2006-11-25 22:12:37 · 4 answers · asked by oddjob 1 in Computers & Internet ➔ Hardware ➔ Desktops
A format is not good enough. Go to the manufacturer of hard disks, like Seagate and download a program that will usually be called disk utilities.
[ http://www.seagate.com ]
Burn a CD of the disk utilities (burn disc image will be the option to choose in your burning software) and reboot the computer with the CD in the drive. Formatting will only tell the drive to 'forget' where the files are stored, and allow them to be overwritten later. Programs have been written to recall data lost to formatting. You will use the disk utilities CD to low-level format the drive, otherwise called 'writing zeros'. This will set the drive to absolutely nothing, it will have zeros written for every byte, and will be what I call 'unformatted'. There will be no partitions, file systems, or anything else recoverable for that matter. This is also useful if chkdsk does not repair bad sectors on your disk. Sometimes they are salvageable using a low-level format.
2006-11-25 22:20:14 · answer #1 · answered by makr8100 1 · 0⤊ 0⤋
BACK UP EVERYTHING AND THEN DOWNLOAD A PROGRAM CALLED INCINERATOR, IT IS FREE AND WILL DO A NSA LEVEL DELETION (NSA STANDARDS ARE THE STANDARD BY WHICH FILE DELETION IS MEASURED..BASICALLY ITS THE ONLY THING THAT WILL REALLY WIPE THE DATA CLEAN
2006-11-25 22:21:17 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Delete the partition, create it again and format.
2006-11-25 22:22:16 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
format *.*
in command prompt
but do that once you've backed everything up.
2006-11-25 22:15:14 · answer #4 · answered by 1 Cross + 3 Nails = 4 given 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋