Old HDD, new PC

[james miller]

I had an old pc that is now gone but I kept the hard drive and want to wipe it clean including the OS.
Im planning on building a new computer and want to put my old hard drive in, but my computer is obviously gone. So, can I plug my hard drive into a different pc that I have access to through sata and wipe it on there? also how would I go about doing that??
any help would be appreciated!

 

[Cycloid Torus]

When I want to wipe an old drive, I connect it to a good stable system with full operating system (like Windows 10) with a SATA. I make absolutely sure that I can identify and specify the target drive (getting them confused causes a lot of rework). I write it down so if I get interrupted, I still know which is which. If I want any files, this is the last time to get them. Then I partition the target and then do a full format (not the 'quick' one) which can take some time, but proves the drive is good.

See for specifics: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/setup-hard-drive-windows/

 

[james miller]

When I want to wipe an old drive, I connect it to a good stable system with full operating system (like Windows 10) with a SATA. I make absolutely sure that I can identify and specify the target drive (getting them confused causes a lot of rework). I write it down so if I get interrupted, I still know which is which. If I want any files, this is the last time to get them. Then I partition the target and then do a full format (not the 'quick' one) which can take some time, but proves the drive is good.

See for specifics: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/setup-hard-drive-windows/

thankyou dude, the link proved helpful too. When you say partition, can I just delete the partition with the main bulk of files on it along with the OS?

 

[Cycloid Torus]

You release the old partitions and then you define new ones as your use would have it. If I am using it as the boot media drive, I let the OS installer take care of details.

See ComputerHope for more explanation detail.

 

[DelJo63]

I've used a SATA / IDE to USB adapter for this task. Most HDs can be externally attached to any system and then managed via the DiskMgr task