How To Complete Erase Your Hard Drive

Please read disclaimer at end of post before trying these steps.***

This following script has been available from Dell since the 90s and it is as good today as it was then.  It was completely delete all partitions on a hard drive and therefore delete all data.  I don't think I have to say it but I will...if you do this you mst have bootable media to reinstall your new operating sytem and once you do this your data is gone FOREVER!!!!

Okay, first thing you will need is a Windows 95 or above startup disk.  Back in the day you had these on floopy disks but now all you have to do is grab an .iso and put it on a CDR.  Windows 98 works just fine.  You can download it at:

http://www.bootdisks.us/windows-98/13/windows-98-bootable-cd-images.html

Pick any of the four iso images, it really doesn't matter.  Burn one to a CDR and once it is burned reboot your PC with this CDR in.  (This will be a good opportuinity to see if you have the CD in the proper boot order because if it is it will boot to the Windows 98 Startup Menu, if not you need to change your boot order in the Bios).  You should see the below image:

Select either 1 or 2.  It doesn't matter.

From the A:\> prompt, type the following commands, and then press <Enter> after each command:

Note:  Type the bolded text only, if you type in the wrong command you will get an error, that is okay just type in the correct command and continue

A:\> debug
-F 200 L1000 0
-A CS:100
xxxx:0100 MOV AX,301
xxxx:0103 MOV BX,200
xxxx:0106 MOV CX,1
xxxx:0109 MOV DX,80
xxxx:010C INT 13
xxxx:010E INT 20
xxxx:0110 (Leave this line blank. Press <Enter> to continue.)
-G

When the Program terminated normally, you have officially deleted all your partitions and all of your data.  Power off or contol-alt-delete to restart. 

(please note that if you have more than one hard drive complete the same steps as above but replace MOV DX,80 with MOV DX,81 for the second hard drive and 82 for next hard drive and so on)

You have a fresh new unpartioned data-less hard drive to do what you want with it.

If you wish to read further on this please view the Dell support page where this came from.  See how they still have the Windows 95 Boot disk.  :)  Like I said this works the same today as it did over 10 years ago.

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/dsn/document?c=us&l=en&s=gen&docid=07302457082C47EDA1A8F9619885F51F

***Disclaimer...Following the steps on this blog post will completely eleminate all of your data to the point where it will be unrecoverable.  You must at the very least have bootable media to reinstall your operating system and it is recommended that you have you data backed up.  This tutorial is for advanced users and The Tech Guy is not responsible for any problems that may arise by not following there steps correctly.