free hard drive eraser/wipe tools

[bluesfloyd]

hi guys,
if i was looking to use a free hard drive eraser/wipe tool, what do you guys use/recommend,

thanks for your time, bluesfloyd,

 

[ThrashZone]

Hi,
I use this one
Best Free Partition Manager for Windows | MiniTool Partition Free
Although you might be wanting something like this
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197255-windows-7-installation-prepare-pc-sold.html

 

[ron7000]

depends on a single pass of zeroes is good enough, or if you want something more elaborate.
diskwipe.org is not bad.
CCleaner from piriform.com can also accomplish a disk wipe and wipe free space,
both of those need windows 7 already running to run their program.

hard to beat dban.org. it can do a quick wipe or an elaborate time consuming one, does not need a computer with a running operating system other than to make the bootable cd.

 

[Callender]

It depends upon what you want to do.

Erase entire HD - Personally I use Dban

Wipe free space and MFT Free Space - I Sdelete (SysInternals)

Wipe folders or files - I use Blank and Secure

 

[bluesfloyd]

hi,
if i had a old laptop running slow, and wish to reinstall windows 7 to it, would you wipe the drive first and then reinstall win7 for best results???? or only reinstall win7 to the old laptop,

thanks for your time, bluesfloyd

 

[ron7000]

wiping the drive would not give better results.
I would boot on your win7 reinstall dvd, choose customize and delete all the partitions on the hard drive before starting the actual install. This will result in a clean install of win7 onto the drive; win7 will not know any better what has been done to the drive prior to doing this.
Also, remove all other hard drives from your system to be safe so you don't accidentally choose the wrong drive to unpartition.

 

[EmmaRoyd]

its active killdisk for me

 

[ThrashZone]

hi,
if i had a old laptop running slow, and wish to reinstall windows 7 to it, would you wipe the drive first and then reinstall win7 for best results???? or only reinstall win7 to the old laptop,

thanks for your time, bluesfloyd

So was there any viruses or malware/ rootkits involved with the bad performance ?

Laptops do not improve with age
It might be time to step up to installing a ssd it is the single best performance gain on any machine but especially an older laptop.
Samsung/ Crucial are just my 2 favorite brands of ssd's and best of all they are getting a lot more affordable.