How to Format a HDD with the OS on it?

[TokeR]

Hey guys, looking for a quick way to delete EVERYTHING from a HDD but the OS I had to buy windows 7 today (RC Expires soon) and I did a clean install but my HDD's were still full and everything I wanted I had put on a back up drive, so I wanted these drives to be Clean.

I formatted the one without a OS on it but how do I Delete everything from the other one without deleting the OS?

Thanks for any help guys.

[gingerbee]

take your time going through everything and delete it i have never heard of a way to format with out destroying everything on said hdd

[TokeR]

Thanks for the response mate, that is what I have ended up having to do.. wish there was a way to format without deleting OS. Oh well feels good to have a fresh computer lol.

[0o0]

you mean zero fill all free space? I believe you can do that with this linux based boot cd that I forgot the name of... it's downstairs in my cd wallet I'm too lazy to get it, it's partition magic or gparted or parted mage or something like that...

[TokeR]

Thanks, did it the hard way in the end. All done now.

[gingerbee]

zero fill still will kill your data and install unless you have your os partitioned off to it's own section then zero fill sets the drives back to factory you can do this in windows linux is not needed hdtune and clleaner will zero fill too fyi but like i said this will still kill data on your drive