Low Level Format Prior to Installation

Chkdsk does not zero a harddrive, it just fixes disk/file system errors:

Microsoft Windows [Version 6.1.7600]
Copyright (c) 2009 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Checks a disk and displays a status report.


CHKDSK [volume[[path]filename]]] [/F] [/V] [/R] [/X] [/I] [/C] [/L[:size]] [/B]


volume Specifies the drive letter (followed by a colon),
mount point, or volume name.
filename FAT/FAT32 only: Specifies the files to check for fragmentation
.
/F Fixes errors on the disk.
/V On FAT/FAT32: Displays the full path and name of every file
on the disk.
On NTFS: Displays cleanup messages if any.
/R Locates bad sectors and recovers readable information
(implies /F).
/L:size NTFS only: Changes the log file size to the specified number
of kilobytes. If size is not specified, displays current
size.
/X Forces the volume to dismount first if necessary.
All opened handles to the volume would then be invalid
(implies /F).
/I NTFS only: Performs a less vigorous check of index entries.
/C NTFS only: Skips checking of cycles within the folder
structure.
/B NTFS only: Re-evaluates bad clusters on the volume
(implies /R)

The /I or /C switch reduces the amount of time required to run Chkdsk by
skipping certain checks of the volume.

DBAN and other similar utiltiies are for totally erasing all data from a HD or partition.

seekermeister said:

Chkdsk does not zero a harddrive.

Where did I say that chkdsk zeroes a harddrive?

I only asked what extra steps DBAN takes to clean the HD, such as zeroing or chkdsk (which is the extra step XP long formatting did).

Sorry if I wasn't clear, but would really like to know what DBAN does to "nuke" a drive. Is it the same as DISKPART "clean"?

What can be done deeper than zeroing with chkdsk?

Maybe that's not what you meant, but that is how this reads to me.

EDIT: DBAN writes the area selected with 0s or alternating 0s and 1s or possibly other methods. All of the alternatives are not clear to me, because there are several methods available to choose from. It can be used to destroy data on a drive so that it can't be recovered by any forensic method, to prevent someone that you don't want to know to be able to gain data from it. I think that the DOD standard is to run something like 30 passes to ensure eradication.

seekermeister said:

What can be done deeper than zeroing with chkdsk?

Maybe that's not what you meant, but that is how this reads to me.

EDIT: DBAN writes the area selected with 0s or alternating 0s and 1s or possibly other methods. All of the alternatives are not clear to me, because there are several methods available to choose from. It can be used to destroy data on a drive so that it can't be recovered by any forensic method, to prevent someone that you don't want to know to be able to gain data from it. I think that the DOD standard is to run something like 30 passes to ensure eradication.

Ok I see what you mean now. SHould have had a comma after "zeroing, with checkdsk [as XP formatting did]" My bad.

Is DBAN's similar to DISKPART "clean" command? If so, would that be a comparable deep clean?

I'm really not familiar with diskpart, other than what I read about it here:

A Description of the Diskpart Command-Line Utility

What it said about "clean" is not all that clear to me:

clean [all]

Use the clean command to remove partition or volume formatting from the current in-focus disk by zeroing sectors. By default, only the MBR or GPT partitioning information and any hidden sector information on MBR disks is overwritten. If you specify the all parameter, each and every sector can be zeroed, and all data that is contained on the drive can be deleted.

It sounds similar, but they don't give enough detail about it to be clear. Generally a secure overwrite requires multiple passes. Can you command Diskpart to run a set of passes, or would you have to manually run them yourself?

Even with DBAN, I didn't spend enough time to fully understand it. The methods that I used only made one pass, but as I said, that were several methods listed. Maybe chev65 understand it better.