Ideal way to format to install XP+Vista+Ubuntu?

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gojita

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 5, 2003
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I remember reading that there was a good app that would format my hard drive and write all 0's to them, but after looking through my bookmarks I couldn't find it.

Anyways, right now my laptop has 4 partitions (3 dummy installations: linux, xp, vista, and recovery partition) and I would like to get rid of them all. Shoudl I just use gparted and format all the drives and then re-partition them?
 
That would be a good idea....

However I always prefer to just delete the partitions, and then create the partitions yopu need with the respective installers....

For example when installing XP, let the XP installer create it's own partition. Make sure you leave enough empty space for Vista and Ubuntu.... Then when installing Vista, let it create it's own partition, make sure you leave enough space for Ubuntu, then Install Ubuntu, and let it create its own partitions....

I know this sounds weird, I have come across the problem several times where a partition made with a third party utility didn't work right. So If you let the installers create there own partitions, then you can KNOW that the partitions will be formated correctly.
 
If you want to write all 0's to the drive use dban.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

If you just want to clean up the drive for yourself to load a new os and keep I would just delete the partitions and make them however you want.
 
Another vote for 'delete partitions then recreate what you want'. There really is no advantage to over-writing the entire drive with zeroes.
 
oh ya dban was what it was called. Hmm if there's no advantage I'll just do it like you guys said.

Thanks!
 
Just a heads up, depending however many times you wipe the hard drive over, DBan can take DAYS to run. So just plan for that. Good idea to start it Friday after work (I guess 5 or whenever) let it run til Monday, and it should have gotten at least a couple of passes in.
 
zacdl said:
Just a heads up, depending however many times you wipe the hard drive over, DBan can take DAYS to run. So just plan for that. Good idea to start it Friday after work (I guess 5 or whenever) let it run til Monday, and it should have gotten at least a couple of passes in.
Click to expand...

That's quite a bit of time! I guess I'll pass on using dban :D
 
zacdl said:
Just a heads up, depending however many times you wipe the hard drive over, DBan can take DAYS to run. So just plan for that. Good idea to start it Friday after work (I guess 5 or whenever) let it run til Monday, and it should have gotten at least a couple of passes in.
Click to expand...

If you just do a single wipe it doesn't take that long. If you want to clean up a hard drive to sell or give away then yea you set it up for a multipass and let the sucker run.
 
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