drive cleaner vs drive format

i got an ext hdd that i need to format, i want to format it totally back to 0 on it, i was hoping to find something windows based and easy to use

i looked thru here but i just dont see what im looking for u know http://www.majorgeeks.com/download.php?id=12&sort=7
thanks everyone

 

yea i was thinking about boot and nuke ive used it before but im worried illl write over the wrong drive

i also dont want to use power quest

the others ill look into, i dont have any data im trying to cover up i just want to get things back to ntfs and like it was when i first bought it

right now the drive is empty i manually deleted everything

 

If you are only trying to clean up the disk thoroughly the safest way would be to delete all partitions on it and then do a full format.

Just use Disk Management in Windows.

Right-Click My Computer>Manage>select Disk Management in the left pane of the window that opens.

Find the proper Disk # in the graph and then right-click each partition and delete. [This is the step where you want to be sure you have the correct external disk--the size of the Disk and the partition letters should give you the information you need to verify you have the correct one(it won't be Disk 0 if it is external).]

Then right-click the unallocated space and choose Create Partition. Pick the size probably the default of the whole drive and OK. Then right-click the new partition and choose Format and don't check the box for quick format.

I think that is all the steps. Let me/us know if that will do.

 

Actually, you may just want to just format the existing partition by right-clicking and choosing Format and not choosing quick format. It probably is sufficient for what you need which is just a clean partition.

 

would F disk work with external drives?

 

u guys keep saying partition and that has me a bit concerned here, or maybe confused

there is no partitions there is just 1 big 500 gig drive, i never partition drives i just leave them whole as one

and now all i want to do is wipe it

 

Hi,

Every HD has at least one partition. Most people just create one partition of the maximum capacity of the drive. If Windows assigns it a drive letter than it has a partition and is formatted.

If you are sure you have no data on the drive that you want, then just open My Computer right-click on the drive letter of the 500gb drive and select format. Choose a drive label if you want a name displayed for the drive and leave the Format options--Compression and Quick format at the bottom of the window-- unchecked. The drive will be wiped clean and ready to go. The drive letter will stay the same.

 

u know just occured to me why not use WD life toold, so im using that now

looks good

 

I was going to say Lifeguard tools would be good to write zeros to the drive but I thought a format would be easier.

I, too, am a fan of manufacturer hard drive utilities. They work very well.

 

ok i set the drive back to all 9s, thought i was being real smart but now i have seemed to have messed myself up here, now i cant get the hdd to show up in XP, and i cant seem to format it into NTFS

i recall using partition magic to do this but i dont recall HOW exactly

can anyone help me out on that?

thanks

 

This is an old post - but this may be helpful to someone.

I had this issue with a WD ext. Hard Drive.

Go to Disk Management in Windows.

Right-Click My Computer> left click: Manage> and select Disk Management.
If if shows a drive there without a drive letter - assign it a drive letter.
That may fix your problem.
If not unplug all USB devices, reboot, then plug in your External Hard Drive and see if it shows up.
If it does not and you have any mapped network drives, un-map the network drives and see if your Ext HDD shows up.
If so change all of your mapped network drives to a higher letter such as M through Z.

Hope this helps someone.


Chronk