Benefits of wiping a drive prior to an install

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by steve161, Nov 13, 2008.

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  1. steve161

    steve161 Registered Member

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    When distro hopping through linux, I will occasionally do a wipe with dban. I like my HD to be clean and tidy(?), and I get the impression that the installs are smoother on a wiped drive. But, besides from the file recovery issue, is there any concrete, articulable benefits to wiping? Is it any better than just deleting partitions?
     
  2. FastGame

    FastGame Registered Member

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    Why ?

    When you install a new Distro it formats the drive unless you override that function.
     
  3. steve161

    steve161 Registered Member

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    Some seem to think there is some added benefit other than permanently deleting old files or killing that pesky malware that somehow survives a reformat. But since I dual boot, I usually at least do delete the old partition then set up the new one's manually. Makes me feel smart.
     
  4. FastGame

    FastGame Registered Member

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    Well I wouldn't want you to feel anything other than....besides I thought you were smart when you tried Linux :D

    What maleware is there in Linux o_O and what malware in windows survives a format ?

    IMHO, if you're doing alot of Distro hopping then use VM or Live CD's untill you finally decide on the one to install.
     
  5. steve161

    steve161 Registered Member

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    I was attempting to be facetious.

    I do have it down to 2 distros now. But I still like to occasionally do fresh installs due to the tidy thing mentioned in my first post. I also have a zenwalk cd and dreamlinux cd calling out my name from my file cabinet. I'm weak.
     
  6. Meriadoc

    Meriadoc Registered Member

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    I use Secure Erase HDDerase and Active@killdisk. Reasons are some data protection regs and complete malware sanitization. Some of the PDFs from CMRR maybe interesting and useful to some.
     
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