Thanks so much to all of you for trying to solve my problem!
I definitely want to wipe out the hard drive for disposal. I did a search on the internet before starting this project and there are tons of sites that say all I have to do is reformat the hard disks (2 each).
This is a function of the level of security that you feel you need.
For me, simply formatting the drive(s) would be ok... because there is nothing really critical on this machine. No credit card numbers... nothing like that.
I don't mind downloading a freeware program to get the same thing accomplished, assuming the two methods give the same results (
).
Not quite the same.
See GuryGary's post above. That's a more secure method. On general principle, that is what I would do anyway.
The absolute secure method is to remove the hard drive(s) and destroy them. But for most folks, that is overkill.
After this I need to wipe out my old Win 98 computer too.
There were two methods I found for creating a Win 95 boot disk but only one was feasible in my situation.
Even though you don't need this if you follow GuruGary's suggestion, for future use... if you ever need/want a Win98 or Win95 boot floppy disk:
visit
www.bootdisk.com You can download executable files there.
Grab the one you want, and run it.
It asks you to insert a floppy. Then it makes it a boot floppy. Easy.
It is free.
(I don't remember if the created boot floppy includes format.com or not.
Maybe somebody else here can jump in and let us know. )
The first one called for going to Start--Settings--Control Panel--Add/Remove programs and selecting Startup Disk to create one from the original Win 95 CD which I no longer have. So I went to method #2 which had me open My Computer (can't find my notes on where I went after that) and then format a new disk clicking "create a systems disk". Is a systems disk the same as a boot disk??? Anyways, I checked the dir for that disk (as Contrex suggested), and there was only one file named command.com. So that probably explains my format command problems. So what direction do you suggest now? Thanks again, Sue
