Windows 98 & ME - New computer

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- - New computer (http://www.win98banter.com/showthread.php?t=46051)

Hi to all. After 11 years of using my WIN 98SE finally got me a new
computer. I want to either donate or just give away the old one.
Should I reformat the HD? If so, how's the best way to do it? (never
done it) TIA
J.R.

JayAr wrote:
Hi to all. After 11 years of using my WIN 98SE finally got me a new
computer. I want to either donate or just give away the old one.
Should I reformat the HD? If so, how's the best way to do it? (never
done it) TIA
J.R.

Jay:

Note that formatting the hard drive will remove the operating system
and make the computer just a collection of hardware parts till an OS
is installed.

That said - While windows is running you cannot format your C: hard
drive, Windows will give you an error message. If you boot from a
floppy or exit to DOS you can then format the HDD. At the command
prompt just type: "format c:" then press "Enter". You will get a
warning along the lines of "Are you sure? All data will be lost".
Answer YES and the format will start. This will take some time but at
the end you will get a format complete message and be given the
opportunity to assign a text "Label" to the drive.

If you are worried about people recovering your data from the
formatted drive (possible with the right tools) you might want to use
a disk wipe program like "CopyWipe":
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php
This can make multiple writes of random data to the entire disk to be
sure the old data is not recoverable. Note that such a wipe can take
several hours on a large drive.

HTH & GL

John

--
\\\||///
------------------o000----(o)(o)----000o----------------
----------------------------()--------------------------
'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - 40.4913ºN,79.904ºW - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6

PUT IT IN THE NEW COMPUTER
Set the NEW COMPUTER HD Jumpers to Master and the old one Jumpers to Save
and then reformat the old HD there if you like. But do not give a way the
old HD you need to kill it first. for reformat will not kill it, the HD is
alive and will always reminder you

"John Dulak" wrote in message
...
JayAr wrote:
Hi to all. After 11 years of using my WIN 98SE finally got me a new
computer. I want to either donate or just give away the old one.
Should I reformat the HD? If so, how's the best way to do it? (never
done it) TIA
J.R.

Jay:

Note that formatting the hard drive will remove the operating system and
make the computer just a collection of hardware parts till an OS is
installed.

That said - While windows is running you cannot format your C: hard drive,
Windows will give you an error message. If you boot from a floppy or exit
to DOS you can then format the HDD. At the command prompt just type:
"format c:" then press "Enter". You will get a warning along the lines of
"Are you sure? All data will be lost". Answer YES and the format will
start. This will take some time but at the end you will get a format
complete message and be given the opportunity to assign a text "Label" to
the drive.

If you are worried about people recovering your data from the formatted
drive (possible with the right tools) you might want to use a disk wipe
program like "CopyWipe":
http://www.terabyteunlimited.com/copywipe.php
This can make multiple writes of random data to the entire disk to be sure
the old data is not recoverable. Note that such a wipe can take several
hours on a large drive.

HTH & GL

John

--
\\\||///
------------------o000----(o)(o)----000o----------------
----------------------------()--------------------------
'' Madness takes its toll - Please have exact change. ''

John Dulak - 40.4913ºN,79.904ºW - http://tinyurl.com/2qs6o6

You need to physically destroy the hard disk OR overwrite every sector.
Symantec Enterprise products have a tool called GDISK which is great
or....download Revo Uninstaller (free product) which has a drive cleaning
tool under the "Tools" section.

"JayAr" wrote in message
...
Hi to all. After 11 years of using my WIN 98SE finally got me a new
computer. I want to either donate or just give away the old one.
Should I reformat the HD? If so, how's the best way to do it? (never
done it) TIA
J.R.