Wiping a hard drive

How difficult is it to completely wipe a hard drive? A client gave me her old computer with all of the reinstallation cd's. Her request was to have the hard drive wiped of all data, personal and otherwise. Her kids had downloaded a ton of stuff, with the resulting myriad viruses, worms, etc., so rather than deal with it, they just got a new one.
My question is, can I do this myself, or do I need to take it in to have someone else do it for me?
I have been on another computer forum, but seem to have been forgotten, lol:
Here's the link to the thread there:
http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/forums/topic342584.html
Hoping someone here can help!

As far as removing any Malware is concerned, a simple format of the drive will do that job. You can do this when re-installing Windows - the installation disk will provide you the option to format the drive you are installing on.

I agree with what jpshortstuff says, but If you want to completely wipe the HDD:

Download this small DBAN file to desktop but do NOT open it.

Dariks's Boot and Nuke: http://www.dban.org/download

Burn it to a disk. Put it in the infected PC's optical drive and boot the PC. It will do the rest!

Unlike simple formating which does not completely wipe everything on a HDD, this will.
It will take awhile because it makes multiple passes. You will end up with a very clean HDD.

Cheers,
Lee

That's the problem- it won't boot from the disc. I've already got dban burned to a disc, inserted it, restarted, and it goes straight to the user account window. On the second page of the above link, it shows what I get on what I *think* is the bios window, where I tried to get it to boot from the disc, and unless I'm doing something wrong, it simply isn't working.

Your thread here was incorrectly titled. Your problem is booting to CD, not "Wiping a Hard Drive" You have had that question answered already in the other forum. Your attempt in the bios so far was: —————————————————————————————————- "Ok, I've gone into the "boot device menu", tried switching to "IDE cd-rom device". I just keep getting "isolunux 4.00 4.00-pre46 etcd copyright © 1994-2010 H Peter Anvin et al reading sectors error(edd) No default or ui configuration directive found. I get there from F12 From F2 I go into "set-up", go to Boot sequence, select IDE cd-rom device", saved it, and it still won't boot from the disc Just to make sure I'm doing this correctly(please remember- computer illiterate here, lol), I'm starting the comp with the disc in place. Do I need to do something different?" —————————————————————————————————– Ok, so you know how to get to the bios. Using your arrows to navigate around in there, use the 'enter' key to enter the main menus and the Esc (escape) key to exit them. Look for 'boot order' or similar in one of those main menus.. Press 'enter' and a menu will appear in the boot order. You will then see 1st boot and 2nd boot etc. Navigate with the arrows to 1st boot (or it might say boot sequence) and press enter. Use arrows to navigate to CD and then press enter which will make CD the 1st boot, not the HDD or floppy. Press your Esc key until you are back to your main bios window. Navigate to 'Save and exit' and press enter key, or it might say press F10 to save and exit. Your computer will start to boot so get that Nuke disk in the CD drive quick smart or already have it in. The PC should either boot straight to the CD or you will see a sign saying 'press any key to boot from disk'. Press any key as soon as you see that sign. See how you go. Cheers, Lee

What is the make and model number of the computer? The users guide should explain how to set the boot order in BIOS Setup. Often, there is a prompt when you first boot that says something like "Press F10 for boot menu". If not, press F1, F2, F10 or Del to get into BIOS Setup. There should be a BOOT tab that you can chose and on there, set the CD/DVD as the first boot device. Then save the setting (often F10) and reboot, with the DBAN CD in the drive. It's really not necessary to do this though. If you can get the install CD to boot, then just delete all partitions on the hard drive, create a new one and format it (not Quick format) during the install process. Until you can boot from a CD, you won't be able to do much of anything so that problem has to be fixed first.

When I go directly to the boot device menu, and choose "IDE CD-ROM Device", and click enter, I get this message: isolunux 4.00 4.00-pre46 etcd copyright © 1994-2010 H Peter Anvin et al reading sectors error(edd) No default or ui configuration directive found. I just checked, and I get that message, no matter what I enter from the boot device menu. I go to bios, enter "boot sequence", choose "IDE CD-ROM" , and hit esc, which takes me back to bios, esc again to save, and esc yet again, and still get the above message. I don't have a clue why it won't start up from the disc! It should be, but isn't.

The Bios seems to be protected by the manufacturer against any changes. I would contact the manufacturer on the Net. and look for the help and support section. Or contact them by phone and explain that you cannot alter anything in the Bios. The other alternative is to upgrade the Bios, but that is beyond the scope of this thread. You probably would have to get someone who is PC savvy enough to do that for you, as it can be a very risky procedure if done incorrectly. Cheers, Lee

Thanks anyway! I'll try contacting the manufacturer, but since it was a free computer, I'm not going to worry overmuch if I have to take it in and have it wiped.

Do you perhaps have two optical drives in the computer? If so, try putting the CD in the other one.

Hi as well as the other suggestions. Try this: In the BIOS boot priority make sure that the CD drive is selected as first priority AND IS AT THE TOP OF THE LIST…. save the settings and reboot with the Dell disc in the drive tray…(not the Dban disc) See if this helps. If not any competent computer technician will be able to diagnose the problem in a minute or two (with the machine in front of her/him) but get a fixed price for the diagnosis first…… just to be on the safe side….. it should be very inexpensive! Regards paws

GREAT suggestion Paws. Take it to a TECH (cheap as chips)

Ztruker, yes, there are two drives. Don't know why I didn't think of trying that in the first place, lol. I'll give that a shot. If that doesn't work, I'll try doing the Dell disc. And if not- then in it will have to go. We do have a reliable tech we use when we need to. He's certainly not the cheapest in the area, but he's honest, and doesn't do(or charge) more than it needs. Thanks all, I'll let you know how it goes when I get back from work tonight

Have tried the second drive, keep getting the message "strike F1 to retry boot, F2 for utility setup". Same message for having the CD Drive at the tops of the list, and as first priority, as long as the disc is in the second drive. Otherwise, when I tried it again in the top drive, got the original message. First- I have two Dell cd's, and I don't know which one to try to boot from, lol. One is drivers and utilities, the second is application, tools system software. I'm assuming the driver's and utilities one? Also, is it possible the dban simply didn't burn correctly, and that's why I'm having such a problem? **just tried driver's and utilities in the second drive, and keep getting the message to strike F1 to retry boot, so I tried it in the first drive, and it booted from the cd for the driver's and utilities**

Definitely not Drivers & Utilities. The other one sounds possible. Does it say anything about Operating System on it? Moot point if you can't boot from CD though.