FDisk - Total Format?

[Refalm]

Lol! Bye guys i throw my hdd away..  

 Okay, okay...

Just do a Low level format of your hard disk first, then make partitions with the OS setup (a modern Linux or Windows 2000/XP).

Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

[cave32]

yes,i think it too:when you run fdisk,you delete partitions or erase the hdd

i suggest:before delete partitions with fdisk,backup all data and run fdisk and delete partitions after
there is another program on internet called partition magic,so more easy and better if i compare microsoft fdisk
so,FUCK MICROSOFT!!!!!!

[mobrien_12]

yes,i think it too:when you run fdisk,you delete partitions or erase the hdd

The Quirk is correct.  Fdisk does nothing to the data on the drive.  It only affects the partition table.  The partition table tells the OS where the partitions begin, and end, and what kind of parition it is.  

You can do whatever you want with fdisk, but until you format partitions, the data remains intact.  You can always go back into fdisk and reset the partitions back the way they were and the data is still there.  I've done this, both with MS FDISK and GNU/Linux FDISK.    

In fact, it is prudent to keep a written copy of the partitions (what kind they are, where they begin and end) in case the partition table gets FUBARed.  Boot with a Linux rescue disk like Tom's rootboot or Knoppix and rebuid the partition table. All data is  intact. This saved my tail once.  

Read http://www.telenovela-world.com/~spade/linux/howto/Partition-Rescue/x31.html for some more information.

If you want to erase the drive, there are the ways mentioned above. The low-level format is the most turnkey solution because drive vendors usually supply a program to do this (either with the drive, or on their web site).  But low-level formats may leave  light ghostly images of the data that can be recovered... like faint traces of pencil writing on paper after using a rubber eraser on the entire page.  That is why critical security facilities such as National Labs must store or destroy old hard drives.

[Brandon Paddock]

Okay, okay...
 
Just do a Low level format of your hard disk first, then make partitions with the OS setup (a modern Linux or Windows 2000/XP).
 
Now that wasn't so hard, was it?

 
You cannot do a low level format of a modern hard disk outside of the factory.  There are ways to force a low level format operation, however it will destroy the hard drive permenantly.  It can be an effective way to destroy a drive... however, in a super-classified-top-secret environment, the data will still be on the disk.  As said above, it takes several passes to completely remove all traces of past data on the disk.
 
Also, some people are under the mistaken impression that waving a magnet near their hard drive will "erase" it.  However, this is of course not true.  The hard drive itself houses several magnets (including the motor).  The hard disk platters are designed to be extremely resiliant to magnetization (that is the whole point, after all).  An extremely powerful magnet is required to write to the disk, and does so on a microscopic scale without disturbing the adjacent bits on the disk.  In order to wipe a disk using a magnet, you'd need something at least as strong as an MRI (you'd have to have no metal in the room lest it be hurled toward the magnet) and have it extremely close (ie. touching) the platters.
 
If you ever see a movie or TV show where someone claims to wipe a hard disk by waving a handheld magnet near it, they're idiots.

[Refalm]

True. You need a hammer and lots of aggression to permanentally destroy data on a hard disc.

[delboy]

I seem to remember the best way to destroy data on a ICL mainframe disk was with a chisel.
 
Now that was an operating system ..!!
 
Fully tailorable - bit like Linux for mainframes.