Erasing Hard Disk

For system help, all hardware / software topics NOTE: use Coders Corner for all coders topics.

Moderators: Krom, Grendel

Post Reply
User avatar
Vander
DBB Alumni
DBB Alumni
Posts: 3216
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm

Erasing Hard Disk

Post by Vander »

Does anyone know of a good freeware utility that will allow me to wipe a Hard Disk completely, perhaps some sort of zero-fill utility? I need to format some drives, and make the data unrecoverable. (It's for a law office)
User avatar
Krom
DBB Database Master
DBB Database Master
Posts: 16058
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 1998 3:01 am
Location: Camping the energy center. BTW, did you know you can have up to 100 characters in this location box?
Contact:

Post by Krom »

Maxtor and WD both have low level format utils on their websites, run it three times in a row and your at the same level as the government.
User avatar
CDN_Merlin
DBB_Master
DBB_Master
Posts: 9757
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm
Location: Capital Of Canada

Post by CDN_Merlin »

Krom wrote:Maxtor and WD both have low level format utils on their websites, run it three times in a row and your at the same level as the government.
Only some dept. Where I worked at Foreign Affairs, our HD's were actually put in a shredder. And yes, it literally shredded the drives to pieces.
User avatar
Vander
DBB Alumni
DBB Alumni
Posts: 3216
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm

Post by Vander »

Do those utilities work on All hard disks? (even from different manufacturers)
User avatar
Samuel Dravis
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 196
Joined: Sun Oct 24, 2004 11:00 pm
Location: Austin, Texas

Post by Samuel Dravis »

Yeah, I think the shredder would work on pretty much everything. :D
User avatar
Krom
DBB Database Master
DBB Database Master
Posts: 16058
Joined: Sun Nov 29, 1998 3:01 am
Location: Camping the energy center. BTW, did you know you can have up to 100 characters in this location box?
Contact:

Post by Krom »

Yeah, a shredder would work on anything. :P

the LLF utils will work on any brand drive.
User avatar
Verran
DBB Captain
DBB Captain
Posts: 589
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm
Location: Colorado
Contact:

Post by Verran »

DBAN

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy 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.

It's open source and free.
MD-2389
Defender of the Night
Defender of the Night
Posts: 13477
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm
Location: Olathe, KS
Contact:

Post by MD-2389 »

Vander wrote:Do those utilities work on All hard disks? (even from different manufacturers)
I can't speak for Western Digital, but Maxtor's does.
User avatar
Vander
DBB Alumni
DBB Alumni
Posts: 3216
Joined: Thu Nov 05, 1998 12:01 pm

Post by Vander »

I'm using MaxBlast4 now. The download page said it would only work with Maxtor drives, but luckily all the drives are old Quantum drives.

Thanks for the tips.
User avatar
Kyouryuu
DBB Alumni
DBB Alumni
Posts: 5775
Joined: Fri Apr 30, 1999 2:01 am
Location: Isla Nublar
Contact:

Post by Kyouryuu »

Autoclave is a disk-based utility that essentially runs a tiny Linux with the "shred" utility that writes zeros and random junk to the hard drive too. Has a configurable number of passes.
User avatar
woodchip
DBB Benefactor
DBB Benefactor
Posts: 17694
Joined: Tue Jul 06, 1999 2:01 am

Post by woodchip »

Try this:

http://www.wizard-industries.com/

Download Sure Delete for free. It will over write all parts of the drive with no info with 1's and 0's. You can specify the number of passes (more passes = more security).
User avatar
Fusion
DBB Ace
DBB Ace
Posts: 379
Joined: Sun Sep 07, 2003 2:01 am
Location: Valdez System, Underverse; 7 Stars, Azeroth

Post by Fusion »

Verran wrote:DBAN

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy 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.

It's open source and free.
I'll Second the Use of DBAN. We at my job have been using it quite effectively, and when it is done, u need to install the OS to start up the computer. :D :D It is a very useful little app.

Fus
Post Reply