Wipe free disk space on vintage computer?

[timeshifter]

A customer gave me their very old IBM PS1 computer. I promised them that I'd clean the drive before I did anything with it. Last time I looked it seemed like it might be worth a little effort to put it on eBay in the vintage computer category. I'm in the process of listing and selling a lot of items, so it's just one more in the bunch.

So I don't want to really wipe the drive completely clean because it's a working computer running some flavor of DOS. Can't tell yet if it all works since I'm waiting on a 14 pin VGA cable. But...

How can I clear just the free space on the drive and zero it out like DBAN would do?. I know there are commands in recent versions of Windows that do this (can't recall the command right now).

 

[CLC]

It's ms-dos so wont this work?
DISKPART>

DISKPART> clean all

 

[timeshifter]

It's ms-dos so wont this work?
DISKPART>

DISKPART> clean all

Don't know if that command will work in an old DOS. Even if it did, that would wipe the entire drive and make it unbootable. I want to preserve the running DOS operating system and just wipe what's already been deleted.

I could pull the drive and connect it to another machine for this. A little worried that an NT-class OS will put it's fingerprint on the drive.

 

[Moltuae]

You could just create a batch file to make multiple copies of some file, incrementally naming them (file_01.tmp, file_02.tmp, file_03.tmp ....) until the disk is full (which shouldn't take long for a whopping 250MB!). Then delete *.tmp (or whatever extension you use) and repeat a few times (if you want to make sure no previous files are recoverable).

 

[NYJimbo]

Because you do not want to do a wipe, I would delete all their personal crap and find a util or write some BASIC program to just fill all free space with junk. After that see if you can defrag the drive and then run a few things. That should corrupt free space enough.

This box is likely going to go to a collector, I doubt they want to f-ck over the previous owner.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Download a copy of MS-DOS 6.22, make the floppies, and fdisk the drive.

https://winworldpc.com/product/ms-dos/622

And here are the instructions to do a low-level format of the drive.

https://kb.iu.edu/d/aaoa

Edit: Don't do low level format. PS/1 had IDE drives.

 

[Philippe]

Maybe this can work (from another PC):
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/sdelete.aspx

Or "WipeFree" -> http://www.uwe-sieber.de/util_e.html

 

[sapphirescales]

I have that exact computer! I loaded Windows 95 on it and it's SUPER SLOW! LOL.

To answer your question, I would extract the drive then low level it on another computer via USB. The drive is probably shot anyway, so I would buy a SATA to IDE adapter and install a small SSD into the unit (not for speed but for reliability), max out the RAM, then install whatever OS you want. The main things that are going to fail on a computer this old are the fans, HDD, optical drive, and anything else that has moving parts. It's in really good condition so I would keep it around as a collectible. I've got a huge collection of collectible computers. An original Packard Bell AIO from 1993, some old Apple SE/30's, an eMac, old Dell Optiplex systems from 1991, etc.

 

[nlinecomputers]

Bios would be limited to 2GB HDD on that system.

 

[sapphirescales]

Bios would be limited to 2GB HDD on that system.

No problem. Just make a small partition on the 60GB SSD and you're good to go.

 

[Sky-Knight]

Grab one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Generic-IDE-SATA-Adapter/dp/B000RK89M4

Pull the drive, plug it into another system that can boot to USB, and DBAN away!

I have one of these: https://www.amazon.com/Sabrent-Converter-Activity-Support-USB-DSC5/dp/B000HJ99DI

I've used it to do the same task before.

 

[Sky-Knight]

As for drive replacement options... do this: https://www.amazon.com/Syba-SD-CF-IDE-Connects-3-5-Inch-Interface/dp/B000YUMLPI

Slower than SSD, but cheaper and you aren't going to get the SSD performance out of that unit anyway.

 

[nlinecomputers]

No problem. Just make a small partition on the 60GB SSD and you're good to go.

Waste of an SSD. And those BIOSes accessed the drive via drive parameters that you had to input. Cylinders and blocks and all that stuff. Can't really do that with an SSD. Might work, bet it doesn't.

 

[GTP]

OP said he wanted to put it on eBay in the "vintage computer" section.
Doesn't putting SSD's and adapters and whatever stop it from being a "vintage" computer?
If you put a modern V8 in a Model T Ford it's no longer a vintage car, it becomes a Hot Rod.

 

[nlinecomputers]

http://www.pcguide.com/ref/hdd/bios/biosSettings-c.html

 

[sapphirescales]

OP said he wanted to put it on eBay in the "vintage computer" section.
Doesn't putting SSD's and adapters and whatever stop it from being a "vintage" computer?
If you put a modern V8 in a Model T Ford it's no longer a vintage car, it becomes a Hot Rod.

No, because in this case the performance increase is negligible. The bottleneck is the IDE controller, which if I remember correctly is like 133mbps or something. That's about as fast as a hard drive. The purpose of using an SSD is purely for reliability so that you can boot the computer up 20 years from now and not worry about stuck heads.

Waste of an SSD. And those BIOSes accessed the drive via drive parameters that you had to input. Cylinders and blocks and all that stuff. Can't really do that with an SSD. Might work, bet it doesn't.

It depends on the BIOS. If you enter everything manually, it might work. Maybe you have to get an emulation controller or something that will allow you to emulate the SSD like a HDD. I bought an SD card reader that you connect to the old Apple SE/30's that allowed you to use a camera card like a hard drive. That means the computer should boot even decades from now. I have no idea how it works, only that it was VERY expensive (if I remember correctly it was like $450 + shipping). It has a custom controller. I have no idea where I got it from or if the guy still makes them, but this was NOT an official Apple thing.

 

[timeshifter]

I just want to wipe the data and deliver a working computer. I don't want to wipe out the OS, it needs to boot and run. I'd rather not reinstall the OS after a wipe, just wipe the blank space.

I would think to a collector having the original drive would make it more valuable / authentic.

Hopefully my 14 pin to 15 pin VGA adapter arrives before too long so I can fire this thing up and make sure it all works.

 

[GTP]

No, because in this case the performance increase is negligible. The bottleneck is the IDE controller, which if I remember correctly is like 133mbps or something. That's about as fast as a hard drive. The purpose of using an SSD is purely for reliability so that you can boot the computer up 20 years from now and not worry about stuck heads.

It's not about putting square pegs in round holes because it wont be "vintage" will it?

 

[Philippe]

I just want to wipe the data and deliver a working computer. [..].

Have you tried the links in my post above?

"modern" parts in a vintage computer -> ruined. No collectable value whatsoever...

 

[GTP]

Have you tried the links in my post above?

"modern" parts in a vintage computer -> ruined. No collectable value whatsoever...

My point exactly!