Best software to wipe my HDD?

I want to wipe my HDD so that I can install a new SSD and use my HDD as a storage drive.

What is the best software (or process) to do this?

 

If you're going to be the one using the drive (i.e. no data privacy concerns), a Quick Format through Windows Explorer should do the job...

 

Even quicker, you can just install the new OS over the old OS (or data).

 

Yes it's going to be me using the drive.

I plan on installing the OS on my new SSD not my HDD - I plan on using the HDD (currently my main drive w/ all my data) as a storage drive to complement my smaller SDD

After doing a quick google I saw lots of things on DBAN - but that seems to be for people who are wiping drives b/c of security reasons. I just want it erased to get all my data & the OS off it

 

A simple reformat (during the OS installation process) will be sufficient. DBAN is only necessary if you want to resell the drive and need to make all your data entirely unrecoverable.

 

And even then, with 10 passes or whatever - the data can still be retrieved by forensics.

A quick format will suit you, OP. The regular format does exactly the same thing, but checks the drive for errors simultaneously; so unless you think - or know - that you have bad sectors, then a quick format is fine. Wiping is not necessary in your scenario.

 

I just use Killdisk to wipe clean....and reformat....otherwise like others just wipe clean by the O/S when formatting should suffice for reinstall...

 

A simple delete all partition on format with your O/S disc will wipe the drive clean for you to install your new O/S and all the drivers again without any problems. If you need more I say try KIllDisk that works great for me....but if you use it you have to give it the resources to use as it will take alot of time depending on how big the drive is.

 

The term "wipe" is a bit of a misnomer here (I feel like I should clear it up). "Wiping" a drive is like the electronic equivalent of using a paper shredder to securely delete paper documents (in a sense). Formatting a drive - regardless of what you use to format it - is like using an eraser on the paper.

So if you're keeping and even using the drive, formatting suffices. But if you're getting rid of the drive or selling it, you want to wipe it, so that any personal/sensitive data is rendered unrecoverable by any type of software aimed at recovering deleted data.

 

What Prostar said, i never "wipe" a drive that i'm going to re-use. If I'm trashing the drive, then I not only wipe it, I physically destroy it. If I intended to resell, then obviously, I'd only wipe it, but i keep my older HDDs for backup purposes as long as I can and when it shows sign of failing, I just trash it.

 

Just confirming what others have said. If someone wants to make a drive unreadable just take a hammer to the platters. If law enforcement wants information from a hard drive they have the tools and the means to do so.

I remember back in the 80's when working on tape backup drives. I had customers who gave us damaged tapes where they needed to get the data off and we had a specialist who dipped the tape in a solution and you could see all the data on said tape. That was crude by the tools and methods law enforcement has today.

 

Just throw caution to the wind when using a hammer. It's safer to remove the casing if you have the screwdriver bit that fits those tiny star shaped screw heads first, THEN you can get to the platters and destroy them. I know a guy that took a hammer to a 3.5" HDD; he set it on it's side, took a swing at it with a sledgehammer, and a piece of the casing broke off and shot into his thigh.