How to wipe clean a hard drive, Windows 98 with no disk burner or working floppy drive?
Here's a crazy way to do it without loading any software or even turning on the PC. Take out the HD and put it near a VERY STRONG magnetic field. MOVE IT within that field (rotate, turn, spin, etc) for about ten minutes. If your house or apartment has a central A/C system, it has a blower-fan motor that might be strong enough. But you have to use a big electric motor or other magnetic field generator. It will wipe-out your data from the drive - to the point it won't be accessible by the average Joe, and won't be bootable anymore. If you want rock-solid erasing (that even experts can't crack), then you're going about it all wrong. The tools you're considering won't give you that type of security either - and you'll have to get a new PC that's fully compatible with your HD. From that new PC, you can download free software to do what you want. Windows 98 didn't have much ability to boot off of alternate devices (only the floppy-drive, a CD-ROM drive, and a network-boot). You can try the network-boot but if it's not already setup (with the correct drivers), this also might not work. There are other simple ways to do this without specialized software/tools, but such secure methods should never be disclosed openly to just anyone. There could be criminals or terorists reading these boards, who'll we shouldn't help by disclosing these techniques. Anyway, the magnetic field is a quick & simple solution for general levels of security that most people need (protecting our financial & identify-theft info). And this method is scalable - the longer you do it for, the more secure (erased) the HD will get.
Does wiping a hard drive clean remove the operating system?
Formatting the hard disk clears everything, including the operating system. This is why most computers come with a System Restore disc so that you can revert back to when you first purchased it. Basically what they do is wipe the drive and reinstall everything you had. So to get back to the question, yes, it will delete the OS, but if you have a back-up disc, it's not hard to reinstall it. Also, if you don't have a back-up disc and want to put an OS on it, look into Linux. I dual-boot it with XP and it's great, and free.
How can you wipe a hard drive without a computer?
I’m assuming you don’t want to use it anymore, in which case a good old fashioned hammer will do just fine. Magnets will also work fine in theory - but I can guarantee you the hammer will wipe the data off it.If you want to use it again, to the best of my knowledge you’ll need access to a computer of some sort. Assuming your issue is you no longer have a working PC but wish to keep some data and or reuse the drive in the future look into a Hard Drive Enclosure - you’ll need one of the relevant size (3.5″ for full sized HDDs, 2.5″ for SSDs or most laptop drives) but then you just whack your drive in et voila - you now have a portable hard drive! Plug it into a friends PC, download some drive wiping software (I don’t have any specific recommendations but I’m sure google will) and not only is your presumably sensitive data erased for good, you also have a useful portable hard drive! … Err, maybe not so useful as it sounds like you don’t have a PC…
Accidentally wiped my hard drive partition.?
"I was trying to install windows 7 on my windows 8 computer. " What were you using to boot from? Was it a disk, partition on the hard drive, USB??? Since you have wiped your hard drive, you will need something to boot from. Then go into the BIOS and set that as your first boot device.
How do you wipe a hard drive without logging in to the OS?
The easiest way to wipe your hard drive is to reformat the whole computer. When you get your computer, it comes with an installation C.D for the operating system. Put it in and restart your system. It will then take you through the steps to reconfigure your system.
Can you wipe a hard drive with it outside the computer?
If you have recovery discs for your Gateway, simply insert the first disc (or only disc if it only needs one) and boot off the disc on startup. The recovery discs from all major OEM computer makers (Dell, HP, Gateway, etc.) will wipe your hard drive clean before reinstalling the operating system (they even warn you of this before you start actually recovering your computer). If you don't have recovery discs, you can still reinstall Windows as long as you have a Windows XP install disc as Windows XP Setup can wipe a hard drive as well. Just like the recovery discs, simply boot off the XP Setup disc, go through the prompts and then when you get to the part where you're asked where you wish to install XP on your hard drive, simply delete the partition that contained XP on the hard drive. Then once they are all deleted that partition, simply create a new partition in the now empty space and install XP to that. It will even ask you if you wish to use a quick format for the new partition or a normal format and if you want to absolutely ensure it's gone then run a normal format (this does take longer). Then simply let XP install and you have a fresh install of XP.