Re: Has it been six months already?
ATA SECURE ERASE THAT HAS COME IN EVERY DRIVE SINCE 2001 KNOCKS 'EM DEAD.
You can start from a boot floppy or small usb stick and get into real-mode-DOS and run HDDerase.
It doesn't work on every computer though. You would be surprised on what all it does work on - SATA drives and SSDs sometimes. When it does work it is VERY user friendly !
More hardcore, but it ALWAYS (99.99%) works is to fire up a Clonezilla LiveCD version that works on your box and go to the command line. Use FDISK-L to identify which drive you want to kill. Then say HDPARM-Y /dev/sd(?) to put that drive to sleep. Unplug the power to the drive, wait 10 seconds and plug it back in. Then HDPARM -I to wake it up and read if it is ready.(may have to do it twice)
Then set a password on that drive like so "HDPARM - - user-master u - - security-set-pass idrive /dev/sd(?) "
Now for the fun "HDPARM - - security-erase(-enhanced?) idrive /dev/sd(?) "
A one Terabyte drive takes like 3 hours ! An SSD takes like 20 SECONDS !!!
Keep in mind HDDerase and Clonezilla HDPARM commands are both just operating the ATA SECURE ERASE function built into all drives since 2001.
YOU ARE WELCOME. I MADE AN ACCOUNT ON HERE JUST TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION !
PS - If you got an antique drive that doesn't support Secure Erase at all - just write random stuff to it with Clonezilla's Command line : "DD BS=512 IF=/DEV/URANDOM OF=/DEV/SD(?)" and wait possibly HOURS for it to complete. Then use a windows 98se boot floppy to FDISK and FORMAT IT.