Hard drive not completely erased?

Question

I recently tried to clean off my hard drive and reinstall everything. As I was putting all my backup files back on the PC it said I had no more disk space. I checked and lo and behold the disk is full. Now all that should have been on my 40 GB drive is the OS and some basic programs-all of which fit fine before. Did I not really clean the drive in the first place?

I thought I deleted the partition-I remember agreeing to it while reinstalling. How would I go about that now? Thanks.

I thought I deleted the partition-I remember agreeing to it while reinstalling. How would I go about that now? Thanks.

Answer 1

Did you format it or delete everything manually?

Answer 2

Best Practice would be to remove all of the partitions off of your harddrive, then create new ones. To do this, boot your PC using a Windows Boot disk. (http://www.bootdisk.com/)

The boot disk will boot up the PC in DOS mode.
In the command line, type: fdisk

This will open the FDisk options screen.
Erase all partitions, then create create a new one, or two.

If you created two partitions, make sure the C partition is at least 10 - 15GB in size, just to be safe. Install windows on the C partition.

Hope this works,

-JFR

Answer 3

Sounds a little strange. Can you do this again? If so, boot from the XP disk and this time delete the partitions and format with NTFS.

If this happens again, try Darik's Nuke to wipe the disk first. http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Answer 4

to whipe a hard drive compleatly go here download the free one run it 3 times then reload yer o/s www.killdisk.com put it on a 3 1/2 floppy then put the disk in the floppy an restart then follow directions

Answer 5

i pick to recommend which you donate your homestead windows equipment disk (regularly suggested as restoration) that got here with your laptop. Use that disk to reinstall homestead windows in the previous you're making the donation. Reboot, utilizing that CD. decide on the choice to DELETE the present partition, then deploy on the C rigidity, allowing it to format thoroughly; then deploy thoroughly. sign in the installation as proprietor or different everyday call. while it fairly is UP and working returned, use Disk Cleanup, then DEFRAG. the mixture of format and DEFRAG will rewrite documents persistently your old documents, making retrieval almost impossible. you will additionally be donating a stable and usable gadget. Ask for a receipt on your donation, yet you could fill interior the quantity. if to procure that laptop for $1500, and adjusted it with a clean one for $seven hundred, you could likely assume that the old laptop nonetheless has a fee of approximately $500, based on the difficulty. yet homestead windows grow to be a factor of that laptop, so by utilizing reinstalling it, and alongside with that DISK with that laptop, you have presented that finished fee of contribution. it fairly is my opinion that a working laptop or laptop devoid of the appliance is merely waiting for the JUNK HEAP and has NO fee.

Answer 6

There is software you can buy to erase the hard drive completely

Answer 7

maybe your HD is partitioned and you did not reformat it well. re-partition and reformat to clear all files.