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    Thinking about nuking my hard drive...

    Discussion in 'Sager and Clevo' started by iMaCuLaTe, Mar 7, 2012.

  1. iMaCuLaTe

    iMaCuLaTe Notebook Consultant

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    Well I would like a fresh start with my laptop. I am considering using DBAN to nuke the drive and then just reinstall windows.

    Now, if I have the drivers on a disc, and all the stuff I actually want also on discs I should be good to go right? Do you guys know if this is considered to be a "dangerous" process or is it safe? This is the first time I am going to atempt a complete erase of my hard drive. Have any of you guys tried to use this program or a similar program? And would you recommend it?
     
    iMaCuLaTe, Mar 7, 2012
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  2. Heihachi_1337

    Heihachi_1337 Notebook Deity

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    by DBAN, are you referring to Derrick's Boot And Nuke? That is actually a great program. It does take a while to run but it does an excellent job of wiping the hard drive. It should be totally safe and, yes, I would recommend it. :D

    Regarding your drivers disk, everything should be included on it to get your video, audio, chipset, etc. all back and working again.
     
    Heihachi_1337, Mar 7, 2012
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  3. mmarchid

    mmarchid Notebook Evangelist

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    mmarchid, Mar 7, 2012
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  4. Anthony@MALIBAL

    Anthony@MALIBAL Company Representative

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    Dban works great. Though depending on the size and speed of the drive you may need to plan 12-24 hours for it to complete a standard DoD pass. That said, if you're not selling the drive and are just planning to reinstall Windows it's completely unnecessary. Just run the install disk and format the drive - no need to clean wipe it. Also, never run dban on an ssd. It does nothing but hurt the read/write cycles.

    Your driver disk will have all the basics, though they might not be current.

    Sent from my LG-C900 using Board Express
     
    Anthony@MALIBAL, Mar 7, 2012
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  5. fourgate

    fourgate Notebook Enthusiast

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    DBAN is indeed great but unfortunately, it hasn't been developed for quite some time. There is the possibility of running into some compatibility issues with newer hardware. Fortunately there is a forked project based on DBAN called Nwipe that allows for the DBAN wipe command to be run outside of the DBAN enviroment. I find that it gives more better hardware support and use from within the linux live distro cd, PartedMagic.

    Parted Magic website

    Oh, and you should also be fine with just zeroing out the hard drive if you're just looking for a clean install. Unless you're a government or multinational corporation, anything past Short DoD is overkill.
     
    fourgate, Mar 7, 2012
    #5