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Erasing hard drives on old XP computer

Discussion in 'General Software' started by 8biosdrive, Sep 23, 2019.

  1. 8biosdrive

    8biosdrive Registered Members

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    I have an old Dell Dimension 8300 with two hard drives that I would like to erase before donating or giving it away. I see that Hard Drive Eraser or Disk Wipe are recommended for this. Can I run these programs from a flash drive in order to erase both disks? If I download the program to one of the hard drives on the old computer it looks like I can only erase the other hard drive, but not the one the program was downloaded to. I would then need to remove the second hard drive and connect it to another computer containing the eraser software in order to wipe it clean. It would be simpler to run the software from an external hard drive to wipe both clean, but I suppose it would need to also have the operating system installed (XP). Thanks for any help with this.
     
    8biosdrive, Sep 23, 2019
    #1
  3. Tony D

    Tony D Administrator Administrator

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    Hard Drive Eraser needs to be installed on a Windows machine. Hence, it won't be able to wipe the disk it's running from.
    Disk Wipe doesn't need to be installed. It can run from a USB drive. You'd get your machine up and running then run Disk Wipe from the USB drive. I don't know if it would erase the drive that is running Windows.

    Best to use another machine and attach the two drives from the Dimension 8300 via a USB adapter or as slave drives to wipe them.
     
    Tony D, Sep 23, 2019
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    8biosdrive likes this.
  4. Seth Anthony

    Seth Anthony Registered Members

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    This.
     
    Seth Anthony, Sep 23, 2019
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  5. 8biosdrive

    8biosdrive Registered Members

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    As I recall, the two drives have SATA power and data cables for connecting to the power supply and motherboard. What type of USB adapter would I need to connect them to my Windows 10 machine? Any idea how long it would take to erase a 250 Gb hard drive?
     
    8biosdrive, Sep 23, 2019
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  6. Seth Anthony

    Seth Anthony Registered Members

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    Ah yes, I forgot that a hard drive that old might have PATA connector, but I guess not. Anyway, since it's SATA, you would need a sata to usb adapter for 3.5 inch drives. Something like this:

    https://www.ebay.com/itm/SATA-to-US...843094?hash=item287f160bd6:g:PPIAAOSwA9tc-LO1

    Or just hook it up to a newer computer using an internal extra SATA and power connector. If the computer doesn't have extras, then use the the optical drive connectors. As far as how much time goes, it depends on the capacity of the drive and how many "passes" you run. So, anywhere from an hour to a day.

    With that said, it's most likely those hard drives are at the end of their life. Perhaps it would be better to just break the disk inside by smashing the drive with a hammer a few times?
     
    Seth Anthony, Sep 23, 2019
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  7. 8biosdrive

    8biosdrive Registered Members

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    Ok, thanks for the help!
     
    8biosdrive, Sep 23, 2019
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