Peter:
The original question was: Will FDISK remove data from a hard drive?
Without going into the symatics of how FDISK works; the answer to the question is, Yes all data on the on the Hard Drive will be LOST. (but not destroyed). Meaning the data no longer can be used by the present operating system.

When you run the the FDISK MSDOS program your given 4 options. Number 3 is: "Delete partition or Logical DOS Drive". You enter 3 and hit escape key which opens the next 4 choices. Here you enter choice 1 which says: "Delete primary DOS partition" and hit the escape key.

Now you see the info about the partition and a flashing warning sign that tells you that "Data in the deleted partition will be LOST.

That means all data on the deleted partition can't read or used and one must install an operating system to use that Hard drive again, which the person receiving the donated computer will do.

However, there are programs that can recover the lost data because it's magnetical entered on the Hardrive and not actually destroyed.

It's highly unlikely that a person receiving the donated computer will spend the hundreds of dollars to recover the lost data.

If ONE haS fear of that, just take the Hard Drive drive apart and smash the platters and donate the computer with the hardrive.

Mike michel
------------------------------------------------------------
 --- On Tue 09/30, Peter Shkabara wrote:
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Wiping hard drive clean

Unfortunately, this information is not correct. FDISK only marks the partition geometry without writing anywhere else on the disk. It is possible to run FDISK to repartition the hard drive, then run it again to reset the partition back to what it was before. The information it contained is often perfectly readable again! I have done this on several occasions. The best way to "destroy" the information is to writ over it. There are utilities to this and they have already been mentioned in earlier posts. Peter

-----Original Message---
Ken;
Because the data on a Hardrive is magnetically stored in fixed locations, the data can only be removed by a magetic destroying device. Since FDISK arranges the fixed locations where data is  stored, every new FDISK operation rearranges the fixed locations of data storage- hence making previous data unreadable.  However, the magnetic data is still there, just unreadable for the common computer system. So for most practical conditions, FDISK will "destory" data.

In my opinion, one can fdisk a Hard Drive with out fear of the data being reproduced. There are programs that can write numbers to the Harddrive until the data is just garbage and unreadable and unless such a program is used, the magnetically stored data can be always  be read. (such as by the CIA, FBI & ect.)

Mike michel

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