Write zeros to hard drive

[cottonball]

Hello folks. Have not been in any forums for quite a while...do not have what it takes any longer, brain is fried, and some health issues.

Would apprecate some help, though.

Have a couple of old PCs with Windows 8 that I wish to donate, and would like to write zeros to the entire HDD. Saw an article with AOMEI that looked simple enough, but, would like to know a little more.

Is it possible for me to install the AOMEI Partition Assistant Standard right on the drive that I am going to zero out, or do I need to downloaded to a USB drive and run it from there?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

 

[A Guy]

Hello, sorry you are having health issues You'd need to create a bootable media with the program first

How to Create Windows PE Bootable USB or CD with AOMEI Partition Assistant?

AOMEI Partition Assistant allows users to make bootable media based on Windows PE for hard disk management. It is very useful when the system fails to boot. And, it is helpful to boot the PC into WinPE to do some operations, for example, resize partition, partition recovery, and so on in case...

www.diskpart.com

Create Bootable USB or Disc Based on Windows PE or Linux

Use the free backup software - AOMEI Backupper helps to create bootable disc and USB of Windows PE, Linux and make ISO bootable file to fix system easily.

www.ubackup.com

Good luck

A Guy

 

[Brink]

Hello cotton,

I'm sorry to hear about your health issues, and hope they improve.

If you like, you can also use the "Clean All" command in a command prompt at boot in the tutorial below to wipe and secure erase the HDD.

Erase Disk using Diskpart Clean Command in Windows 10

How to Erase a Disk using Diskpart Clean Command in Windows 10

www.tenforums.com

 

[cottonball]

Thank you for the well wishes, A Guy and Brink. The ol' gray mare ain't what it used to be, it now feels like a deer staring at headlights. Please do not assume that all this info will 'sink in'. I am trying to do something rather simple without creating bootable media, if possible.

The "Clean All" command in a command prompt at boot sounds like a good option since every sector on the disk is zeroed, but, I no longer had a clue as to how to go into a command prompt at boot. I did get there using some of your tutorials, and the Advanced Options Menu (I think)!

The screen now shows a command prompt with Administrator: X:/windows/system32/cmd.exe, and proceeded to input:

diskpart > list disk >select disk # > clean all

Currently the screen shows a command prompt with DISKPART> clean all, and a dash is blinking under the entry.

Hopefully that is it. The drive has 232GB, so, it should take less than an hour to finish. Will let you know how it goes...

Also, would you be kind enough to give me some idea of what would need to be done to this hard drive if Windows 7 or 8 were to be installed on it? I no longer have the installation CD, if I do, have not been able to find it. There is a Product Key sticker on the side of this Asus EEE PC.

Thanks a million, your assistance is appreciated beyond words!!

CB

 

[Brink]

I'm glad we could help CB.

It sounds like you got it in the process of wiping the drive. It will take a while to finish.