In this original thread about wiping a hard drive, it was asked, how one could delete the data on a Hard Drive before donating a computer.

One answer was to run the MS-DOS FDISK /FORMAT program. Many of the replies stated this would not be a safe way to go because the Hard Drive could be easily restored.

From all the varied responses; am I correct to conclude that it is easy to restore the hard drive after a MS-DOS FDISK /FORMAT operation?

If so, my question is: How exactly is this done? Many times, I've been asked to restore a hardrive that has been inadvertly FDISKED OR FORMATED with the MS-DOS program.

My response is: send the harddrive to a restore facility or reload the Operating System and files from your backup or do a clean install.

However, many of the responses to this thread seem to say a restoration is easily done. So, for those who have done it, I'd like to know the exact steps that will restore a Hard drive that has been fdisked and formated with MS-DOS.

Please note that I'm not speaking of the restoration of deleted files but the restoration of all the files on the hard drive that has been FDISKED and FORMATED  with MS-DOS.

mike michel
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On Fri 10/03/03, Mark Rode wrote:
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Wiping hard drive clean

This can be done, and can be done securely, but it can be a time consuming process, as government certified file destruction  involves many overwrites.
Try Autoclave http://staff.washington.edu/jdlarios/autoclave/
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Bob Kupferer wrote:
 on the other hand if I'm the one trying to completely erase the harddrive,I've went to the maxtor and western digital sites and gotten utilities for 'zero write', but haven't gotten the chance to use them because my computers haven't failed yet
Bob Kupferer


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