Computer question (in Off-topic)

I am going to my internship tomorrow. (should I say, I go TO it, or that I am going IN it? Proper way of expressing this, anyone?) Me and the tech guy there have to format several (read, two thousand tons) computers and their SATA hard disk drives. No installing of an operating system, that can be done with ghosting anyway. Only the formatting. Complete obliteration of all data on the drives. We would like to be able to do that all in one go. So, all computers formatted in one shot.

My searches so far don't get me many good alternatives, probably because I do not know where to look exactly. Anybody know of a prog/utility that renders that possible? Finding the quickest solution would earn me lost of ''Intern XP'', haha :P

Thanks in advance for any input, I, as always, appreciate it.

:x a virus :x or a large magnet lol but seriously ... isnt there just a command prompt command to get everything formatted? ....

deltree C:\ I think, but that'll delete everything on the computer.

Format all computers in one go?

I don't think there's a way to format all in one go.
The only quickest way I can think of is to delete hard disk partition which will completely wipe out the data. Formatting will take longer to wipe out the data.

DBAN

There are plenty of bootable CD's that have the programs necessary to format hard drives, if that's what you want. If you're looking for some sort of program to completely overright the entire contents of the hard disk, there are plenty of free programs such as Eraser available on the net.

Okay, thanks, for the responses!

I'll look up the progs you mentioned tomorrow when I get to job, right now DBAN looks promising, though it still requires me to insert a disk into all computers one after another.

Also, I know how to command prompt a format, of erase partitions, I study computer science! The problem is MASS formatting, here. Thanks for your input, still, I am grateful.

A large magnet, LOL!

Kids these days.
Yes, a large magnet. It's called a bulk eraser, though I doubt it would actually work on a hard disk unless you were to stick all those PCs into a truck and haul them down to the scrap yard - though a magnet big enough to pick up a car would probably just induce a huge power spike through your machines and fry every circuit there.
Not sure. I'm not an EE.

You are going to work. You are starting your internship. An internship isn't a place, so you aren't going to or in it.

Thanks for the correction, Bast :)

This is NOT sarcastic, I am trying to perfect my English and it helps to be corrected sometimes.

Ok an alternative that might work. Install on all computers via network a mini Linux distribution with a network driver that loads itself into a ramdisk. And than format all with a key press. Easy. =)

Or modify this method for your requirements.

But running around with a dozen of DBAN disks is probably more fun :D