need a free hard drive wipe program...

[macgig]

I need a program that would easily wipe the C drive but leave the recovery partition alone.

any ideas what to use? need something free and easy.

Ive also read that starting with windows Vista, a format does a basic hard drive wipe. so is this basic wiping of the drive enough for the home user?

Just wondering what others use. thanks.

 

[Layback Bear]

Don't let the name fool you. This might be what you are looking for. It's one of the Forms Tutorials.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/197255-windows-7-installation-prepare-pc-sold.html

 

[macgig]

thanks I'll take a look.

 

[Mark Phelps]

Formatting does not wipe the drive in any way; all it does is remove the partition table entries. The files and directories are still there. This is why Data Recovery apps work -- they know what file and directory entries look like.

A couple of partitioning products that can wipe drives include Minitool Partition Wizard and EASUS Partition Master.

 

[macgig]

this guy says a non quick format does a basic wipe. unless Im reading it wrong.

How To Wipe a Hard Drive

1. Beginning in Windows Vista, the format process changed and a single write zero pass is applied to each standard (non-quick) format. In other words, a very basic hard drive wipe is performed during a format.
2. If a single write zero pass is good enough for you, consider your drive wiped after a regular format in Windows 8, Windows 7, and Windows Vista. If you want something even more secure, go ahead and follow the hard drive wipe instructions above.
   Keep in mind, too, that this is a wipe of just the partition you're formatting. If you have more than one partition on a physical hard drive, you'll need to format those additional drives as well if you want to consider the entire physical disk as "wiped".

 

[JourneymanMike]

I need a program that would easily wipe the C drive but leave the recovery partition alone.

any ideas what to use? need something free and easy.

Ive also read that starting with windows Vista, a format does a basic hard drive wipe. so is this basic wiping of the drive enough for the home user?

Just wondering what others use. thanks.

Hi, I've tried 3 different FREE drive wipers - the one I use now in included in the Free version of ccleaner. Seems to work fine. You choose the number of passes too!

 

[macgig]

Ive used ccleaner for years, I've noticed the drive wiper button in that program but never tried it and forgot it was there!. lol. I"ll check that out. thanks.

 

[JourneymanMike]

You're welcome macgig! Hope that works for you!

Mike