How to completely wipe all of the data from your hard drive
September 11th, 2007 by Ross McKillop |
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This tutorial will guide you in using Darik’s Boot and Nuke (”DBAN”) - to securely wipe (delete) all of the data from your hard drive. Why would you want to securely wipe all of the data on your drive? Perhaps you’re selling your computer, donating it to charity, or recycling it. Before you do so, consider this - even when you delete files, they’re not actually removed from your hard drive. Using data recovery tools, many files can be restored from the average hard drive. In fact, even after a hard drive has been formatted, data can be recovered from it. Using DBAN “prevents or thoroughly hinders all known techniques of hard disk forensic analysis”.
- Start by downloading the DBAN .iso to create a boot CD, or the floppy disk version. If you need help creating a boot CD from the .iso file, see this tutorial.
- After you’ve made the boot CD or floppy, set your computer to boot from that drive.
- Insert the CD or floppy, and boot your computer. You’ll be presented with the DBAN overview screen.
- NOTE: you are now about to completely erase the contents of your hard drive, this is your last chance to back out. At the boot: prompt, type autonuke and hit enter.
- DBAN will start up.
- And begin to wipe your hard drive. The time it takes to completely wipe your hard drive varies depending on its size and speed.
- Once DBAN has wiped your drive, you’ll be presented with a “DBAN succeeded” window. If you have a floppy in your floppy drive, you can hit ENTER to save a log file of the DBAN wipe. That’s it - you’re done.
9 Responses to “How to completely wipe all of the data from your hard drive”
By CDriK on Sep 29, 2007 | Reply
Nice n simple way to securely erase DD, good.
By Master Employment on Oct 4, 2007 | Reply
I think that to make 300% sure that your docs are gone, you better physically destroy your hard drive.
By Joe on Oct 12, 2007 | Reply
Another alternative is to install Windows ;?
By Kruton on Oct 25, 2007 | Reply
If only there weren’t tools that can recover data from hard drives that were smashed or in floods or fires.