Wiping a data drive

Mediaman09

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I had a brand new 2TB WD drive (bought 6 months back as a spare), which I put to use yesterday to replace a 1TB data drive. All went well, but just when I was all done, I broke the data connector when I was securing it to the case!!!

I contacted WD to see if was covered by warranty, but its not. It's not a boot drive, and I didn't lose any data, so it could have been a lot worse. Only lost some time and money:)

I still needed a new drive, so I picked up a 4TB drive to meet my needs, and all is now good.

I can no longer use that 2GB drive in any of my pc's anymore (as the data cable wont be a secure connection), but it occurred to me to try sliding it into my external USB2 enclosure , and to my pleasant surprise, it was slow, but readable.

Question: I will likely dedicate such an enclosure just for this drive (for backups, testing etc) .... but in case I decide to dispose of the drive, I would like to 'wipe" it clean first. If I go to Computer Management/Disk Management and delete the Volume, and then re-create a new volume, would that do it? Or do I need to use a third party 'kill' app?

wd-black-2gb.JPG
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
CCleaner has a drive wiping utility, I would use something like that just to be safe.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8.1 Pro 64-bit
    Computer type
    Laptop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Acer V3 771G-6443
    CPU
    i5-3230m
    Motherboard
    Acer VA70_HC (U3E1)
    Memory
    8GB DDR3 PC3-12800 (800 MHz)
    Graphics Card(s)
    HD4000 + GeForce GT 730M
    Sound Card
    Realtek High Definition Audio
    Monitor(s) Displays
    17" Generic PnP Display on Intel HD Graphics 4000
    Screen Resolution
    1600x900 pixels
    Hard Drives
    Samsung SSD 850 EVO 250 GB
    ADATA SSD SP900 128GB
    PSU
    90 watt brick
    Mouse
    Bluetooth
    Antivirus
    Comodo
    Other Info
    Asus RT-AC56R dual-band WRT router (Merlin firmware). Intel 7260.HMWWB.R dual-band ac wireless adapter.
OK thanks, will check that out.

Still curious about what deleting a volume does in terms of ensuring data is truly wiped out or not.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 8
when you delete a volume, the info from the sectors can be recovered, when you wipe a drive it writes 0'z and 1's to the sectors so every sector is overwritten..

here is a link to a program to do just that > HDDGURU: HDD LLF Low Level Format Tool
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Windows 3.1 > Windows 10
    Computer type
    PC/Desktop
    System Manufacturer/Model
    Dell XPS 8700
    CPU
    I7
    Memory
    24 GB
OK thanks, will check that out.

Still curious about what deleting a volume does in terms of ensuring data is truly wiped out or not.
In that case only the control information is changed. The data will stay intact and is relatively easy to retrieve.
 

My Computer

System One

  • OS
    Vista and Win7
    System Manufacturer/Model
    2xHP, 2xGateway, 1xDell, 1xSony
    Hard Drives
    5 SSDs and 12 HDs
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