Does Secure Erase wipe out BIOS?

After using Secure Erase, do I need to do anything do get back BIOS?

Can anyone that has used it give any type of advice besides following the instructions?

CMRR - Secure Erase

 

Schwa? DOS? You mean pre-Windows, pre-386 DOS? Maybe a time machine and a 5.25" floppy drive.

Or, any installation media whatsoever.

 

BIOS......

 

Yes, hit the 'Any' key while re-booting. Your computer will have a key to enter the BIOS, sometimes 'esc', sometimes 'f10' (usually not 'f8') sometimes another. It flashes by pretty quick, so you might have to RTFM to find out what it is.

 

Do I change the boot order in BIOS? I know in some BIOS I have seen the boot order can be changed. But not on this computer.

 

I've never seen a BIOS where the boot order can't be changed. The BIOS has nothing to do with a hard drive wipe. It's tied to the motherboard. You can get to the BIOS with only the cpu, ram, and graphics card installed. Just what are you trying to do, and why are you using that particular utility?

 

I want to wipe the hard drive. Selling the computer.

 

Do a full format of the HDD, this will write Zeroes on each sector. Or download the standalone version of "Partition Wizard", boot from the optical drive and do a "Wipe Disk".

 

Just an FYI if you wipe your bios by any method, the computer is dead meat and you cant fix it.

Bios is stored on the motherboard, you can corrupt it with a bad bios flash or something but nothing HDD related is going to mess with the motherboard BIOS.

 

No. No OS-level utility has access to the BIOS.

 

Except for the new BIOS versions specifically written to be implemented under Windows of course.

And if people suggest DOS as standard way of flashing the BIOS ... lol, I never do that.
Windows flashing works and is perfectly fine if done with the proper BIOS and you have your battery inside the laptop as a UPS.

 

This statement is massively false.

 

DOS wasn't a suggestion as a means of flashing the BIOS. The OP originally asked how to get back DOS, not get back BIOS, neither of which make sense. He edited inline.

 

Um no it won't. Differences between a Quick format and a regular format during a "clean" installation of Windows XP

All a full format does is clear out the FAT/MFT and checks for disk errors. To zero out a drive you need something like Kill-Disk Active@ Kill Disk Hard Drive Eraser. Low Level Format. or DBAN DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke

 

You're right, a "Full Format" won't erase the sectors, but a "Wipe Disk" will!

 

What about the clock? That's part of the BIOS....

 

Being a geek here, but technically the clock (RTC) is separate from CMOS and BIOS. The RTC and CMOS tend to be powered off the same battery and live on the same chip, but they're fairly distinct. CMOS stays synced off the RTC and holds settings for the BIOS. BIOS is ROM-based and is flashable from the OS as of the last few years.