Member Avatar for dickt360

I need to wipe my hard drive, because it is so full of crap, and spyware, and everything else that my computer is basically useless. I am running windows right now, but have the software to install Linux. How can i go about wiping my hard drive, then starting anew with Linux???:sad:

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Thread context: wants to wipe a Windows disk and start over with Linux. Replies from , and mention installer-based replacement and low-level wipes; recommends a beginner distro. The notes below pull those ideas together and fill gaps that matter today—especially the HDD vs SSD distinction, safe preparatory steps, and options that actually work for modern drives.

Before any destructive step: back up personal files (documents, browser bookmarks, email exports, license keys) to external media. Create verified bootable install media (check the ISO hash) and confirm whether the system uses BIOS or UEFI/Secure Boot. Physically unplug other drives to avoid wiping the wrong disk and use a block-device listing to identify targets precisely, for example:

lsblk -o NAME,SIZE,TYPE,MOUNTPOINT

Wipe strategy depends on drive type. For spinning disks, a bootable full-disk overwriter is straightforward. For SSDs/NVMe, repeated overwrites are ineffective and can harm lifespan; prefer the drive’s built-in secure-erase (vendor tool or ATA Secure Erase / NVMe format). A quick non-secure cleanup that removes filesystem signatures (but does not erase underlying data) can be done with:

wipefs -a /dev/sdX

Note: wipefs only clears signatures. For strong privacy, use the manufacturer’s secure-erase or the appropriate NVMe/ATA tool; after that, enable full-disk encryption (LUKS) during installation so residual data cannot be recovered.

Installation notes: most Linux installers will recreate a partition table and install a bootloader once the disk is prepared, so a clean install is straightforward after wiping. Keep firmware and installer documentation handy for UEFI/Secure Boot and encryption options. As observed, raw overwrites are possible but slow; as and noted, bootable media is the usual starting point. When precision is required, follow the chosen distribution’s official install guide before running destructive commands.

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Member Avatar for John A

Use the Linux install disk. There'll be an install option to erase and take over the entire drive, which is what you want to do. The Linux installer will do the rest.

Member Avatar for TheNNS

What I would do, I would wipe the hard drive with killdisk, burn the ISO to a cd and boot off of it. Erase everything, then install linux.
Here's the free version
http://killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

Member Avatar for nytrokiss

ubuntu is the way man easy free and they can even send u a cd

Member Avatar for TheNNS

have you ever heard of commas and punctuation?

Know how to write!!

Member Avatar for sn4rf3r

if you truly wnat to wipe the hd, you can use something like dd
1. boot from an install disk
2. locate partitions and or disk to be wiped (do not mount them)
3. run script
4. grab some beer/coffee/pizza (this will take a long time depending on size and iterations)

[B] for (( i = 0;i<10;i++ )); do
    dd if=/dev/random of=dev/hda && dd if=dev/zero of=/dev/hda
   done[/B]

or if you have a bootable cd which has a tool called shred (knoppix,gentoo,debian,ubuntu), you can run this:
#this will take a long time, it will do 100 iterations(-n 100) of zeros (-z) forcing permissins obliteration (-f) and verbose (-v)

[B]shred -vfz -n 100 /dev/hda
[/B]

hope this helps

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