Deleting stuff on external drive

[ellenc]

I have several external drives that I want to give to a friend. When info is "deleted," does it still remain on the drive like a hard drive, or is the drive really wiped clean? ec

 

[mjf]

When info is "deleted," does it still remain on the drive like a hard drive

Yes the data remains until it is overwritten. The data is simply marked as available to be overwritten.
To Clean the drive have a look at this:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/52129-disk-clean-clean-all-diskpart-command.html

 

[ixfd64]

The cipher command also allows you to securely erase a drive: How to securely overwrite deleted files with a built-in Windows tool

 

[Layback Bear]

As mjf has posted; I have used and recommend this.


Disk - Clean and Clean All with Diskpart Command

I have never used this.

How to securely overwrite deleted files with a built-in Windows tool

But we do have a tutorial by Golden which might be helpful.

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/276046-cipher-command-overwrite-deleted-data-windows.html

 

[RolandJS]

DBAN, Dave[?] Boot and Nuke is another way to sure-fire delete an entire hard-drive; just make sure it is aimed at the correct hard-drive, external boot devices can and sometimes do shuffle the drive letters.