Erasing Hard Drive

MajinBuu78 · 01-06-2009, 10:17 AM

If I completely erase my hard drive, will that also wipe out the factory shipped programs as well?

Madcatz · 01-06-2009, 01:44 PM

If you format a hard drive, it will erase everything on it so only data recovery software can find the files.

If you wipe the hard drive, it over writes all the info effectively making any data impossible to read again.

So yes, erasing the hard drive is going to delete anything and everything, including factory shipped programs. But your computer probably came with recovery discs that you could use to put windows and those factory programs back on, the state your computer was in when you pulled it out of the box.

**raptor_pa** · 01-06-2009, 01:53 PM

The only way it may not is if there is an HPA ( host protected area) of the disk containing factory restore files. In theory tho a wipe with DBAN, KillDisk, etc will wipe all data to an unrecoverable state

01-06-2009, 10:17 AM	#1 (permalink)
MajinBuu78 Registered User Join Date: Jan 2009 Posts: 1 OS: XP	Erasing Hard Drive If I completely erase my hard drive, will that also wipe out the factory shipped programs as well?

01-06-2009, 01:44 PM	#2 (permalink)
Madcatz Registered User Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Ann Arbor, MI Posts: 293 OS: 98se/XP Home/XP Pro/Vista My System	Re: Erasing Hard Drive If you format a hard drive, it will erase everything on it so only data recovery software can find the files. If you wipe the hard drive, it over writes all the info effectively making any data impossible to read again. So yes, erasing the hard drive is going to delete anything and everything, including factory shipped programs. But your computer probably came with recovery discs that you could use to put windows and those factory programs back on, the state your computer was in when you pulled it out of the box.

01-06-2009, 01:53 PM	#3 (permalink)
raptor_pa Mod Hardware Team Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Central PA Posts: 2,765 OS: XP	Re: Erasing Hard Drive The only way it may not is if there is an HPA ( host protected area) of the disk containing factory restore files. In theory tho a wipe with DBAN, KillDisk, etc will wipe all data to an unrecoverable state __________________