Best way to nuke the contents of a HDD?

[chronovore]

Can anyone tell me how to cleanly remove data from a netbook?

I have an old netbook (EEE PC from 3 years ago) which is usable except for the screen, which shattered when it was dropped by a visiting toddler. I want to get rid of it, but I want to destroy all the data on its HDD first. I connect the thing to an external monitor and am able to access BIOS,  boot up, etc.

Online, I found an ISO for a bootable disk called "dban," which should allow me to reformat the drive, if I can boot to it. However, in BIOS when I put the boot order to:
1) ATAPI CD-ROM DRIVE
2) USB DRIVE
3) INTERNAL HARD DISK
...it does not boot to the USB-attached DVD-drive in which I've got a disc onto which I've burned the (ostensibly bootable) "dban."

If I can't boot to the CD-ROM drive, which isn't even being queried at boot up, I'm not even sure what to do.

Any ideas?

[Great Rumbler]

Giant magnet?

[chronovore]

...

**looks around for a giant magnet**

[Madrun Badrun]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darik%27s_Boot_and_Nuke

edit:
should have read the post before posting

[Great Rumbler]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Darik%27s_Boot_and_Nuke

...it does not boot to the USB-attached DVD-drive in which I've got a disc onto which I've burned the (ostensibly bootable) "dban."

[Pringo]

CCleaner has a secure drive wiper feature. That would work assuming you can run the program off a different drive. Otherwise I'd probably give DBAN another shot.

[Momo]

Magnetise that shit.

Speakers contain gigantic magnets.

[Yeti]

Take apart each individual component piece by piece. Demolish each component into as tiny little shards as you can manage using a slegehammer or meat tenderizer or somesuch. mix up the tiny shirds and then organize them into a few tiny piles. Take each tiny pile and throw it into a different active volcano.

[Great Rumbler]

There's only one proper answer to this question:



Blendtec Blenders.

[Great Rumbler]

Or this:

[Cerveza mas fina]

He put tampax in that machine    WAY PROOF OF ITS POWER

[Spurgeon]

Do you have a spare USB flash drive to put dban on? I know my netbook was finicky with boot devices but worked okay this way.

[Joe Molotov]

That porn is forever etched into the very fabric of your HDD, just give up.

[headwalk]

Or this:

it's a shame that the golden age of inquisitional torture has long passed. though i guess deals like the pear of anguish are the golden era hollywood blockbusters of torture, technologically limited works made all the greater by creative necessity. that mashing thing is probably looked upon like some artless michael bay schlock by sadists everywhere.

[chronovore]

Do you have a spare USB flash drive to put dban on? I know my netbook was finicky with boot devices but worked okay this way.

Yes, thanks. I tried that, too. I've tried it both prioritizing Removable Disc in the boot order, and even on the same BIOS page giving my USB drive the HDD priority. Neither worked, for some reason. The latter actually hung the machine, so I'm worried the Dban may not be a bootable drive just by copying it ISO's files to the USB drive's root directory.

[Spurgeon]

Hmm, it's been a while since I've done it, so don't remember if I did drag and drop or not.

Anyway, try out the steps in this link: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-dban-to-a-usb-flash-drive-using-windows/

[drew]

it's a shame that the golden age of inquisitional torture has long passed. though i guess deals like the pear of anguish are the golden era hollywood blockbusters of torture, technologically limited works made all the greater by creative necessity. that mashing thing is probably looked upon like some artless michael bay schlock by sadists everywhere.

niga you on adderall?

[chronovore]

Hmm, it's been a while since I've done it, so don't remember if I did drag and drop or not.

Anyway, try out the steps in this link: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-dban-to-a-usb-flash-drive-using-windows/

Spurgeon, bless your kind heart.

It is currently running through the ropes right now, destroying all in its path. Thanks!

[Robo]

That porn is forever etched into the very fabric of your HDD, just give up.

leper Father_Mike

[chronovore]

That porn is forever etched into the very fabric of your HDD, just give up.

leper Father_Mike

FM's stuff never gets saved... wait a minute! The cache! Father Mike's porn, browser cached, is what prevented this whole thing from working?!?!

LUCY, YOU GOT SOME 'SPLAININ TO DO!

[Madrun Badrun]

That porn is forever etched into the very fabric of your HDD, just give up.

leper Father_Mike

Why bother.  You know he will just be back in the threads again on Joe's re-election.