Looking for a drive eraser utility

[hat]

I used to use Webroot Drive Eraser, but it has a tendency to not detect the HDD capacity correctly (at least for me) so it's time to move on to another program. Reccomendations?

 

[wrathchild_67]

The best: http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

 

[newtekie1]

I use Acronis Disk Director, though I hear DBAN is good also.

 

[theonedub]

I use Killdisk- does what I need it to.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

I use DBAN, hands down for when the FBI comes to my door (no seriously though DBAN is awesome). I also hea... actually have seen first hand that thermite works well.

 

[hat]

I use DBAN, hands down for when the FBI comes to my door (no seriously though DBAN is awesome). I also hea... actually have seen first hand that thermite works well.

lol, not looking to destroy, just to erase.

Also I forgot to say that the utility has to be bootable, are any of the above mentioned utilities bootable?

 

[wrathchild_67]

I should have put this in my first post:

Many commercial software packages are available using some variation of DoD 5220, some going to as many as 35 overwrite passes. Unfortunately the multiple overwrite approach is not very much more effective than a single overwrite since it does not do much to the remaining track edges where most of the very low level distorted remnant data remains after an overwrite and it takes a lot more time (even with 3 overwrites it can take more than a day to erase a large capacity hard disk drive).

HDDErase does not use this approach. It uses a feature called "Secure Erase" which is built into the command set of every drive manufactured after 2001. It ends up being faster than most other utilities because it doesn't require multiple passes. I'd encourage you to read the Q&A document at the link I provided. Short of grinding up a drive into sand, HDDErase is the best way to ensure no data is recoverable.

lol, not looking to destroy, just to erase.

Also I forgot to say that the utility has to be bootable, are any of the above mentioned utilities bootable?

Yes, there is a bootable ISO included with the HddErase download.

 

[PVTCaboose1337]

DBAN is bootable. Just boot to disk.

http://www.dban.org/

 

[hat]

What does hdderase do if there's more than one drive installed? Will it work on SATA drives?

 

[wrathchild_67]

Yes, it should but it doesn't work on RAID arrays. If you have issues with the current version, you might want to try v3.2. I've heard the latest version doesn't work with solid state disks, but I don't know if it has been updated since I heard about that. I know the old version, 3.2, does work with SSDs.

 

[RejZoR]

I erase drives like this. Install it as secondary drive to PC, format it and use program "Eraser".
Make sure all options are ticked and that pseudo-random option is selected with 1 pass.
That's all you'll ever need.

I tried recovering data later and all i got was emptiness and garbage files that are completely useless.

 

[hat]

I erase drives like this. Install it as secondary drive to PC, format it and use program "Eraser".
Make sure all options are ticked and that pseudo-random option is selected with 1 pass.
That's all you'll ever need.

I tried recovering data later and all i got was emptiness and garbage files that are completely useless.

thanks, but I was looking for a bootable solution

 

[RejZoR]

Then you should try DBAN:
http://www.dban.org

Or KillDisk:
http://www.killdisk.com

 

[Athlonite]

yeah dBan is bleedin great except 3 runs isn't enough to stop professional data recovery where they remove the platers they can undo up to 30 changes in the magnetic particles to bring back DATA

 

[wiak]

HD Tune Pro has a whole disk erase option
Eraser works for free space, and files/folders

 

[wrathchild_67]

Argh, use HDDErase! DBan and Killdisk use the DOD5520 methods which are simply overwrites of the drive. This is extremely slow and inefficient. I used to use another utility for doing erases but once I learned about HDDErase, there was no going back. Save some time and use the features that were built into the harddrive for exactly this task and try HDDErase. HDDErase has been deemed a valid method of completely destroying data and it only requires one pass, which is faster than a zeroing of the drive that most other utilities do. You don't need to do 35 passes on a drive to get the data off. It's a damn waste of time.

If you have time and want to learn more about HDDErase: http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/DataSanitizationTutorial.pdf

 

[hat]

Well, I tried HDDErase and I figured I would report back on it. I was worried it would just wipe everything without asking me, but it had plenty of (Y/N) prompts and I was able to select which drive I wanted to erase.

Looks like a winner. The only gripe I have with it is it doesn't give a completion percentage... no big deal though.

 

[theonedub]

Hat, how long did it take for what sized drive? Thanks!

 

[hat]

It's a 250gb drive... and it's still running atm, so I'll get back to you on that one. It's been 33 minutes so far.

 

[hat]

Took about an hour and a half

 

[RejZoR]

Sorry, but who the hell really needs two digit pass DoD blablabla overwriting? Seriously, unless you run a bank or a mega corporation, i see no point in doing that. Writing random garbage across entire drive and it's MFT is enough for most users. You may still recover partial data/files but they'll be just garbage and their file names will be garbage as well. I don't think anyone will ever take so much effort in decoding and decrypting erasing procedure just to see that you've got pr0n on your HDD. Well yadida, 99,99% of computers have pr0n on it Or even disassembling the drive and physically reading the data down using other methods. Because most don't even know how to install new HDD, let alone pull off stuff like this...

I just format the drive and then write usual random crap (no DoD stuff needed here) on it using programs meant for that. 1 pass is enough. Because if you're that paranoid for such extreme erasing measures, it's better to just smash the HDD with a hammer and later on tossing it into acid.

 

[Athlonite]

or use an electromagnet that works too although doing so makes the drive no longer usable

 

[hat]

I'm not looking to destroy data so nobody else finds it, I'm just looking for a way to completely wipe a drive. It's just standard procedure for me... if I'm not using a drive anymore, it gets wiped before I put it on the shelf. It also makes me feel more secure if I do this before I reinstall an OS if there's some sort of nasty virus on it.

Just did it to the 40gb ide drive in my athlon2200 rig (no longer in my specs—I updated it in anticipation for the upcoming upgrade)... took about 20 minutes

 

[Athlonite]

if thats the case then just format it twice and change sector size each time and remove the partition job done