Formatting PC the special way

[Toxic]

I am wondering about writing 0's all over your hard drive, do you mean that the actual binary code is written to all 0's, or am I missing something here?

[darkes]

It's binary zeros everywhere.
btw if you really want to permanently erase the data, then you would use one of the wipe programs out there that writes different data to each sector a number of times.
Depends on how paranoid you are as to the number of writes you go for

[GreekGoddess]

Okay, another question....Even if you were to rewrite over and over again, can it still not be traced, just with more effort as to how many times you've rewritten it? I'm just curious.

[mattfatch1]

Use FDisk. Delete all partitions. Use bootable DOS disk and re-partition and format drive.

[waytallgel]

GG: Yes some people can read data off your hard drive even after multiple re-writes. I believe the NSA said they can get data even after 10-15, someone feel free to correct me if I'm wrong here, just trying to recall from an old thread. Anyway, the point is, if you're done with the HD melt it let them try to get data off it then... There are other ways though, I think such as a strong enough EMP should wipe the data right off, not sure if you will be able to use the HD again after that though.

GEL

[Palemoon]

First thing I'd do is a debug script there are threads here already that cover debug script so a search here fot it. After you run debug keep a boot disk in place , run fdisk again shut off the system 3 to 5 minutes to clear any cache ot TSR. Debug is a good tool to take the HD back to MFG level.