Imaging a zero filled drive

[jjakobsen]

I need to zero fill and then restore about 40 computers. My original plan was to use the free Killdisk software, restore and fully update one drive, and then Killdisk and image the rest.

My question is, if I zero fill and restore one drive do I really need to zero fill the rest or will the image copy over the sectors with zeros also?

It is semi-important data, so I need to make sure there is atleast one zero pass.

Thanks!

[krotch]

if you ghost to another drive its supposed to whipe out the drive first, if thats what u mean. Norton Ghost whipes the drive clean before ghosting to it.

[RamonGTP]

Yes, it will wipe the drive, no it will not zero the drive.

[Steve R Jones]

Will you be selling the machines or re-issuing them to employees?

[jjakobsen]

We will be selling, so I have to make sure that they are zero filled.

Thanks for the replies!

[cadetstimp]

Ask around if there's a Hard Drive degausser you could borrow.... Magnetic machine that will erase the HDD all at once completely.

Also, check your local shredding and data storage service providers. A lot of times, in addition to shredding info and offsite DLT backup storage, they will offer erasure services because they have their own degausser. (Especially if they offer computer recycling services)

Otherwise you'll have to put in the time and use software to write zeros for each drive one at a time.