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1. JulianA - Member

   I have a faulty external hard drive that I want to nuke before I take it back to Maplins. I have formatted it but I want to overwrite the whole disk before it goes anywhere.

   Does anyone have any recommendations for free software to overwrite everything on the disk with ones and zeroes?

   De-Gaussing is not an option and there's nothing indecent on it, before someone asks!

   Posted 1 year ago #
2. vrapan - Member

   You have a friend with a Mac? Ask them to erase them with a 10 pass random bits. Will take forever (if the drive is huge it will take forever and a day) but it is fairly secure.

   Posted 1 year ago #
3. wwaswas - Member

   errm, if it's faulty surely you won;t be able to overwrite it?

   there's no easy way to do this if the disk is having read/write issues other than with a big magnet.

   Posted 1 year ago #
4. neilsonwheels - Member

   File shredder .

   Posted 1 year ago #
5. JulianA - Member

   Unfortunately no handy friends with a Mac.

   Yes, it will take ages as it's a 2tb drive! But it's worth the wait, from what I've read...

   Posted 1 year ago #
6. JulianA - Member

   wwaswas - Member

   errm, if it's faulty surely you won;t be able to overwrite it?

   there's no easy way to do this if the disk is having read/write issues other than with a big magnet.

   Yes, I can overwrite it as it's only occasionally faulty (sounds odd, I know...)

   Big magnets at work but too much grief to get it there!

   Thanks Neil, I'll give it a look

   Posted 1 year ago #
7. 5thElefant - Member

   Just download 2tb worth of octoporn. That should do the trick. Or is that the problem?

   Posted 1 year ago #
8. cranberry - Member

   Occasionally faulty - could it be getting too hot ?

   Stick it in a PC with a desk fan blowing over it whilst you try to wipe it.

   Posted 1 year ago #
9. Cougar - Member

   DBAN.

   Posted 1 year ago #
10. Conqueror - Member

    DBAN and Killdisk

    both of which can be found on this useful CD

    http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

    Posted 1 year ago #
11. JulianA - Member

    5thElefant - Member

    Just download 2tb worth of octoporn. That should do the trick. Or is that the problem?

    Thanks, I should have guessed that someone would say that!

    Thanks Cougar, I'll give that a look too.

    @Cranberry - don't think it's getting too hot... Will bear that in mind.

    Posted 1 year ago #
12. GlitterGary - Member

    I just took my computer to PC World.

    Posted 1 year ago #
13. Cougar - Member

    "too"?

    You can use DBAN, or you can do it wrong. (-:

    Posted 1 year ago #
14. Spongebob - Member

    Darik's Boot and Nuke-DBAN

    Run the 7 pass version for military standard obliteration of data.

    Posted 1 year ago #
15. GlitterGary - Member

    On second thoughts, don't take your computer to PC World.

    Posted 1 year ago #
16. JulianA - Member

    @Cougar and Spongebob - will DBAN let me choose the disk I want to nuke?

    Posted 1 year ago #

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