Write zeros to a wipe a disk reasonably securely in Linux. Can be done from GParted bootable CD.
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=4096
Usually I use various tools in UBCD, but GParted seems to have better compatibility with more hard drives. Maybe it doesn't depend on the BIOS for the same things.
tags: GParted, UBCD, format, wipe, zero
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Why don't partition managers have a "screw it. let's start again option"?
Here's a post in Usenet on how to wipe out the partition table completely.