I often run across hard drives with blue screens, sluggish, etc. when recycling or receiving a computer repair customer. I have noticed that running a scrub utility often times rectifies these problems.
My preferred scrubbing tool of choice is Darik’s Boot and Nuke hard drive disk wipe data clearing tool. Depending on condition, size, etc. of a hard drive, this tool can take hours and even days to complete. However, I have noticed this tool has solved quite a few hard drive problems.
Even after reinstalling an operating system, some systems get blue screens, strange errors, and just overall sluggishness. Also, I make it a habit to run Darik’s Boot and Nuke utility on all hard drives that I am going to use when reselling used computers. Currently, I use Darik’s Boot and Nuke version 1.07 on Hiren’s Boot CD 15.1.
Hiren’s CD was created in two thousand eleven. However, many of these tools, including Darik’s Boot and Nuke, are still useful. You can download Hiren’s Boot CD 15.2 in zip format.
You will need to unzip this file to extract an .iso file that can be burned to CD-ROM or USB flash drive. This will create a bootable CD-ROM with quite a few computer software tools including Darik’s Boot and Nuke. This tool set is completely free.
In order to use this tool you want to boot off this optical disc in your optical drive. Once booted you want to select for Darik’s Boot and Nuke hard disk eraser in a main menu. This program will then load to a blue window.
I just choose boot by hitting an ENTER key. After a few seconds another screen loads with hard drive information. Look under “Disks and Partitions”. Tap your space key to select which hard drive you want to wipe.
I recommend just connecting one hard drive at a time to avoid accidentally wiping a hard drive you didn’t intend to. Once you have selected a hard drive to wipe, then press your F10 key. Darik’s Boot and Nuke now will start wiping your hard drive.
I never mess with any other settings. I just choose all defaults. This program will notify you if your hard drive has too many bad sectors and or is failing. If you receive these type of error messages this program will not wipe your hard disk.
Also, you may need to adjust BIOS settings for your hard drive if you receive kernel panic errors.