Reformat and secure data deletion

gogreen said:

I erased the old Windows XP partition and created and formatted a new one, and reinstalled Windows XP. All this on a machine I want to sell. Does this securely erase data I previously had on the hard drive? Thanks.

No, you need a "wipe" utility to overwrite all free space.

Do a search as there are many free utilities to do this. (It helps to delete cache and temp directory files, empty trash, then defrag before running the wipe utility).

Regards,
GEWB

I don't think you need a 3rd party app. Following Bare Foot Kid's excellent tutorial using the diskpart command should sort you out.

Also see Microsoft's page for extra info.

allend66 said:

I don't think you need a 3rd party app. Following Bare Foot Kid's excellent tutorial using the diskpart command should sort you out.

Also see Microsoft's page for extra info.

Thanks for remembering that - old habits die slowly...but does the XP version have that switch?

Regards,
GEWB

GEWB said:

allend66 said:

Also see Microsoft's page for extra info.

Thanks for remembering that - old habits die slowly...but does the XP version have that switch?

Regards,
GEWB

The link above seems to say so. :)

Not CCleaner, use free Partition Wizard bootable CD if you need a GUI.

Otherwise boot the WIn7 DVD or Repair CD, press Shift + F10 at first screen, type in Command Box:

DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (use target HD #)
CLEAN ALL
EXIT

Takes about 1 hour per 300 gb to write zeroes to entire HD.

If using Win XP CD.





Type in command line
DISKPART
LIST DISK
SELECT DISK # (win HD)
CLEAN ALL



SSD / HDD : Optimize for Windows Reinstallation

DISKPART will work, but if you want something else as an alternative, DBAN is a very small, but effective program that you download in the form of an .iso file. You'll get choices as to the level of over-writing/wiping you can achieve.

http://www.dban.org/