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Storage What software I should use to wipe HDD before I sell it?

Discussion in 'Tech Support' started by bazman24, 3 Feb 2013.

  1. bazman24

    bazman24 Minimodder

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    hi all i will be selling one of my HDD's soon and i was wondering what software i should use to wipe the data? any suggestions please
     
  2. IvanIvanovich

    IvanIvanovich будет глотать вашу душу.

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    I still use trusty old dban for such things.
     
  3. debs3759

    debs3759 Was that a warranty I just broke?

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  4. deathtaker27

    deathtaker27 Modder

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    +1 for DBAN
     
  5. bazman24

    bazman24 Minimodder

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    Thanks will give dban ago looks like it gonna take a while though 9hrs:eek:

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
     
  6. CrapBag

    CrapBag Multimodder

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    Not sure software will cut it, I'm thinking more along the lines of a hardware solution.

    [​IMG]

    Might affect it's 2nd hand resell value though.
     
  7. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    I've heard good things about Dban.

    Personally I'm currently using Acronis DriveCleanser, which uses the fairly standard DoD algorithms to wipe a drive. Takes about 8 hours per 1/2 TB drive. Not fast, but whatever is on those disks is gone forever once you're done.
     
  8. bazman24

    bazman24 Minimodder

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    My mate has jus said he will buy it from me so do you think its still worth me using dban? As it is someone I can trust. Its been going for 2hrs now and it says its got another 6hrs! I wana use my pc

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
     
  9. specofdust

    specofdust Banned

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    It's worth it.
     
  10. bazman24

    bazman24 Minimodder

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    OK I'll wait for it to finish will leave it over night' hopefully will be finished in the morning




    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
     
  11. Addie

    Addie What's a Dremel?

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    Whether or not it is worth it would depend what you used the drive for, if I have a spare drive that was just used for storing movies/music/games I'm selling to a friend then a format is all I'll do at most.
     
  12. bazman24

    bazman24 Minimodder

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    It was used in a previous build a couple of years ago for everything really so it will have some personal details on it. I haven't used it since then, but I may as well let it finish now anyway as its halfway through

    Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
     
  13. CraigWatson

    CraigWatson Level Chuck Norris

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    Linux has a very handy utility called "scrub" which will do the job for you. Annoyingly it's not included with Ubuntu's main release, so you'll need to install it manually:

    Code:
    sudo apt-get install scrub
    scrub -p dod /dev/sdx
    Where /dev/sdx is the ID if the disk you want to wipe (run "fdisk -l" to check).
     
  14. halfinched

    halfinched What's a Dremel?

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    I've had killdisk recommended to me. Was simple to use. Seemed to do the job.
     
  15. Xir

    Xir Modder

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    As your mate is probably not with the CIA, simply overwrite with something innocent it after formatting.
     
  16. roundyz

    roundyz What's a Dremel?

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    What ever software as long is it zeros it. DD will work fine, but disks are big and take ages :) I thought about writing a bit of software that works like the recovery software looks for the known headers of known file types and just zeros them along with the last few bytes of the type, this would remove the need to zero it all out...
     
  17. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    I use a Disk Jockey. Keeps the rig free ;)
     
  18. noizdaemon666

    noizdaemon666 I'm Od, Therefore I Pwn

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    It's far easier to simply open an elevated command prompt window and type
    Code:
    format x: /fs=ntfs /p:1
    Where x is the drive letter.

    Or alternatively

    Code:
    diskpart
    
    list disk
    Make a mental note of the number of the target disk

    Code:
    select disk x
    
    clean all
    That will again write zeroes to every single sector. It's an easier solution if the HDD in question has more than one partition as it wipes the entire drive, whereas the format command only wipes the part of the drive with the letter assigned.

    Once a sector's had data written to it, any previous data can't be retrieved by software based means. It's a complete myth that running multiple passes makes data harder to recover (unless you take into account CIA/FBI type recovery).

    You could also use linux as mentioned above, except it's easier to use the dd command which ships with all linux distros (mostly). But I guess you're on Windows so can't be bothered unless asked, to explain this further lol

    Oh DBAN is also an extremely good program, but complete overkill for your scenario.
     
    Last edited: 11 Apr 2013
  19. Shirty

    Shirty W*nker! Super Moderator

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    Hello stranger :)
     
  20. noizdaemon666

    noizdaemon666 I'm Od, Therefore I Pwn

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    Evening Shirty :thumb: It's only been....errrrrmmmm.....2 months? lol
     

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