Need to wipe laptop drive
June 21, 2017 9:04 AM   Subscribe

I'm trying to wipe the drive of a 9-year old Dell Inspiron 1318 laptop before I recycle it and CAN'T SEEM TO MAKE IT HAPPEN. Help me please?

The computer / OS boots up fine still as long as it's plugged in. I have tried hitting F8 on booting up before the Dell logo appears (have Vista) and get to the point of choosing "Dell Factory Image Restore" option but partway through reformatting hard drive, I get an "error" message with no other detail and then the whole process stops.

I assume from poking around online that it's not working because my 'laptop's factory image defaults partition have vanished (i.e. become corrupt or have been deleted). In this case, you will have to reinstall your operating system with the DVD or CD shipped with your laptop.'

I have to reinstall?! I don't have any startup discs anymore. Who even carries around any discs these days? What do I do? Why is this so complicated I just want to throw the stupid joyless thing away like Marie Kondo told me to. Have no older external backups and have not used the laptop actively for over four years.

Please explain like I am your clueless, tech-helpless relative. Thank you for your advice.
posted by sestaaak to Computers & Internet (13 answers total) 3 users marked this as a favorite
 
You want to throw it away (not give it to someone else to use or try to e-cycle - strip for parts, melted down etc) ? (It is 9 years old .. )

Pull the HDD out and smash it yourself. Maybe 8-10 screws to remove.

Or use something like DBAN to wipe-wipe the disk if you want.
posted by k5.user at 9:10 AM on June 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


Do you have an empty flash drive? I'd follow these directions to install DBAN on it, boot from it, and let it run.

(Note: that this is the same DBAN app that k5.user linked to, but they're moving towards a paid app so the main site will push you towards that.)
posted by bluecore at 9:13 AM on June 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


Use DBAN. There is no reason to smash a hard drive.
posted by cnc at 9:32 AM on June 21, 2017


Seconding hit it with a hammer.
posted by gregr at 10:06 AM on June 21, 2017


Drill a hole through the drive.
posted by fimbulvetr at 10:11 AM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


If you're inclined towards smashing, another option is to open up the drive completely and remove the actual platter(s). Some people (me) think they're really pretty and have a satisfying weight; Marie Kondo might possibly approve.

(It would take a large amount of effort (if it's at all possible) to get any data out of those platters after you've taken them out, not to mention used them as coasters or bird mirrors or whatever.)
posted by trig at 10:26 AM on June 21, 2017 [1 favorite]


Nth-ing DBAN. I've used it for years.
posted by kjs3 at 11:09 AM on June 21, 2017


DBAN is the right way to do this slowly.

Here is a short film about the right way to do it quickly.
posted by flabdablet at 11:20 AM on June 21, 2017


DBAN takes forever it's hammer time.
posted by jmsta at 11:36 AM on June 21, 2017


Use DBAN. There is no reason to smash a hard drive.

There is an EXCELLENT reason to smash a hard drive, which is that they have quite strong little magnets in them that make super-awesome fridge magnets.
posted by ROU_Xenophobe at 12:04 PM on June 21, 2017 [3 favorites]


Nthing DBAN if you want a usable hard drive at the end, or physical destruction if you don't care about that and don't want to spend the time.

As a note, even if you wiped it using the built-in tools, reformatting doesn't actually erase the data, it only erases the lookup table for the files, and someone sufficiently determined could potentially reconstruct data that was on the drive. DBAN does a secure erase by overwriting the data, which is why it takes so long.
posted by Aleyn at 1:38 PM on June 21, 2017 [2 favorites]


Drill, baby , drill. If you don't want to take the disk out, figure out where the hd caddy is located and just drill through the case.
posted by coldhotel at 3:35 PM on June 21, 2017


Yeah, if it's old enough that it has no resale value or anything, I'd get everything you need off it and then smash a nail through the hard drive. You should be able to unscrew the back and find the hard drive in there and then just smash it. It might be kind of fun. And then you can take it to your municipality's electronic recycling like normal. This is what I did with a very old family desktop a while back.
posted by AppleTurnover at 4:04 PM on June 21, 2017


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