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I have heard that using both the "format" and the "fdisk" command
won't necessarily totally remove everything from a hard drive. If that
is true, then is there some other way to totally scrub a hard drive of
all data?

Thanks.

John wrote:
>
> I have heard that using both the "format" and the "fdisk" command
> won't necessarily totally remove everything from a hard drive. If that
> is true, then is there some other way to totally scrub a hard drive of
> all data?
>
> Thanks.

Threre are plenty of programs around that will do this--some even free.
The easiest way is to get a "zero fill" program, (sometimes erroneously
called a "low-level format"), from the drive makers site. This will
completely overwrite all data on the drive. There are even programs
that overwrite many times, but this is not really needed.

There's a lot of mis-information about this subject floating around.
Beware!

Virg Wall
--
A foolish consistency is the
hobgoblin of little minds,........
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Microsoft programmer's manual.)

On Tue, 04 Nov 2003 15:29:43 GMT, V W Wall <>
wrote:

>Threre are plenty of programs around that will do this--some even free.
>The easiest way is to get a "zero fill" program, (sometimes erroneously
>called a "low-level format"), from the drive makers site. This will
>completely overwrite all data on the drive. There are even programs
>that overwrite many times, but this is not really needed.
>
>There's a lot of mis-information about this subject floating around.
>Beware!
>
>Virg Wall

Thanks for your reply. My hard drive is a QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM15, and
I can't seem to find a web site for that drive maker. Also, doing a
Google search for "low-level format" didn't turn up much, so perhaps
you could help me a bit more since I am in the dark about this.

Is there a program that boots from a floppy disk that will do this or
what? I already have Window Washer, but it runs from Windows and I
would need to run something from a command prompt, right?

Quantum was bought out by Maxtor, I believe; and you are looking for a
"zero Fill" program (from DOS).

John wrote:
>
> On Tue, 04 Nov 2003 15:29:43 GMT, V W Wall <>
> wrote:
>
> >Threre are plenty of programs around that will do this--some even free.
> >The easiest way is to get a "zero fill" program, (sometimes erroneously
> >called a "low-level format"), from the drive makers site. This will
> >completely overwrite all data on the drive. There are even programs
> >that overwrite many times, but this is not really needed.
> >
> >There's a lot of mis-information about this subject floating around.
> >Beware!
> >
> >Virg Wall
>
> Thanks for your reply. My hard drive is a QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM15, and
> I can't seem to find a web site for that drive maker. Also, doing a
> Google search for "low-level format" didn't turn up much, so perhaps
> you could help me a bit more since I am in the dark about this.
>
> Is there a program that boots from a floppy disk that will do this or
> what? I already have Window Washer, but it runs from Windows and I
> would need to run something from a command prompt, right?

On Tue, 04 Nov 2003 20:57:55 GMT, Wizard <> wrote:

>Quantum was bought out by Maxtor, I believe; and you are looking for a
>"zero Fill" program (from DOS).

Thanks a lot. I found it.

"John" <> wrote in message
news:...
> I have heard that using both the "format" and the "fdisk" command
> won't necessarily totally remove everything from a hard drive. If that
> is true, then is there some other way to totally scrub a hard drive of
> all data?
>
> Thanks.

Active@killDisk completely erases the data on hard disks and floppies, then
overwrites with meaningless data, just to make sure. The download is only
214kb and it can be found at:
www.killdisk.com/features.htm

LarryLamb wrote:
>
> "John" <> wrote in message
> news:...
> > I have heard that using both the "format" and the "fdisk" command
> > won't necessarily totally remove everything from a hard drive. If that
> > is true, then is there some other way to totally scrub a hard drive of
> > all data?
> >
> > Thanks.
>
> Active@killDisk completely erases the data on hard disks and floppies, then
> overwrites with meaningless data, just to make sure. The download is only
> 214kb and it can be found at:
> www.killdisk.com/features.htm

Looks like an excellent program. The free version only overwrites with
zeros, but that is fine unless the FBI is interested in your data!

It seems to work with many varities of drives and with FAT and NTFS.

Virg Wall
--
A foolish consistency is the
hobgoblin of little minds,........
Ralph Waldo Emerson
(Microsoft programmer's manual.)

On Wed, 05 Nov 2003 01:19:49 GMT, "LarryLamb"
<> wrote:

>Active@killDisk completely erases the data on hard disks and floppies, then
>overwrites with meaningless data, just to make sure. The download is only
>214kb and it can be found at:
>www.killdisk.com/features.htm

Thanks.