How do I completely erase a HDD?

Boot the pc from your bootable floppy or cd. (Win98 bootable)
Syntax
A:\>Fdisk
the fdisk program will be executed.
Delete all the partitions (first primary partition, then all logical partitions and finally extended partition).
Now restart the computer.
your hard disk will be without any os or file or partition.
completely raw hard disk.....

These are all good idea's, but with special software I can still recover everything on those drives.. You need to make everything un-recoverable, just as it came from the manufacturer.


Try this one: http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Joeteck

For 100% guarantee that ALL data on the HDD is destroyed, you need to do a low-level formatting or zero fill. You can get such utility from your HDD manufacturer's website. For example, if you are using Seagate HDD you can use Seagate's DiscWizard Starter Edition (http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/drivers/discwiz.html). Just download from the website and follow the instructions provided.

Also provided below are links to some popular HDD manufacturers' websites:

IBM(Hitachi)
http://www.hgst.com/hdd/support/download.htm

Seagate
http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/utils.html

Maxtor
http://www.maxtor.com/en/support/downloads/index.htm

Fujitsu
http://www.fel.fujitsu.com/home/drivers.asp?L=en&CID=1

Samsung
http://www.samsung.com/Products/HardDiskDrive/utilities/index.htm
FAQ: Low level format

Western Digital
http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp

BTW these utilities should run under MS-DOS mode, probably the utility willl need to create a boot up disk to start the computer. Low-level formatting will not work under multi-tasking OSes such as Windows.

Also these:

TestDisk
http://www.cgsecurity.org/index.html?testdisk.html

www.killdisk.com 
free and works good

Whoops. Pete already said KillDisk.   : /

Zero Fill is not necessary to erase all data. Zero Fill erases all sectors, tracks, MBR and rebuild it. I think Author is not willing to erase the sectors, tracks, MBR. IF author wants to erase tracks, MBR, and rebuild it, Zero Filling is only the solution. Zero Filling softwares are Seagate/ Maxtor DM (Disk Manager) of relevant manufacturer of your hard disk, WD Clear etc.

thanks

>> IF author wants to erase tracks, .... <<

"I wish to essentially arrive at a blank HDD which is raw/unpartitioned..."

An easy, reliable program, is WD's own Data Lifeguards.  It is free and can be downloaded on their website.  The download gives you a floppy disk creator, you simply click on the downloaded program (no installation needed) and create a floppy. When the floppy is done being created you can boot to it.  In the program click on "set up a hard drive" and vwalla!  The program is designed for the novice.  Download it from WD here: http://support.wdc.com/download/index.asp?cxml=n&pid=999&swid=23

No comment has been added to this question in more than 21 days, so it is now classified as abandoned..
I will leave the following recommendation for this question in the Cleanup topic area:
Accept PeteLong 's comment as Answer

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mcp_jon
EE Cleanup Volunteer