best way to format a external HDD?

[chronic9]

i have a usb drive that I am selling on ebay and would like to format it a few times with something like Dban or alike.... only problem is, DBan and Gdisk dont pick it up.... i guess since its a USB drive?

 

[axan]

you could open the usb enclosure take out the drive, stick it inside your comp and then use dban

 

[chronic9]

....... GREAT idea... except i don't want to void the warranty on the unit.

 

[MrGuvernment]

does it have some sticker sealing it shut, if not, dont worry about it.

 

[chronic9]

ya a sticker right over the screw that holds the case shut. i stated in the auction, "warranty has not been void, case has never been opened" otherwise I would of popped that case open a LONG time ago.

 

[Dew]

Well, you could always fill the drive up with a few movies or something, then delete them. (Can be the same movie, 50x if you want)

 

[axan]

ya fill the drive with garbage using some kinda large file like a movie, dvd iso image of linux or something then use file shredder to wipe it clean. Not exactly dban but it should do the trick

 

[EQTakeOffense]

Why not just got to command prompt and format it that way?

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/ntcmds.mspx?mfr=true

 

[ambientZ]

XP has a command you can use to wipe a drive's unused space.
cipher /w:n

where n is the driver letter.

It zeroes the unused space first, then i think it does some patterns. I mainly use it for zeroing the unused space though. I think it works by allocating a file as large as possible, then writing stuff to it.

edit: ms has a short writeup here: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/814599

 

[Old Hippie]

Active Kill Disc should work on USB stuff.

 

[DeaconFrost]

I know you have plenty of solutions already, but running some of those tools from BartPE or UBCD4Win would do the trick as well.