DIY: Wipe Your Hard Drive Clean

By John Woram, CNET.com on 08 April 2005

Title

Forget those minor PC housecleaning chores. This is the big one — the operating system reinstall.

It's that time of year again. Time to put away the summer clothes, drag out the ugh boots, and tune up the heater. And when you're done extricating those rodent-size dust bunnies from under the bed, you can start on the digital debris in your PC. We're not just talking about clearing out unwanted files and programs. We're talking about the big one: a clean install of your OS. It may make the rest of your change-of-season chores sound like a day in the park, but it's the ultimate cure for a wide variety of illnesses that have plagued your PC all year, including inexplicable errors, glitches and poorly timed (is there a good time?) crashes.

The culprits are usually some less-than-perfect applications or utilities you've already uninstalled that have left some sticky footprints on your operating system. You may think Windows' Add or Remove Programs utility makes unwanted software vanish without a trace, but it just isn't so.

Although some applications are worse — and some much worse — than others at removal on demand, a thoroughly clean uninstall can be next to impossible even for the best-behaved program.

An application may share a few dynamic link library (DLL) files with some other application, modify file associations in the Registry, replace a file with an updated version, or do who knows what else to the system. Later on, some other program could make even more changes. Even if an application could completely restore your operating system to the condition it was in prior to the app's installation, it can't compensate for the effect of its loss on applications you installed later on in the cycle.

If you're the ultimate power user and have lots of free time, perhaps you can sort this all out and get your computer back together again. Or you can buy a new PC and start fresh. But there's a more expedient and more affordable solution: get out the virtual scrub brush, wipe your system clean and install a fresh version of Windows.

Pre-op procedures
Like many other operations, the preparation takes longer than the procedure. But if you skimp on the prep, you'll pay for it during the process. So spend the time it takes to get through the following list of chores. You don't have to do them all in one sitting.

Back up before advancing
Yes, yes, you've been backing up religiously since forever, so you don't need to be told about this. But have you ever tried restoring or do you just take it on faith that it will work when needed? If so, now's the time to test that faith. Try to find a backed-up document file and transfer it into a temporary folder. Do the same for a few Windows system files. Keep in mind that after a fresh reinstall of the operating system, you will not want to do a total restore of a drive image, because this would just return all the problems of yesterday. But you may want to retrieve an obscure system file from, say, the C:\WINDOWS\ system32\drivers folder. Can you do this easily? If not, it's time to get better backup/restore software.

Before you back up, open Control Panel's Add or Remove Programs applet and scan the list of programs currently installed. Also review the entries on the Start menu's All Programs list. Some applications add an uninstall option there, rather than in the Add or Remove Programs list. If you see anything on either list you haven't used in ages and don't plan to use in the future, dump it.

Programs in review
After you've backed up and gotten rid of all the stuff you don't want, review the programs list once again and make sure you can locate the installation software for every program you do want. If the program came on a CD, where is it? Do you have the serial number? If not, you may find it on the program's Help or About page. For downloaded programs, did you save the installation files? Round them up and place them in a compressed ZIP (or similar) folder. Because some of these files have cryptic names (IP5_2ENG.EXE for Microsoft's IntelliPoint 5.2 software, for instance), it's not a bad idea to start a README.DOC file in the same folder, listing each such filename, an explanation of what it is, the URL you downloaded it from and the date you installed it.

Topics: disk, wipe, clean, reinstall, glitches, crash, guide, drive, hard, hdd, windows, errors

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Comments (34)

  • BrIaN commented on 28/06/2009 10:39 Report abuse

    I have reinstalled XP on m pc and i didd it on the D drive by axident an i cannot install some drivers now and i have tryed to reinstall it again but now it doesnt show the c drive opion only the drive an when ever it boots up it gives me to OS options but there is only one installed on the D drive can some one help me or tell me how to get it all fixed up

  • PCPete commented on 23/06/2009 09:46 Report abuse

    I've done quite literally thousands of reinstalls, from CP/M to Win7, and the two tools that never leave me are eWallet and ListPro from Ilium Software. They save my bacon every time I have to rebuild or reinstall an application, and they're safer than a bank. There's some functionality overlap between these products, but basically eWallet gets used for banking, credit card, and online login details. It's encrypted with one of the strongest and well-respected encryption method you and I can use, it's flexible, and it can be synchronised with your mobile device, so even if your main system goes phut, you still have access to all your personal information. And if you lose your portable device or someone pinches or hacks in to your PC, then it's extremely unlikely that typical crackers and crims can even think about breaking in to your data. If you're genuinely worried about your data being decrypted by the "morally challenged", I'd suspect you're going to need a LOT more security than any kind of computer program or hardware device! These tools are a damn sight safer than writing your banking and password details on a Post-It note stuck to the back of the monitor, or worse, listed in a "my passwords" file somewhere easy to find on your PC! Listpro is much more list-oriented, so it's excellent for storing software details - licence keys, passwords, serial numbers, purchase date, categories, location, original download URL, shipping details, and more. Plus you can make your own shopping lists/movie wants/whatever. You can add, remove, and create almost unlimited lists with any combinations of columns, which can be categories (drop-downs that you can add to), yes/no, true/false, text, dates (with popup calendar pickers), freeform notes, checkboxes, URLs, and even running total columns to keep track of, well, running totals. Between these two products, I manage over 380 online logins, all my banking and credit card details, and 160+ software serial numbers and registration keys, and I've done this with these two products over 8 years without loss or problems. They're well worth the AUD$60 or so they cost! If you're REALLY serious about tracking and managing your information (and who isn't?), try these two products, or at least one of the competitors, like Steganos or something similar. (I've used Steganos on behalf of a couple of customers, and it works OK, just a bit 'glitzy' for a password/info management application, with popups, popunders, overrideable and clunky security settings - but it's STILL better than the post-it option!) Using tools like these means you only have to remember one (or possibly 2) passwords, and they can be ANYTHING. Not just 6 letters with no punctuation or special characters blocked, you can type in a poem or an address or anything to use as a password. It's surprisingly easy to remember your favourite book title instead of whatever it is you converted from f@c3b00K! I don't work for nor am I afiliated with Ilium in any way, I just know how difficult and important it is to keep track of all this information when your computer gets to the "Welcome to Windows Setup" screen!

  • JDAWG069 commented on 09/06/2009 18:33 Report abuse

    To everyone asking about "wiping", I need to explain something. If you are just having general problems with your hardware, software, etc.. then a "wipe" will take care of it, however, it is considerably more thorough, when compared to "reformatting and reinstalling windows". The basic difference is this; a program like DBAN, which I use, will overwrite either random patterns, or zeros to the drive, whereas, formatting, which is sufficient in most cases, will mark all existing data as "usable space", but will not clear it immediately, rather, will allow that usable space to be overwritten with new data, unless there is nothing else written to disk, then, recovery is easy. The basic terminology is confusing, I know, but some of you mentioned that you'd come across viruses lurking on your system, and, in this case, do not reformat from your XP reinstall disk, rather, use DBAN, which WILL IRRECOVERABLY DESTROY ALL DATA. However, if it's just some programs acting up, I'd recommend just reboot with your windows disk, since it takes a long time anyway, but with a "quick" format, you'll save time, by not having to check your disk health, or waiting to overwrite the entire disk platter. In general, reformatting is much faster, though keep in mind, you will still need to re-install all of your software once in windows (unless you run with a MFG's restore disk, and everything's set up automatically). Hope this helps everyone.

  • JDAWG069 commented on 09/06/2009 18:17 Report abuse

    To Excalibur, to get into your administrator account, you can hold the F8 key BEFORE booting into windows, then select "safe mode" from text menu. Next, go under the "ADMINISTRATOR" name, (not your own, even if you're an admin). Once in, start menu, control panel, user accounts, click on your user account name, then "remove password" (I can't remember if it needs your old password though, it may prompt for it, and if so, make a backup to removable media through the Microsoft backup utility ntbackup.exe, then once everything is backed up, delete your user account and start over), you'll be fine with a backup, you can resore it later, by double clicking on your backup. I use my slave hard drive, and a USB flash drive w/ 2 GB of space, which is sufficient for my use. I hope I answered your question.

  • excalibur1961 commented on 29/05/2009 02:31 Report abuse

    I forgot my admin password and now cannot get into my computer. HELP!!!!!! PLEASE

  • Gibbs commented on 15/05/2009 05:52 Report abuse

    Yes to some Questions you can completely wipe your hard drive clean.

  • Play3rhat3r commented on 15/05/2009 05:08 Report abuse

    i have the same problem

  • "GB" commented on 02/05/2009 06:53 Report abuse

    anyone used any of the hard drive forensic software to find all files before erasing hard drive? also, what's the best way to back up to external HD so that the program no longer exits on the internal HD? I can get them to the external but it soesn't seem to reduce the MB on my HD. I currently show Total 512MB with available 128.38.

  • xboxgeek951 commented on 28/04/2009 07:43 Report abuse

    I simply cannot wipe my harddrive on my tobisha portege 3500... I NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!

  • inf commented on 25/04/2009 23:11 Report abuse

    please help me...i brought this computer from a person,and i was wondering if i clean the hard drive completly clean,will i need any files to save from what the computer already had..meaningi have no personal files in the computer,so do i just clean the hard drive out and start the computer over?if so what do i do,do i but a windows program or will the desktop be there????

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