the PC is clean, it is summer now and fur coats are out anyways.

Is the ram stable? Get a copy of Memtest86+ iso and make a bootable for it. Runs automatically on boot.

The last thing is the PSU. If you have access to a Digital multimeter, you can probe the 24 pin wires or molex connection to see what the actual 12V, 3.3V, and 5V rails are pushing.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

NOW bios seems to not boot up. I don't know what to do.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

sneekypeet said:


> I assume the PC is clean, it is summer now and fur coats are out anyways.
> 
> The last thing is the PSU. If you have access to a Digital multimeter, you can probe the 24 pin wires or molex connection to see what the actual 12V, 3.3V, and 5V rails are pushing.



I don't know about summer and fur coats- do you mean dust?
hardware is fine i think. Could not get mem test 86 to work. 
Downloaded it from a site and could not get that iso to install. Don't have digi multimeter.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 24, 2009)

modder said:


> use DBAN only ,i had the same problem with killdisk.Is not necessary to wipe all the drive ,only boot sector is needed (wait 2~%).
> check list:
> -Verify again if all cable are correctly plugged
> -disconnect the floppy drive and unneeded hard drive if you have more than one
> ...



modder I already used kill-disk. The deletion is done, I need to reinstall everything.


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## floridajerseyguy (Apr 25, 2009)

*Full Update*

I boot computer... Black screen

1.)  I hit delete > I get the bios loading info but bios never loads

2.) I hit f2 for setup menu > blue screen menu's with all components and settings > leave    there and reboot

3.) I hit f12 for boot menu > hard drive diag disabled > cd won't boot mem test on iso cd 

4.) I let it boot up with no interferance > nothing happens


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