Erasing a Hard Drive???

[Ironhead]

I need to know the best way to completely erase a hard drive so I can re-install Windows XP Professional.
I tried it once a few months ago. Now I have two operating systems.
Both XP pro and home Edition are on my computer. When I bootup I have to tell the computer which one to use.
Yes, I have two hard drives installed on this machine. A 200GB and a 60GB.
The 200GB i want as the master drive and the other I want as the slave drive.
I would like to wipe them both and use XP Pro by itself.

I do plan to back up what I really need.

So, what I want to do is to have just the one Windows XP pro installed.

Need to know how to do this. I do have a XP pro OEM Disc.
Any where (web sites) I can go to find more info?

 

[jackcb]

master/slave issues don't exist anymore. Windows sets them up on their own.

 

[Ironhead]

More info

this computer is about 12 years old. An old Hp Pavilion,

Never came with an XP disc. I bought the XP Pro disc last year from
NCIX.

 

[jackcb]

Master/Slave still exists..on older systems with IDE hard drives. SATA is a different story.

WIndows XP and vista have a disk manager that can set up the Slave/Master controls but yes the older system boards with IDE need to be configured.

With a system that is 12 years old are you sure teh 200GB drive will be accepted by the system board?

 

[Ironhead]

info

It may not be quite that old.
I never get any crashes. Running XP without much problems. I just want to get rid of one operating system I accidently put on one drive.

I also have a external 500GB hard drive I use once and a while.

The machine came with Xp already installed.
I added a dvd burner. and the other 200gb hard drive. It had a 60gb drive to begin with.

I am also starting to build a brand new computer on my own. Have a case.

this machine is just too damn slow.

 

[perbist]

If you want to COMPLETELY wipe your hard drive, try a product called, appropriately enough, WIPEDRIVE, by White Canyon. It's not free though.

I've used it a couple of times, mostly when sending an old PC to recycling and I want to purge all my porn

 

[island-guy]

toss the 60gb drive into a wood chipper and buy a brand new 500g drive for about $100.

 

[canwest]

Erasing a Hard Drive

If the two os's on difference drive ,simply start the machine with the os you want then have the window reformat the other drive. For sure after you backup whichever files you want first

 

[kelli]

Search for a free program that permanently does this...it's used by the US military...the name is eluding me right now but I used it on both a Mac and an old PC. I let it run overnight and it worked perfectly. If I come across the name I'll post it but I bet someone out there knows the program I'm talking about. Seems to me it has numbers in the name.
x's
kelli

 

[MrR]

As funny as all of these posts are, it is really simple to wipe everything. It's called formating and partitioning your hard drive.

Listen to the advice of CHET. He actually knows what he is talking about. There are free programs to partition your hard drive, including one that is more than likely preinstalled on your drives. Just primitive, but will do the task.

 

[ctctct]

Search for a free program that permanently does this...it's used by the US military...the name is eluding me right now but I used it on both a Mac and an old PC. I let it run overnight and it worked perfectly. If I come across the name I'll post it but I bet someone out there knows the program I'm talking about. Seems to me it has numbers in the name.
x's
kelli

i dont know about us military but Dban is used by canadian gov for wiping hdrives