How to completely delete a hard drive without being able to recover data?

Hammer + Chisel = Data go bye bye

Let my mother in law use it in her pc for a month. I swear to gawd she has a magical gift to destroy electronic data stored on any media if left alone with her for any length of time and you can forget about recovering the shit either.

yeap......use fine calibration tools (hammer).....set it on fire, or use a good old virus

Here's a few solutions..
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
or
http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

US Department of Defense 5220.22-M Clearing and Sanitization Matrix

a. Degauss with a Type I degausser

b. Degauss with a Type II degausser.

c. Overwrite all addressable locations with a single character.

d. Overwrite all addressable locations with a character, its complement, then a random character and verify. THIS METHOD IS NOT APPROVED FOR SANITIZING MEDIA THAT CONTAINS TOP SECRET INFORMATION.

e. Overwrite all addressable locations with a character, its complement, then a random character.

f. Each overwrite must reside in memory for a period longer than the classified data resided.

g. Remove all power to include battery power.

h. Overwrite all locations with a random pattern, all locations with binary zeros, all locations with binary ones.

i. Perform a full chip erase as per manufacturer's data sheets.

j. Perform i above, then c above, a total of three times.

k. Perform an ultraviolet erase according to manufacturer's recommendation.

l. Perform k above, but increase time by a factor of three.

m. Destroy - Disintegrate, incinerate, pulverize, shred, or melt.

n. Destruction required only if classified information is contained.

o. Run five pages of unclassified text (font test acceptable).

p. Ribbons must be destroyed. Platens must be cleaned.

q. Inspect and/or test screen surface for evidence of burned-in information. If present, the cathode ray tube must be destroyed.



I actually had to do this, sheesh.

wouldn't it be easier to destroy it in an incinerator?

boot with a linux cd and run this a few times:
dd if=/dev/random of=/dev/hda0

all you need is a BFH - Big Fucking Hammer

pour acid on it

theres only one solution and I use it every time were getting new PCs and the old ones are sold

Get a erase program that uses DoD here are the specs

A high security (and slower) 7 pass sanitize method, matching the U.S. Department of Defense standards (DOD 5220.22-M). The method is implemented as described below: 1. Randomly generated character A; 2. Complement of character A; 3. Randomly generated data stream 4. Randomly generated character B; 5. Randomly generated character C; 6. Complement of character C; 7. Randomly generated data stream

Cyberscrub does that - theres no way in hell youll be able to recover anything after that even with the US fed programs (someone happen to know someone who had that program and someone tried it ;) )

http://www.cyberscrub.com/products/p...uite/index.php

Buy new drive, smash old with hammer then douse with lighter fluid and stick in barbecue.

Low level formating will write zero's to every sector on the drive.
Not just delete (FAT) file allocation table.
You want to replace every bit with something...

Contact your manufactor for there "low level formating tools"
I personally use WD drives and "datatools" is there utility.

Overwriting data isn't a solution. You need to zero and random fill many, many times.
Burning isn't actually a solution. You actually need to totally destroy the disc.
Acid is a good preparation, followed by systematic destruction by means of fire, or complete destruction.

Dban program is best method.It's not good just for destroying that,after doing it hard driver works much better beacuse it's cleaned sector by sector.

yep used Dban too.. did the job

This will help you out Oracle Porn!

BcwipePD will do what you require... The DOD uses 7 passes (or at least used to) as to destroy their sensitive data... if it works for them well... try it...

You could zero out your drive, but your data may still be retrieved...

Later,

.

Burn it and then feed the ashes to the pigs.