ONE DUMB QUESTION ..

[diane whatever]

OK .. I think I have been posting here for many many years so I think I
should be allowed ONE really dumb question.

I have just received a 320 gig drive to replace my 160 gig drive in my
new Lenovo. Realized there is no operating system installed and on my
way home from work I am going to decide, do I want to install Vista or
Windows 7 .. I had a few issues with the touch screen in Windows 7 ..
wasn't able to get the multi touch working either but ...

The real question is .. What is the quickest way to erase my hard drive.
This 320 gig is a swap for my 160 because they sent my Lenovo with the
wrong drive. Will a big magnet do the job ?? Or do I need to take the
new drive out and put back the old drive and then erase .. I am so
incredibly lazy !!

Mean while .. time to go home. I have a system recovery disc but it is
Vista. SHEESH .. So many decisions.

Diane

[Jaime]

Not that dumb, erasing a drive when you only have space for one drive in the
system isn't always straight forward.

A couple of ideas:

Do you have (or know someone who has) a SATA to USB connector, to allow to
plug the drive in as an external drive?

You could create a boot disk (USB or CD) with some wipe application on it
and boot the Lenovo with that, then run that to clean the disk.

If your not that concerned about really, really wiping the data, you could
just boot the system with a Windows CD/DVD and use the partition tools in
there to delete the partition. You could even format and reinstall the OS to
overwrite the drive (somewhat). Again not DoD/CIA/double-naught spy
standards like booting and running some industrial strength wiping program.

Probably some other ideas out there, a big magnet might work :o)
--
James
Bart: "According to creationism, there were no cavemen."
Homer: "Good riddance! Their drawings sucked and they looked like hippies."

Post by diane whatever
OK .. I think I have been posting here for many many years so I think I
should be allowed ONE really dumb question.
I have just received a 320 gig drive to replace my 160 gig drive in my new
Lenovo. Realized there is no operating system installed and on my way
home from work I am going to decide, do I want to install Vista or Windows
7 .. I had a few issues with the touch screen in Windows 7 .. wasn't able
to get the multi touch working either but ...
The real question is .. What is the quickest way to erase my hard drive.
This 320 gig is a swap for my 160 because they sent my Lenovo with the
wrong drive. Will a big magnet do the job ?? Or do I need to take the
new drive out and put back the old drive and then erase .. I am so
incredibly lazy !!
Mean while .. time to go home. I have a system recovery disc but it is
Vista. SHEESH .. So many decisions.
Diane
--
SeaMonkey: The 'swiss knife' of internet communication.
diane whatever

[Beverly Howard]

I'll add to do what was suggested in reverse...

Physically remove the current HD, install the new drive and confirm that
it will boot (or run the necessary install)

At that point, connect the old hard drive to the computer using a usb
cable or enclosure (they should be in the $20-40$ range...)

...IF the drive is then accessible, you will be able to recover files
and run wipe software on the extenal drive.

If the drive is not accessible, there is no way to assure the data is
removed other than to physically destroy the drive... a magnet will not
erase the drive... it may do partial if the disk cover is alum but
nothing will be erased if the cover is ferrous.

Beverly Howard

['whatever']

Post by Jaime
Not that dumb, erasing a drive when you only have space for one drive in
the system isn't always straight forward.
Do you have (or know someone who has) a SATA to USB connector, to allow to
plug the drive in as an external drive?
You could create a boot disk (USB or CD) with some wipe application on it
and boot the Lenovo with that, then run that to clean the disk.
If your not that concerned about really, really wiping the data, you could
just boot the system with a Windows CD/DVD and use the partition tools in
there to delete the partition. You could even format and reinstall the OS
to overwrite the drive (somewhat). Again not DoD/CIA/double-naught spy
standards like booting and running some industrial strength wiping program.
Probably some other ideas out there, a big magnet might work :o)
--
James
Bart: "According to creationism, there were no cavemen."
Homer: "Good riddance! Their drawings sucked and they looked like hippies."

Post by diane whatever
OK .. I think I have been posting here for many many years so I think I
should be allowed ONE really dumb question.
I have just received a 320 gig drive to replace my 160 gig drive in my
new Lenovo. Realized there is no operating system installed and on my
way home from work I am going to decide, do I want to install Vista or
Windows 7 .. I had a few issues with the touch screen in Windows 7 ..
wasn't able to get the multi touch working either but ...
The real question is .. What is the quickest way to erase my hard drive.
This 320 gig is a swap for my 160 because they sent my Lenovo with the
wrong drive. Will a big magnet do the job ?? Or do I need to take the
new drive out and put back the old drive and then erase .. I am so
incredibly lazy !!
Mean while .. time to go home. I have a system recovery disc but it is
Vista. SHEESH .. So many decisions.
Diane
--
SeaMonkey: The 'swiss knife' of internet communication.
diane whatever

Only problem I can think of with the magnet, is that I would have to put the
drive in a computer
to make sure it worked. I guess I am just in a big hurry to get the Lenovo
up and running .. I suppose
I can do that and erase the other one later. Nothing SUPER SECRET in the
old drive, but I probably
have saved all my paypal and ebay passwords etc ..

diane

[RT]

Post by 'whatever'

Post by Jaime
Not that dumb, erasing a drive when you only have space for one drive in
the system isn't always straight forward.
Do you have (or know someone who has) a SATA to USB connector, to allow to
plug the drive in as an external drive?
You could create a boot disk (USB or CD) with some wipe application on it
and boot the Lenovo with that, then run that to clean the disk.
If your not that concerned about really, really wiping the data, you could
just boot the system with a Windows CD/DVD and use the partition tools in
there to delete the partition. You could even format and reinstall the OS
to overwrite the drive (somewhat). Again not DoD/CIA/double-naught spy
standards like booting and running some industrial strength wiping program.
Probably some other ideas out there, a big magnet might work :o)
--
James
Bart: "According to creationism, there were no cavemen."
Homer: "Good riddance! Their drawings sucked and they looked like hippies."

Post by diane whatever
OK .. I think I have been posting here for many many years so I think I
should be allowed ONE really dumb question.
I have just received a 320 gig drive to replace my 160 gig drive in my
new Lenovo.  Realized there is no operating system installed and on my
way home from work I am going to decide, do I want to install Vista or
Windows 7 ..  I had a few issues with the touch screen in Windows 7 ..
wasn't able to get the multi touch working either but ...
The real question is .. What is the quickest way to erase my hard drive.
This 320 gig is a swap for my 160 because they sent my Lenovo with the
wrong drive.  Will a big magnet do the job ??  Or do I need to take the
new drive out and put back the old drive and then erase .. I am so
incredibly lazy !!
Mean while .. time to go home.  I have a system recovery disc but it is
Vista.  SHEESH .. So many decisions.
Diane
--
SeaMonkey:  The 'swiss knife' of internet communication.
diane whatever

Only problem I can think of with the magnet, is that I would have to put the
drive in a computer
to make sure it worked.  I guess I am just in a big hurry to get the Lenovo
up and running .. I suppose
I can do that and erase the other one later.  Nothing SUPER SECRET in the
old drive, but I probably
have saved all my paypal and ebay passwords etc ..
diane

SysRescCD.org has a dban menu item which launches Dereks Boot And Nuke
DOD level harddrive wiper.
SysRescCD can be launched from a USB stick or CD.

But you may just want to boot into your BIOS as it is becoming more
common to put a harddrive wiping program directly in the BIOS.

[Rainald Taesler]

Post by diane whatever
What is the quickest way to erase my hard
drive. This 320 gig is a swap for my 160 because they sent my Lenovo
with the wrong drive. Will a big magnet do the job ?? Or do I need
to take the new drive out and put back the old drive and then erase

Easiest way: Wipe the drive with DBAN.
http://www.dban.org

Download the file, burn it to CD, put the old drive back into the
computer, boot from the CD and run the program.

Rainald

[Diane Whatever]

Post by Rainald Taesler

Post by diane whatever
What is the quickest way to erase my hard
drive. This 320 gig is a swap for my 160 because they sent my Lenovo
with the wrong drive. Will a big magnet do the job ?? Or do I need
to take the new drive out and put back the old drive and then erase

Easiest way: Wipe the drive with DBAN.
http://www.dban.org
Download the file, burn it to CD, put the old drive back into the
computer, boot from the CD and run the program.
Rainald

"So easy, even a cave man can do it."
Thanks all, Diane