Halo 1 & 2 for PC
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Subject: Hard Drive Question
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I was wondering. How would you wipe your hard drive completely clean as if it was never used before? I just upgraded my computer, but didn't feel like spending extra money to upgrade my 120 GB Hard Drive...but I want it to be completely clean as if it were new. Is this possible?

  • 05.10.2005 5:00 PM PDT
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I would think its possible. Why would you want to though? You would have to reinstall everything.

  • 05.10.2005 5:20 PM PDT
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It's about 4 years old, and i'd like just start it from scratch.

  • 05.10.2005 5:27 PM PDT
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If you really want your drive back to "like-new" conditions, do a low-level format. Go to your hard drive vendor's website and download their respective utility (usually fits on a floppy disk). Some BIOS versions have a built-in utility for performing a low-level format.

However, that being said, it is usually sufficient to perform a normal format. You'll go through this process if you install any modern operating system from scratch.

  • 05.10.2005 5:29 PM PDT
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hmmm that just gave me a funny idea... and i wonder what would happen if u did it... You open up your C drive, your computer's hard drive, select all the folders, i.e. everything on your computer, and right click, and DELETE! Ha!< i wonder what would happen :)

[Edited on 5/10/2005]

  • 05.10.2005 5:31 PM PDT
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You wouldn't have much to do. There would still be stuff on the hard drive though. You don't get rid of everything when you delete stuff.

  • 05.10.2005 5:40 PM PDT
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You'd still need to be able to run the OS, and windows won't let you delete it.

If you have more than one hard drive or partition, control panel -> performance and maintenance -> administrative tools -> computer management -> disk management -> select drive you want cleaned -> right click -> delete partition

You can only do that if the OS is not installed on that disk. Also, if you want to use it again use the same utility to partition it to NTFS file format.

If you have one HDD, boot up your pc with the Windows XP disk in the drive. Go through to setup windows, and when you get to the part where you need to select something to install windows on, select your hard drive and delete the partition. Then, format it to NTFS, and reinstall windows.

You can find more info on google.

  • 05.10.2005 6:02 PM PDT
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What Davis said, except make sure you choose the slow formatting mode. Also - I'm pretty sure XP does this as you format, but if you don't use XP, be sure to run chkdsk or some similar utility to make sure your hard drive is free of bad sector (or atleast that the bad ones are flagged) - this usually only applies to hard drives that aren't new - which means it applies to yours.

  • 05.10.2005 6:44 PM PDT
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what if I just want to delete everything but my OS

btw: yea i do have windows xp home ed

[Edited on 5/10/2005]

  • 05.10.2005 7:26 PM PDT
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Um, why?

Because if you think windows has slowed down and you've got too much, you might as well reinstall windows freshly. I don't see why you wouldn't want to do that. It would give you a clean copy of windows wihout the weird oddities that happen to it during use. In addition, when you delete everything from your hard drive manually, which involves deleting everything but your windows folder, remnants are left everywhere that you CANNOT clean. A fresh reformat is required.

Just reformat the disk and reinstall windows.

  • 05.10.2005 7:44 PM PDT
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Should we mention registry entries and keys and dead line in system.ini and config.bat files?

No - just reformat the old fashioned way.

  • 05.10.2005 8:28 PM PDT
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Got it. Oh yeah I forgot to tell you my new setup:

Motherboard: ASUS A8N-SLI Deluxe NF4SLI S939 ATX PCIE A8N-SLI
Click Here for Specs
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 3000+ S939 512K
Click Here
RAM: 1GB DDR400 OCZ Enhanced Latency Dual Channel Platinum
Click Here
Video Card: 128MB eVGA 6600GT PCI-Express
Click Here

I also got a new case and power box, but thats not really worth going into detail.

  • 05.10.2005 8:48 PM PDT
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I think you'll be very happy with that pc. High-end, for sure.

However, those prices are outrageous, to say the least. newegg.com and zipzoomfly.com are the best for prices that I've seen.

  • 05.10.2005 9:12 PM PDT
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Yeah, I didn't buy my system from PC Club. Although I did buy my ram, because all the other stores were out of the OCZ's. I went to a local retailer, total cost including a new power box, fans, and nice case was around 600$

[Edited on 5/10/2005]

  • 05.10.2005 10:04 PM PDT
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Cool - Crucial Ballistix is the best memory on the face of the planet.

  • 05.10.2005 10:38 PM PDT
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I've heard of a program that totaly deletes stuff, registry keys and all. I can't remember what its called. I don't think this is what I remember but It might work the same way. Its always a good idea to reinstall windows though. Thats what microsoft tells you to do when you call them, and if they say to reinstall, its probably a good idea.

[Edited on 5/11/2005]

  • 05.11.2005 8:56 AM PDT
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F disk

Find the F disk instructions for your drive. Get a bootable disk copy from net. Change bios to boot off of that and follow the bios instructions to F disk your drive. It will erase everything. You do have a usable copy of your OS right?

  • 05.11.2005 10:11 AM PDT
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Yeah, but I'd still have to re install service pack 2, which wouldn't be a problem. Thanks for the info guys, this will save me money from buying a new hard drive.

  • 05.11.2005 3:04 PM PDT
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When I select drive, should I click uninstall? I don't see a delete partition. If I do that does it also delete my OS? I just want to completely clean everything off my hard drive, OS and all. Start from scratch...but I don't have any software the hard drive came with if it did. Does a hard drive even need software to install? Just to clarify, yea I do have the Windows XP Software...

  • 05.11.2005 3:20 PM PDT
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The OS is all the software the Hard drive needs to work. Try googling this.

  • 05.11.2005 5:45 PM PDT
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Okay, if you want to wipe the drive completely clean....

Put the XP disc in your drive. Boot up the pc. Follow the steps and reformat a partition/drive to NTFS and reinstall windows. That's the cleanest you can get. You cannot wipe a drive clean while you are in windows.

  • 05.11.2005 5:54 PM PDT
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if you really want to make a secure deletion, you can get some of those programs that completely write zeroes to every single bit. but that really isnt necessary unless you are trying to erase government secrets off your computer ;)

i would imagine that you would have to use a bootable floppy disk to make this endeavor without using the os

also it is possible to wipe a hd from within windows, you cant do it if you boot to the hd you are wiping (i.e. your os is on the hd you want to wipe)

EDIT: ack! i said windows instead of os!!! i feel so....dumb... :(

[Edited on 5/11/2005]

  • 05.11.2005 5:59 PM PDT
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Ok. I'm kind of confused now. So all I do is put the Windows XP disc in on startup. I should see an option to reformat it to NTFS? Reinstalling windows will wipe my hard drive clean without having to delete other files off my hard drive?

PS. sorry im a noob

  • 05.11.2005 8:49 PM PDT
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doesn't a traditional format write zeroes to every bit?

  • 05.11.2005 8:49 PM PDT
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Here is what you have to do:

Go through steps to install windows on the hard drive. If you're not sure of these google it and see, or consult the XP installation guide. When it asks which partition to install on, select your hard drive, delete it, and then format it to NTFS. This will erase every bloody thing from it, and then you can install windows on the hard drive.

  • 05.11.2005 11:14 PM PDT

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