erasing harddrive for computer donation "Lori " <lneal2[ at ]comporium.net> 6/17/2007 7:55:11 PM How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the internet? The computer I would like to do this to is no longer connected to the internet. -- Lori

Re: erasing harddrive for computer donation ByTor <ByTor[ at ]snowdog.com> 6/17/2007 8:05:01 PM In article <BEEB461C-85DC-4409-8C06-C134886057CB[ at ]microsoft.com>, lneal2 [ at ]comporium.net says... [Quoted Text] > How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the internet? > The computer I would like to do this to is no longer connected to the > internet. > > You don't have to connect to the internet to erase the disk......Find the manuf name of your harddrive go their site & seek out their utility tool to wipe the drive to zeros.

Re: erasing harddrive for computer donation "Unknown" <unknown[ at ]unknown.kom> 6/17/2007 8:08:12 PM Click on drive and format it. "Lori " <lneal2[ at ]comporium.net> wrote in message news:BEEB461C-85DC-4409-8C06-C134886057CB[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the > internet? The computer I would like to do this to is no longer connected > to the internet. > > -- > Lori

Re: erasing harddrive for computer donation "Shenan Stanley" <newshelper[ at ]gmail.com> 6/17/2007 8:13:44 PM Lori wrote: [Quoted Text] > How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the > internet? What does connecting to the Internet have to do with erasing the hard disk drive of a computer? (The Internet does not a computer make...) > The computer I would like to do this to is no longer > connected to the internet. Boot with your Windows XP CD, pretend you are going to install the OS up until it asks you where you would like to install Windows Xp and choose to DELETE the partition(s) fromthere... The reboot and remove the CD. In effect - everything is gone (although a technically savvy user could easily get that back.) Better way - use some bootable utility diskette/cd you make on any system to zero-write several times (14+ would be pretty dang secure) to the hard disk drive. Each hard disk drive manufacturer has one of these utilities readily available on their sites (usually a part of their diagnostic utilities) and there are freeware drive wipers out there (google.) -- Shenan Stanley MS-MVP -- How To Ask Questions The Smart Way http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

Re: erasing harddrive for computer donation "Ken Blake, MVP" <kblake[ at ]this.is.am.invalid.domain> 6/17/2007 8:16:51 PM On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 15:55:11 -0400, "Lori " <lneal2[ at ]comporium.net> wrote: [Quoted Text] >How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the internet? >The computer I would like to do this to is no longer connected to the >internet. The Internet isn't involved at all. If you want software from the Internet, download it on another computer and bring it to this one on a diskette or CD. Here's my standard post on deleting the contents of the drive: There are available a number of software products that can overwrite the data multiple times.This makes the data *much* harder to recover. But it's not impossible. There are companies that specialize in sophisticated and expensive data recovery techniques that can often retrieve overwritten data, even data overwritten multiple times. This is why the US government destroys drives containing really sensitive data in a furnace. For most of us, simply deleting the files, or formatting the drive, is good enough. If you want to be more paranoid, use one of the overwriting programs I mentioned above. But realize that, short of physical destruction, there's no such thing as permanent, perfect erasure. -- Ken Blake, Microsoft MVP Windows - Shell/User Please Reply to the Newsgroup

Re: erasing harddrive for computer donation Bruce Chambers <bchambers[ at ]cable0ne.n3t> 6/17/2007 8:43:10 PM Lori wrote: [Quoted Text] > How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the > internet? The computer I would like to do this to is no longer connected > to the internet. > The same way you'd do if it were connected to the Internet. (In otehr words, Internet connectivity isn't relevant to the process) To protect your personal information and data from any future users of average skills, you should, at the very least, format the hard drive. You can do this using the original Installation CD. Simply boot from the WinXP installation CD. You'll be offered the opportunity to delete, create, and format partitions as part of the installation process. (You may need to re-arrange the order of boot devices in the PC's BIOS to boot from the CD.) HOW TO Install Windows XP http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;316941 http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html http://www.webtree.ca/windowsxp/clean_install.htm If you wish to do a more thorough job of protecting your personal data, WipeDrive (http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php) meets U.S. DoD standards for securely cleaning surplus unclassified hard drives, and could be used before formatting and reinstalling the OS and applications. -- Bruce Chambers Help us help you: http://dts-l.org/goodpost.htm http://www.catb.org/~esr/faqs/smart-questions.html They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety. -Benjamin Franklin Many people would rather die than think; in fact, most do. -Bertrand Russell

Re: erasing harddrive for computer donation "JS" <[ at ]> 6/17/2007 8:44:08 PM Try this utility (Eraser): http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015 Download and then burn it to a CD and then install on the PC you want to erase files on. Use it to erase as much personal data as you can. Next use your Windows XP CD to delete any and all partitions, create one small partition (10GB) and format to re-install Windows (for this purpose no need to activate/re-register the product), create a second partition using the remaining space available on the drive. How to do a Clean Install of Windows XP From Michael Steven's: http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html After re-installing Windows, install Eraser again and use it to wipe all the free space on the Windows partition and all of the free (un-used) space on the second partition. Finally once again use the Windows install CD to delete both partitions. Note: The more sensitive the data on your PC the more important the above steps become. As mentioned before only total destruction of the hard drive is a absolute method. JS "Lori " <lneal2[ at ]comporium.net> wrote in message news:BEEB461C-85DC-4409-8C06-C134886057CB[ at ]microsoft.com... [Quoted Text] > How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the > internet? The computer I would like to do this to is no longer connected > to the internet. > > -- > Lori

Re: erasing harddrive for computer donation z1z1z1 <bogus[ at ]email.address> 6/17/2007 11:07:55 PM "JS" <[ at ]> wrote in news:ekadFBSsHHA.1204[ at ]TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl: [Quoted Text] > Try this utility (Eraser): > http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=37015 > Download and then burn it to a CD and then install on the PC you want > to erase files on. Use it to erase as much personal data as you can. > Next use your Windows XP CD to delete any and all partitions, create > one small partition (10GB) and format to re-install Windows (for this > purpose no need to activate/re-register the product), create a second > partition using the remaining space available on the drive. > > How to do a Clean Install of Windows XP > From Michael Steven's: > http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/cleanxpinstall.html > > After re-installing Windows, install Eraser again and use it to wipe > all the free space on the Windows partition and all of the free > (un-used) space on the second partition. Finally once again use the > Windows install CD to delete both partitions. > > Note: The more sensitive the data on your PC the more important the > above steps become. As mentioned before only total destruction of the > hard drive is a absolute method. > > JS > > "Lori " <lneal2[ at ]comporium.net> wrote in message > news:BEEB461C-85DC-4409-8C06-C134886057CB[ at ]microsoft.com... >> How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the >> internet? The computer I would like to do this to is no longer >> connected to the internet. >> >> -- >> Lori > > You can create an Eraser boot disk (floppy/CD?) for wiping entire drives, which can then be used on the other computer - no need for another Windows reinstall. You can download a utility from most hard drive manufacturer's web sites that can do this (often it is part of a hard drive testing utility). Most of these consist of a program that you download that then creates a boot floppy. Inside the test program, this is sometimes called a low level format (but really isn't), or writing zeroes to the drive. Often these programs will only work on that manufacturer's drives - note that some, like Seagate/Maxtor/Quantum are all owned by one company, and the same program will work on all of these (look for the PowerMax program). You could also download the Ultimate Boot CD, which includes things like drive wiping utilities, and many of the above HD test programs.

Re: erasing harddrive for computer donation Site.Suggestion[ at ]gmail.com 6/18/2007 7:26:54 AM On Jun 18, 12:55 am, "Lori " <lne...[ at ]comporium.net> wrote: [Quoted Text] > How do I erase my harddrive manually without having access to the internet? > The computer I would like to do this to is no longer connected to the > internet. > > -- > Lori You don't require internet for erasing the content of the hard dive. All you have to do is to get the Stellar Wipe - Safe file Eraser. Stellar Wipe erases selected files and folders, wipes entire drive, cleans unused space on your hard disk and also removes Internet activities (History, Cookies, Favorites, Temporary Internet Files etc), System traces and Application traces (MS applications, Email & News, Chat messengers, NetMeeting etc) from your computer. Download the software from: http://www.stellarinfo.com/file-eraser.htm