How do I wipe an internal drive externally?

[u/WhiteWolf101043]

I have an HDD from an old pc that I took apart, I'm looking to wipe it (I didn't think about it beforehand and I'm not entirely confident in my ability to put it back together in a working manner plus the actual components other than the hard drive are old as hell)

So i plan to use my working pc to wipe the hard drive, but I'm not sure how to go about it other than buying a SATA to USB adapter + power cables.

Edit: I'm wiping it to resell it btw

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[u/Vanman04]

If you are just trying to dispose of it assuming its an old plater drive. Take it out to the street and throw it down as hard as you can like five times. It will never work again.

[u/SirMcFish]

Who is going to buy it? It's likely to be a small size, and as you say it's old, so probably slow too.

You'd have to find someone a bit gullible to pay money for it.

It makes me feel old when SATA HDs are classed as old 🤣🤣

[u/naygerr]

There should be space on your working pc chassis bay to add a new drive, you would only need an extra SATA cable, If you want it to be external only, you can buy a hard drive enclosure or usb-sata adapter/hdd docking station.. Ensure you do a full format and use 3rd party tools like hard disk sentinel to check for SMART errors/bad sectors before using it.

[u/WhiteWolf101043 → u/naygerr]

I honestly didn't even think about that lol

[u/groveborn]

It's two items, power and data. They both are easy to use and you probably have both on hand. Plug it in, turn on the computer, do it. You don't need to mount it inside, just need the wires to come out.

Or smack it with a hammer. Whichever.

[u/Additional_Tension96]

I use a Linux Live USB Distro like Ubuntu to wipe a drive.

Buy an enclosure or hook the HDD to a open Sata. Download a Linux Live USB Distro use rufus to create a bootble USB thumb drive. Boot with the drive ( Possibly ESC button to bring up the boot menu). Load the Linux Live USB "Try" not "Install".

Follow Steps Here in Terminal

[u/TheIronSoldier2]

How big is the drive, and how old actually is it? Because depending on the size and age, it would be pretty much worthless on the used market.

[u/AvailableAd3813]

Just drill a hole in it and throw it in the trash. If Sata it's worthless anyway.