erasing backup HD

minnesota · Mar 11, 2010

Hi all, I've got a question about completly erasing a remote hard drive. I bought a USB HD enclosure and am not sure how to completly erase the data on the HD I installed in it. This HD has XP pro on it and I would like to totally remove everything. It seems most software for HD erasing is for the one in your PC. Thanx, Terry.

Mada_Milty · Mar 11, 2010

minnesota said: ↑

Hi all, I've got a question about completly erasing a remote hard drive. I bought a USB HD enclosure and am not sure how to completly erase the data on the HD I installed in it. This HD has XP pro on it and I would like to totally remove everything. It seems most software for HD erasing is for the one in your PC. Thanx, Terry.
Click to expand...

I'm getting the impression you want to do this without connecting to a working computer?

If I'm mistaken, and you can connect it to a working Windows machine, then you can do the following:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000 said:

To start Disk Management:
Log on as administrator or as a member of the Administrators group.
Click Start, click Run, type compmgmt.msc, and then click OK.
In the console tree, click Disk Management. The Disk Management window appears. Your disks and volumes appear in a graphical view and list view. To customize how you view your disks and volumes in the upper and lower panes of the window, point to Top or Bottom on the View menu, and then click the view that you want to use.
NOTE: Microsoft recommends that you create a full back up of your disk contents before you make any changes to your disks or volumes.
Click to expand...

And Then:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/309000 said:

How to format a basic volume
To format a partition, logical drive or basic volume:
In the Disk Management window, right-click the partition or logical drive that you want to format (or reformat), and then click Format.
In the Format dialog box, type a name for the volume in the Volume label box. This is an optional step.
Click the file system that you want to use in the File system box. If you want, you can also change the disk allocation unit size, specify whether you want to perform a quick format, or enable file and folder compression on NTFS volumes.
Click OK.
Click OK when you are prompted to format the volume. The format process starts.
Click to expand...

You must be sure to do this on the correct drive, but it will ensure that the drive is completely clean, and ready for re-use. If you choose NOT to perform a quick format, the data should also be difficult to retrieve (as it is sometimes recoverable after a simple deletion).

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erasing backup HD

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