Author Topic: Wiping a hard disk back to 'as bought' condition  (Read 802 times)

ivan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1617
  • Karma: +20/-0
    • View Profile
Wiping a hard disk back to 'as bought' condition
« on: January 13, 2025, 07:05:51 pm »
Do we have a way/program that will wipe a hard disk back to 'as new' state?

I ask because since my computer  was messed up by friends trying to use windows on it, I am unable to run many of the programs I used to, it will lock up for no known reason, programs that I used every day no longer start.  I used to have an up time of several weeks now I am lucky to get a day.  I can't afford to get a  new multi TB disk, my pension doesn't allow that kind of expenditure (in the summer not a big problem but with the temp down to 4 C not an option.

Dave Yeo

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 5211
  • Karma: +119/-1
    • View Profile
Re: Wiping a hard disk back to 'as bought' condition
« Reply #1 on: January 13, 2025, 08:12:33 pm »
DFSee has an option to wipe the beginning of the drive. Assuming you are doing MBR booting, this will basically blank the drive as far as partitioning tools are concerned.
Mode=FDISK-->Wipe Start of Disk to Zero, then pick your drive

Dariusz Piatkowski

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1399
  • Karma: +27/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Wiping a hard disk back to 'as bought' condition
« Reply #2 on: January 14, 2025, 12:06:02 am »
Most storage (if not all?) have that whole 'Secure Erase/Wipe' function...the intention is to do precisely what you want, and more...as in literally wipe out complete HD. Often times that can be accessed through BIOS, although the other stuff probably doesn't have that.

You can typically d/l the HDD manufacturer specific utility however, so that might be worth considering?

There are open source options as well, see http://www.dban.org/

Otherwise, to properly set up for a fresh install what Dave suggests should be plenty powerful!!!

ivan

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 1617
  • Karma: +20/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Wiping a hard disk back to 'as bought' condition
« Reply #3 on: January 14, 2025, 09:01:36 am »
Thank you gentlemen, I have tried what you suggest but see no improvement so I will use my Linux computer to see if there might be a solution there.

Andrew Stephenson

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 40
  • Karma: +1/-0
    • View Profile
Re: Wiping a hard disk back to 'as bought' condition
« Reply #4 on: January 14, 2025, 09:27:55 am »
Do we have a way/program that will wipe a hard disk back to 'as new' state?
[...]

On top of what others have suggested/said, ISTR that, should you ever need to do a "security erase" on a mechanical HDD, even track-overwriting can fail. The reasoning: each write operation on a mechanical drive is liable to wander slightly, owing to temperature-based expansion/contraction, physical slackness of bearings &c; so the recording operation that laid down the precious information is unlikely to register perfectly with the erase operation; and careful disassembly of the HDD and analysis of what is on the disks may reveal enough of the "erased" data track(s).

So, should you ever have to dispose of a mechanical HDD with top-secret stuff on it, consider taking it out of the computer and burning it in a hot fire.

Whether similar "gotchas" apply to solid state HDDs, I dunno. For normal purposes, I tend to agree with others' suggestions -- but I see you replied while I have been typing this, so maybe the HDD is faulty? (FWIW, ISTR DRDOS-7 has a mode in XDEL that overwrites every file with blanks.)

Last Moment Thought: once, MS-DOS saw an important 3.5" floppy formatted under OS/2, decided it was mis-formatted and (without asking) messed with details such as to make it "faulty" under OS/2. But a pass through CHKDSK fixed things. (*whew* -- because I was thousands of mles from home.) So, did you try dear old CHKDSK?

Remy

  • Hero Member
  • *****
  • Posts: 799
  • Karma: +13/-1
    • View Profile
Re: Wiping a hard disk back to 'as bought' condition
« Reply #5 on: January 14, 2025, 07:36:31 pm »
I found a tool which can be helpfull suggested on tomshardware (search keyword: secure-erase-ssd-or-hard-drive)
-> DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke)
To install on bootable USB