How to delete data completely on HD

Hi folks,


OS Window/Linux/


What will be an easy and reliable way to completely erase a hard drive excluding with a hammer.


I have several 40G IDE Hard drives, running Linux or Windows, for disposal. A friend of mine needs them. I want completely erase all data before delivering them to him. Googling "How to completely erase a hard drive" brought me many suggestion. Please advise. TIA


B.R.
satimis

How trusting are you of this friend? Just kidding!

Just hook up each one to your computer and then right-click on the drive icon in Computer and then do a complete format, not a quick format.

The key words here are "easy and reliable".

You can also download a copy of HIREN'S BOOT CD and use a more complex method such as D.O.D. Three wipe, etc. but it will take three times longer.

Dban.
http://www.dban.org/

Or
Eraser from within windows.
http://eraser.heidi.ie/

Both of these take longer than Nibs first suggestion.

Some general information concerning "DBAN".
Reviewed by: Seth Rosenblatt on April 28, 2009
http://download.cnet.com/Darik-s-Boot-and-Nuke-for-CD-and-DVD/3000-2094_4-10151762.html
Darik's not kidding about the "nuke" in the name of his program: use DBAN only if you want to completely eradicate any trace of data on a hard drive.
This is the ultimate in data shredding--there's no recovery once you've used it.
There are two work flows for using DBAN. When it loads, you can type "autonuke" and press Enter.
From there, DBAN will show you the progress being made on wiping your hard drive's data.
Larger HDs will take longer, of course. There's a more configurable option, as well.
Hit Enter at the start-up screen, and the Interactive mode will let you select specific hard drives or partitions to be shredded.
Use the space bar and up-arrow and down-arrow keys to navigate and select from shredding algorithm options, and press F10 to start the process.
Because DBAN loads before your operating system, there's not going to be much of an interface.
If you're not familiar with the look and feel of DOS or changing your BIOS configuration, proceed with DBAN with extreme caution.
DBAN must be loaded onto a CD, DVD, floppy disk, or USB thumbdrive to be used.
From Darik Horn:
Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers.
DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.
DBAN is a means of ensuring due diligence in computer recycling, a way of preventing identity theft if you want to sell a computer,
and a good way to totally clean a Microsoft Windows installation of viruses and spyware.
DBAN prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis.
This version of Darik's Boot And Nuke is for use on CD and DVD media.
.

I prefer Eraser as suggested by yodap. It used DBAN technologies but works within Windows.

Hi folks,

Lot of thanks for your advice and URL

B.R.
satimis

As Nibiru stated, and especially since you have so many of these drives, you can simply format them the way he described. This is much quicker than any of the other options, although they are good ones too. If it were only a couple of discs, I'd say DBAN (autonuke DOD short erase). But if you have several, this would be very time consuming.

If you do a full format on each, it'll be tough to retrieve anything. Possibly the military, FBI or CIA can find something, but the average user, no.

Best of Luck,
Cat

I had no problem using DBAN on my notebook drive last week, I ran the gutmann (35x overwrite) twice, after doing a 7 time wipe 10 times with Partition Wizard.

I also had to make no changes to the BIOS, just booted from the CD and it done it's job perfectly. Afterwards, using the surface test checker that is in Partition Wizard, all blocks were 100% fine.

I'm aware that this sounds like overkill, but I was having many "NTFS" related problems, as reported by the Acronis Drive Monitor, and now I'm not having them. The hard drive in question has had many OS's of all sorts and formats written onto it, and I wanted a sparkling clean drive to start fresh with.

So far, so good!

Cat

Hi,

Thanks for your advice.

I think dd command will do the job for me erasing data completely on 40G HD (small size). in short time.

Wiping a Hard Drive with DD
http://www.marksanborn.net/howto/wip...drive-with-dd/

Because the data on the HDs consist medical reports of another friend which are considered as privacy.

My friend is NOT working in CIA nor in FBI. kidding!!!


B.R.
satimis

Cat - how many times have I told you that what you're doing as described above is totally a waste of time, placing undo stress on your hard drives and to be honest with you, EXTREME obsessive-compulsive behavior disorder.

C'mon Cat, do you really think more than one hard drive wipe is going to be any better than just doing it once? Based on what you've stated you wiped that drive for a total of 140 TIMES!!!!!!!!!!!!

Why in the Sam Hill do you do this? Once you wipe your hard drive, it's wiped! Period, done, finito, clean, no mas, etc.

The ONLY REASON to do what you're doing is if you're really worried that the National Security Agency is going to come in and take your hard drive platters apart and view them under an electron microscope.

Even then with your method all they'll probably see is some very upset magnetic media!

I care about you and appreciate our mutual postings and I know the meds you take may be part of this also.

Dr. Nibiru2012 recommends that take a chill pill, relax and don't worry so damn much.