I have an elderly Dell Dimension 5150 desktop. This my "learning" computer, so it is not crucial. 
I wish to clean out the hard drive, reinstall the OS; I have the OS CD required.
The most highly recommended software was "dban 2.2.7_i586". This is an ISO file.
I downloaded this freeware to my HD using Win 7 desktop and burned to CD. It is supposed to be a bootable disk. So I went into BIOS and changed the boot sequence on XP to put the floppy drive first and the cd rom second; my attempts to download this file using the XP system was to no avail.
It appears that my win XP OS fails to read this disk. The file appears on my Win 7 computer, but not on my Win XP system.
I have tried 3 different disks, the third was unwrapped, brand new, for this purpose. This was an RW disk, but this should not make any difference.
I have not tried any other free wipe software, since dban was most highly rated.
My only idea is that this file is a "mirror image" and was copied rather than burned.
I am extremely frustrated by this situation. This 5150 was "raised from the dead" after a particularly virulent episode. Thus my desire to clear everything from this drive.
Dban is supposed to clean any HD that it finds; I also installed a 10gb (!!) IDE HD from my first ever computer. I wish to wipe this as well.
Is it necessary to reinstall the XP OS in order to wipe these drives? This makes no sense to me, but I am a mid-level computer user, and do not understand this difficulty.
Any input on this difficulty would be appreciated.
I wish to clean out the hard drive, reinstall the OS; I have the OS CD required.
The most highly recommended software was "dban 2.2.7_i586". This is an ISO file.
I downloaded this freeware to my HD using Win 7 desktop and burned to CD. It is supposed to be a bootable disk. So I went into BIOS and changed the boot sequence on XP to put the floppy drive first and the cd rom second; my attempts to download this file using the XP system was to no avail.
It appears that my win XP OS fails to read this disk. The file appears on my Win 7 computer, but not on my Win XP system.
I have tried 3 different disks, the third was unwrapped, brand new, for this purpose. This was an RW disk, but this should not make any difference.
I have not tried any other free wipe software, since dban was most highly rated.
My only idea is that this file is a "mirror image" and was copied rather than burned.
I am extremely frustrated by this situation. This 5150 was "raised from the dead" after a particularly virulent episode. Thus my desire to clear everything from this drive.
Dban is supposed to clean any HD that it finds; I also installed a 10gb (!!) IDE HD from my first ever computer. I wish to wipe this as well.
Is it necessary to reinstall the XP OS in order to wipe these drives? This makes no sense to me, but I am a mid-level computer user, and do not understand this difficulty.
Any input on this difficulty would be appreciated.
