recovery disk and HDD full wipe?

[philfromMPC]

Hi,
I want to start over with my system. If I use my recovery disk to re-install my OS, will it overwrite all the past data on the HDD? Is it similar to the method called "shredding" or overwriting with "zeros"?

All my stuff is backed up.

 

[BinarySynapse]

It will most likely just remove and recreate the partition map and file system structures. Any data that isn't overwritten by the restoration of the OS would not be erased and could easily be retrieved.

 

[philfromMPC]

Second question: My hdd has a recovery partition and I have recovery CDs. If I do a full wipe/overwrite using some other software, will my recovery CD restore the recovery partition on the HDD?

 

[Sp33dFr33k]

I don't believe the recovery CD will restore the recovery partition structure to the disc. The recovery disks are typically just for doing a factory install of the OS. In the instances where I've done this to a new hard drive the recovery partitions were not restored. Using the recovery disk is all you need to do if you want to start from scratch, no reason to wipe the disk, the recovery process formats the drive. All of the existing data will be deleted from the drive before the recovery starts.

If you have a recovery partition on the drive you can use that to do the factory restore as well and not need the recovery discs but it's best to always have a good copy of the recovery discs just in case.

 

[BinarySynapse]

All of the existing data will be deleted from the drive before the recovery starts.

All a format does is recreate the file system structure. It does not wipe the drive. So the data will still be on the drive, much of it easily recoverable. Assuming the OP is restoring to factory condition to give it to someone else, he'll need to at least wipe the partition where any data was kept.

 

[Sp33dFr33k]

All a format does is recreate the file system structure. It does not wipe the drive. So the data will still be on the drive, much of it easily recoverable. Assuming the OP is restoring to factory condition to give it to someone else, he'll need to at least wipe the partition where any data was kept.

That is true but no where did the OP suggest that he was doing this to sell the system. In addition, with factory image overwriting the files not all the data would be that easier to recover by the average user. If there is highly sensitive data on the drive that those files could potentially be an issue.