reformat hard drive (preparing for sale)

bunta

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jan 11, 2003
Messages
203
I need to know how do i format a hard drive without installing a new operating system. I have done numerous reformats with the xp cd but i always have another operating system installing after the format. (this was erase and reinstall)

Well, i am now giving away my computer to my cousin. But i am not giving him the operating system. So all i need to do is erase the hard drive where when he first turns it on, it would say no operating system found.

I dont need to do the permanent erase, cant recover data EVER type stuff. I dont have anything important on the drive anyway so i am not worried. I jsut need to erase the operating system.

Thanks guys.
 
I love dban. Just pop it in the drive, type "autonuke" go someplace for a while, comeback, and have a wiped HHD.
 
I love dban. Just pop it in the drive, type "autonuke" go someplace for a while, comeback, and have a wiped HHD.

When using the autonuke command make sure the only drives connected are ones you want wiped.
 
Thanks for the reply.

But i wasnt looking for dban or any sort of software. I was just looking for something in windows itself. Some sort of command.....

If there is a command line that i can use in like say for instance "cmd" please give me a step by step. Thanks guys..
 
Thanks for the reply.

But i wasnt looking for dban or any sort of software. I was just looking for something in windows itself. Some sort of command.....

If there is a command line that i can use in like say for instance "cmd" please give me a step by step. Thanks guys..

As administrator do this:
start->run->"diskmgmt.msc" (hit return)
selec the disk you want to sell, right click, delete partition
 
Thanks for the reply.

But i wasnt looking for dban or any sort of software. I was just looking for something in windows itself. Some sort of command.....

If there is a command line that i can use in like say for instance "cmd" please give me a step by step. Thanks guys..

I know of no way to use a single os to delete itself. Your going to have to use some type of bootable application to do this. Windows will not "delete itself" so to speak. I recommended dban simply because it's free and easy to use, not so much because of it's effectiveness.
Truthfully, GParted will do exactly what you want, and once again, it's free and easy to use. Just boot the cd, delete tha partition and format it to ntfs, and your cousin will be all set to install his os when you give him the pc.

You are giving him the whole computer, and not just the hd, correct?
 
If this is the only hard drive in the system then just boot up with you Windows cd and go through the install process. When it asks you about creating/deleting/formatting the drive go ahead and delete the partition and then just pop your cd out and shut down the computer and you're done. Of course this is not securing any old data, but it's an easy way for you to just delete the partition. To the non technical people out there the drive would be completely empty and unusable until they created a new partition upon installation.
 
As administrator do this:
start->run->"diskmgmt.msc" (hit return)
selec the disk you want to sell, right click, delete partition

If he's trying to have the OS delete itself, this may or may not work. Windows gets pretty unhappy if you try to delete it's system partition, and I'm pretty sure it won't allow you to.
Fdisk, on the other hand, is happy to fuck up whatever you throw it's way
 
If this is the only hard drive in the system then just boot up with you Windows cd and go through the install process. When it asks you about creating/deleting/formatting the drive go ahead and delete the partition and then just pop your cd out and shut down the computer and you're done. Of course this is not securing any old data, but it's an easy way for you to just delete the partition. To the non technical people out there the drive would be completely empty and unusable until they created a new partition upon installation.

That worked! Perfect! Thanks

and thanks for all the other suggestions...
 
Back
Top