I have an extra hard drive that I used to run Windows on before something technical went bad in the computer. The hard drive itself still works fine, however and I have attached it via SATA to my main computer and have gotten all of the files that I want off of it. I would like to clean it to just use for storage on my server. I am not really worried about safety, so I don't need anything like DBaN. What is the best way to clean all of the files off of it?
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I am trying to encrypt an entire USB drive with Truecrypt 7.1a. But as long as there is a partition it will only encrypt that. This will make it appear like the USB is full instead of completely empty, which isnt what Im aiming for.   I've tried with DISKPART, USB Partition Tool, and the built-in storage manager. When I delete all partitions, Windows still assigns the drive a letter and assumes that it has a partition covering the whole space.  I know that it is possible as I have done it with another USB, but I just don't remember how I did it.  Ideas?
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I know that when files are deleted they aren't really completely erased. The drive just says hey this space is free and you can overwrite it. With programs like Boot and Nuke and Eraser .etc. you can write over those sections with random bytes.  How does this process differ with SSDs? Does trimming the drive with disk optimizer remove the files completely?
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I was on my way installing windows 7 alongside linux installation that was scattered over 3 partitions, namely: root, home and additional big partition for data files. I was trying to install windows on 4th a non mbr empty partition that was specifically created for windows. When I booted from windows 7 DVD, I used "shift+F10" command to enter a command line interface and used "diskpart" app. While going through the disk partitions and selecting the empty volume I typed "clean" thinking that it would erase ONLY the selected volume, but instead the whole hdd drive was removed of its partitions. I could barely stand because the information on those non empty linux partitions is irreplaceable and worth months of work.  What should I do to get my data back guys? I have 2 usb sticks, 2 external hdds, another windows laptop and internet connection.
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I had a bit of problems in the recent months with the data I have on my External hard disk. I have large content in each folder.   If you think about it, it takes only two keys to delete a folder - del and enter. Is there anyway to protect files from accidental deletion?
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Is there a way to empty SkyDrive/OneDrive without deleting the files in the cloud.  I'm running Windows 8.1 and would like to revert all of the files to "online-only" mode except that the function doesn't work. I'd like to completely restart the sync process but not lose any files.
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Does Ubuntu need regular cleanups like Windows. For example:   Cleaning the logs Temporary files Package cache Dependencies left over   I am not referring to web browsers only.  In case I never do a cleanup, will I have a system like new without my hard drive being full of temporary files, packages, etc.?  Will the performance degrade overtime if a cleanup is not done.
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Windows asks me to reformat every time I plug it into my computer, so I fired up Ubuntu via VirtualBox (selecting the external hard drive in the USB settings for VirtualBox beforehand) to see if I can access it there.  Does anyone have any suggestions for me? I have over 1TB of data on this drive and do not want to lose it. When I plug it into an electrical outlet, the light turns on, and when I plug it into my laptop, I can feel it clicking.
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I used to run Windows 7 32 bit, but installed the 64 bit version because of a RAM upgrade. During the installation I got this message:      The partition you selected might contain files from a previous Windows installation. If it does, these files and folders will be moved to a folder named Windows.old. You will be able to access the information in Windows.old, but you will not be able to use your previous version of Windows.   The C:\ drive now has two (2) Windows folders:   Windows (15.3 GB) Windows.old (15.7 GB)     Don't see why I need the Windows.old taking over 15GB of space on my hard drive so I tried to delete it. It didn't work.  How can I safely delete this folder?
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I have already had the same problem before. On that occasion, I found a program that could scan my entire hard drive for string pieces so I could recover it. Unfortunately I don't remember the name of the program. It had to access the hard drive data directly, normal searches won't get any data from the hard drive before formatting.
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Hello I want to know if is it possible to mark bad blocks on HDD for OS to not use them. I don't want to save data written on this blocks, just want to get rid of them.  I found some article where author describe how to partition disk to avoid using bad blocks of HDD.  I count how many MB from the start are OK. And also how many MB from end are OK. It looks like I will lost about 50GB of storage space but it is quite fine for me when the disk will run one year more.  First I split disk to 2 partitions:   From beginning to around 190 GB From 190GB to the end   Then I made surface scan of 2nd partition and everything was OK. I was really happy cause i though that finally I will succeed.  Than I wanted to copy all data from 1st partition to 2nd BUT in some data a problem occurs. I/O error. I'd say it is Read problem but when I open file on which copying failed it runs OK, for example some pdf files didn't copied but I opened them.  What can be problem can it be a Write problem? But why there is a problem when surface scan on whole 2nd partition was fine?  What can I do(except buying new HDD)? Can I somehow do this partitioning and use just partition with good sectors? Will it work? How are data stored on the disk? Can I determine where the data will be written?
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Sometimes my hard drive gets low on space, and various things don't work properly until I empty the Trash and free up some space. I know there are applications that empty the Trash after a set interval—but what I want is an app or script (or other means) to empty the Trash whenever there's e.g. less than 2GB of free space on a given hard drive.
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On Windows 7.  I have a lot of hard drives which are used for storage.   When launching certain programs (e.g. some games, Photoshop, etc.) the program will automatically try to query/access all of the system's drives for whatever reason (presumably to enumerate them, see how much free space is on them, or access some other property of them).  This means that every time I launch these programs all of my drives have to (slowly!) spin-up even though no files on the drive are actually being used.  This is extremely annoying.  So is there a way I can restrict access to these hard drives, and/or make them invisible to certain programs?
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When selling / throwing away / giving away HDDs I always use DBAN to do a DoD wipe first.  Is this still a valid thing to do on an SSD?  Will it have an adverse effect on the SSD's lifespan?
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I'm constructing a backup script for Windows 7, and the last action I want it to perform is to safely "remove" the USB drive that it is backing up to. I am under the impression that plugging the drive into the same USB port all the time will keep the same DEV_ID (correct me if I'm wrong). With a command line (or PowerShell), how can I tell Windows to safely remove the hardware automatically without user input?  Just as a place holder, other OSes that may have a way to do this would be great to know as well.
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A colleague told me that it is not recommended to use USB hard disks due to the lack of inherent integrity checking of copied files. I am looking for details on that. In what respect is copying to a USB device different from copying to a hard disk connected via e.g. SATA? If anybody has further sources/information on that, I would appreciate sharing it with me.  edit: As explained below, I know that in many cases, the used hard disk is effectively nothing else but a SATA disk in a casing. My question is whether the USB &lt;=> SATA interface introduces data security issues. My colleague referred to a case where a broken USB controller led to data loss. Data could be copied to the hard disk without any problems, but the data written to the disk was corrupted. Replacement of the USB controller resolved the issue in this case.
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I have a laptop that came with Windows XP. I upgraded to Windows 7 when it came out, and am planning on selling the laptop. Unfortunately, I think the Windows 7 upgrade disc got accidentally thrown out when I was throwing some old software out.  I was planning on doing "Darik's Book and Nuke" to wipe everything, but then I would have no way to get Windows 7 back on it legally. Is there any way I can restore Windows 7 to a clean install, and then "wipe unused space" with a disk utility to protect my information?  I do have the Windows XP factory restore disc that came with the laptop, but it will obviously sell easier and probably for more with Windows 7 on it.  Any suggestions? Thank you.
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I have a hard drive from an Ubuntu system that contains only media files. I would like to move that drive to a Windows 10 computer without losing all of the media. Is this possible, and if so, how can it be done?  I don't want to just mount the ext4 drive in Windows. I want to convert the drive from ext4 to NTFS.