There are several ways to erase the contents of a hard drive. But the technique you use will depend on what you want to use the hard drive for afterwards. For instance, if you just plan on reinstalling Windows, it isn’t necessary to do a Department of Defense level shredding of your data

Erase your hard drive for reinstalling Windows
In newer versions of Windows, you can simply boot to the Windows CD and during the setup process, tell Windows to delete the current partition and install on the new partition. This will wipe out what you already had and replace it with a fresh, shiny Windows installation. Brand name computers--such as Dell, HP, Compaq and Sony—will ship with a recovery disk. You can use that recovery disk in place of a Windows CD to format and reinstall automatically.

Erase you hard drive and sell it on Ebay
If you plan on selling the computer or hard drive on Ebay or even at a yard sale, you must use a shredding utility that will thoroughly erase the data on the hard drive. Actually, these programs write 1s and 0s over every sector of the hard drive several times so the data that had been there is most certainly gone forever. You can then reinstall Windows, if you wish. The problem with the first method is that even though the drive has been formatted, there are tools available that can recover the data that had been erased. Using a program like Darik’s Boot and Nuke (or DBaN) will make that data unrecoverable.

Discarding a dead hard drive
If your computer has failed and the hard drive is no good, you must destroy the hard drive before tossing it in the trash. Sophisticated tools can be used to recover the data on hard drives that no longer work. If you plan on recycling the computer or putting it in the landfill (shame on you), you have to remove the drive and carefully destroy it by whatever means necessary. You can remove the platters by opening the hard drive shell. Whether you plan on drilling holes in it, smashing it with a hammer or driving over it with your car, be sure to wear protective goggles and gloves.

So there are different reasons for erasing your hard drive and different methods based on those reasons. You can find hard drive utilities on our Software Downloads section or contact us on our forums for more advice on how to handle data on your hard drive.

In addition to the initial topic post of "How To Erase Your Hard Drive", This advice will also apply for people who are upgrading their existing drive to a newer one with a new interface or more space (GB). I like to use the Ultimate Boot CD, which is available online -- just google 'UBCD' and download the .ISO image. Using your cdr recording software or a free one (I download and installed 'CD Burner Pro XP', also free.), insert a blank CD into your PC and select the options to burn from an ISO image.

One you have the UBCD burned on the a CDR, you may now insert it in the computer/laptop you would like to erase the contents of hard drive (or other hard drive options). Press whatever keys are necessary to enter the BIOS. Then select/toggle the options in the 'boot order' to boot to the CD 1st (first).

Reboot, your PC/laptop. It will boot unto the CD not your installed OS. Then you will receive a menu. Use the keyboard to select your options. You will probably want to select the Hard Disk options. This CD will have various software utilities from all the manufactures who make the drives as well as third party utilities.

Select the proper utility from your hard drive manufacture. Then your pc/laptop will boot using the selected utility/software. From there you may write zeros to the beginning and end of drive (1-2 minutes). Or write zeros on the whole drive (20min to 6 hours, depending on make/model and size ), or copy your data to a new drive (2-18 hours, depending on different characteristics of both drives, size, amount of data involved, fragmentation, etc.).

This is the typical way I reuse older drives or upgrade to new drives. I also want to add be wary of the about of time involved when it comes to using hard drive utility software, especially when you are working on someone else's pc/laptop and/or if you are going to get paid for the services.

Also a final note, and I can't stress this enough. Make sure you have a back up all the data off the hard drive first, before you start attempting to use any of the above methods or utilities. And plan for time. And if this would be your first time, make sure you don't have any interruptions; power, people wanting to use the PC, having to move the pc/laptop, or you don't have enough time.

Well this is all I can add on the subject. Questions?