What's is the difference between doing a simple Format C:, versus first deleting and replacing the primary DOS partition, and THEN doing a "Format C:"? Does the latter do a better job of erasing the HD than the former? Thanx

In a sense - why do you ask?

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

http://www.killdisk.com

Sure (if that's the real question), data recovery isn't terribly difficult on a drive that's been repartitioned and formatted - but repeatedly overwriting the drive data will greatly reduce the chances of someone recovering those (for example) Justin Timberlake photos

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie!'... till you can find a rock

Report Offensive Follow Up For Removal

Removing a partition doesn't erase the data, in the sense that it's overwritten. For that you'd need a zero-fill utility as dosser mentioned.

It does however make the data harder to recover. There was an 'unformat' command with old dos and Norton Utilites had a similar one. Using those on a newly formatted drive (FAT16) would give some recovery. However if the partition was removed, recreated and then formatted those utilites would find nothing, even if it was partitioned exactly the same. I guess removing the partition also removed file and directory remnants that the format command normally ignored.

Hi, If the drive has no problems then Format C: /S will do the job. The /S will make the drive bootable. The Fdisk will not hurt anything, or make much difference. If you don't want your data to stay on the drive, then use a Zero writing program sometimes called a "Low level format". It's not nearly as easy to recover data as is done on TV.

Good Luck, Jim

Trailing in after DaveinCaps...

Re' recovering data - or making it hard to so to do...

The real pros would appear to be able to get back to before several runs of repartition, reformat, debug/delpart/killdisk etc.; viz data inadvertantly deleted/lost etc. one way or another; or data the various security types, and those looking for items/evidence etc. one might not wish for "them" to find... But the software etc. they use is "a little expensive..."

I seem to recall (from my earlier days) the minimum number of passes demanded for wiping a drive etc.. is at least 22 (one way or another - be it repartitioning/reformating etc. or other routines) before it becomes almost impossible to recover data...

Thanx for all the good tips. People who give me computers want the HD "wiped clean". I just wasn't sure if deleting the partiton first did a better job than simply doing a Format c: on them. But I think I will start using a tool like Killdisk. Thanx for that one, Dosser.