Does writeing 0's to a drive kill it or just erase all the data?

[_Mystical_Night]

Does writeing 0's to a drive kill it or just erase all the data on it? :)

im asking cause i wanna erase the data on my ide drives and sell them on ebay :p dont wanna keep em around but dont want people recovering files i once had on the drive either

I wrote 0's to a 300gb ide hd cause i just used that one as a storage for games,music,movies,etc and i wanted to completely erase everything on it (it didnt have any personal data like passwords,bank account #'s or SS #'s)

[BipolarBill]

It won't destroy the drive - just the data.

[G]

Try this, it is now free and has algorithms to overwrite your drive so data recovery is less likely.

CopyWipe V1.14
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.html#download


Let me know how it goes, as I've never tried it as I test a $199.95 version for a data destruction company so do not need it.

East Technologies:
East-Tec DisposeSecure 2007 Enterprise
http://www.east-tec.com/enterprise/disposesecureent/purchase.htm

[Sterling_Aug]

DBAN is fast and it is also free:

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

[slam]

after destroying your data. test it with a recovery tool to make sure it worked.
I've seen data not disappear before.

[_Mystical_Night]

thanks for the feedback guys :)

[rmanet]

and a few proper disclaimers (mfgr date of drive, whether or not you'll warrant the drive, etc.) will go a long way towards saving your Ebay ratings

and you owe it to potential buyers to do mfgr diagnostics too