WWA Info Exchange

I have an old computer that I am going to take to a recycle center and wanted to reformat the C drive but it won't let me. A screen comes up that says something elsle is using that volume and then askes if I want to dismount that volume. When I say yes the screen disappears and nothing happens. Any suggestions?

Take the hard drive out and use it for target practice if you are worried about any data you may have on it. The machine will just be chopped up for scrap in any case.

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I bring to life, I bring to death:
The spirit does but mean the breath:
I know no more. (Tennyson, In Memoriam)

I agree with Gene. Three whacks with a sledge hammer does a lot for safeguarding your data on the hard drive . At least that's what I did to Daddy's hard drives before he recycled his old PC's.

Verna

Agree with advice thus tendered! - the best tool to use to eliminate the data on the hard drive is the biggest hammer you've got.

Being the inveterate Curious George that I am, I remove the drive and take it apart. It's an amazing piece of miniature engineering inside. The disks make nice clocks for the gimmicky minded among us! (grin)

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Nullum Gratuitum Prandium

Cheers - Dennis

I agree with the others, but before you destroy it, you can get two of the most powerful magnets for their size if you take it apart first.

Thanks guys, I had never opened the case before or looked for the hard drive but it's a done deal and much easier than what I had in mind.

I agree with the above that destroying the HD is the most certain way of solving the problem. However, if you don't want to do that, there are several programs that will do an erase of the HD.

A good one is "Eraser" and free for download. It will do the whole drive to mil specs, or one designated file at a time.

Later: I forgot to add the link:

http://eraser.heidi.ie/

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Jess
my gallery
more photos

Thanks Jess, will keep that in mind.

some info:

1. if you have a large hard drive, these erase programs will write several times to 100% of the drive. This takes a very long time, but works.

2. "A screen comes up that says something elsle is using that volume " yes windows is using it. If you only have one drive in a computer, windows is on it and cannot erase itself.

If you have the install disk you can use it to format (reformat) the hard drive. DAMHIKT..

Duan

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Duan Packard
Kerrville, Texas

dum vivimus, vivamus