help with wiping hard drive

Every so often I like to completely erase everything on my hard drive and then reinstall windows so I can start from scratch. It just seems like after a while no matter how many precautions I take, I get spy ware or viruses or something that screws things up. The last two times I have done it, I have had no problems, it wiped everything, but the last time I did it I did something wrong and it didn't erase everything. It erased a lot of stuff, most of the software was erased, all my internet info was erased, but it seemed to leave a lot of data. All the documents, pictures and videos that were on my hard drive were not erased. I was trying to install a game tonight but to my surprise I was told I didn't have enough space on my hard drive. I thought it was crazy as I have a 40GB hard drive and I have only installed the basic software for my computer. When I go to the remove hardware screen I can only add up about 3 GB of programs being used, I have no idea what is hogging all the space or where it is. So instead of looking for it and deleting it, I figured I would rather just wipe the hard drive, reinstall windows and start from scratch. It has worked well in the past and I just need to know what steps to take in order to make sure it is done right. I searched the forums, the dell website and the microsoft website and can't find any instructions, if anyone could help me out I would appreciate it.

 

When you install Windows delete the partition and then format the drive. That will wipe everything.

Try this to find lost space.

http://www.download.com/TreeSize/3000-2248_4-10355121.html?tag=lst-0-2

 

Ok smart guy I left out a step. Once you delete there is no choice but to make a new partition. RTFMD ;-) lol

I did not know about the embedded virus. How does that work and the solution to it.

 

Nice to know. Thanks

Need a laugh. I am trying to bait Nephilim.

http://forums.afterdawn.com/thread_view.cfm/2/126483