Free program for securely erasing HDD's

[JoshT]

The issue with just formatting is that it does not erase fully so that data is recoverable.

What he was suggesting isn't the same formatting that you get from within the GUI. Every byte on the disk is going to be overwritten with a 0, and you can change that 1 to 2,3,4... to overwrite every byte multiple times. This is essentially what CCleaner and Malwarebytes are going to do, just using the command line instead a GUI and those programs may also do passes writing 1s to everything.

 

[alwaysFlOoReD]

What about using a large magnet? That should scramble the hell out of them 1's and 0's.

 

[Josh B]

I bought NASA surplus for years and they didn't seem bothered with hard drives, it wasn't unusual getting machines loaded with them, I have one that's 11 platter & 35 pounds
If they're looking for information on me they're in for a long boring day

 

[4x4prepper]

> over the drive to wipe any info to the point of no recovery

It can be done for normal user data, BUT, know data is stored on your HD that is not accessible by normal means or by a Windoze based OS. They only way to destroy it is to take a big Ford wrench to it. Which I have done before. About the only CPu that does not have a spy co-processor are ARM CPus. Though from what I can tell, the most powerful one you can get for a reasonable price is about 1/6th as powerful as a 2013 core-i7.

If you bought Windoze installed on your computer, that CPu # and Windoze # is staying with that HD# forever.

$0.02

 

[Bill]

If it is a hard drive DBAN will do the job. If it is an SSD you have to use ATA commands to wipe the data.

Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN

Erase hard drives, desktops, laptops or servers free with a Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) download. Try it now.

dban.org

Methods for Erasing an SSD

Our Storage Executive tool offers a Sanitize Drive function and a PSID Revert function, both of which will erase an SSD's contents.

www.crucial.com

 

[JoshT]

> over the drive to wipe any info to the point of no recovery

It can be done for normal user data, BUT, know data is stored on your HD that is not accessible by normal means or by a Windoze based OS. They only way to destroy it is to take a big Ford wrench to it. Which I have done before. About the only CPu that does not have a spy co-processor are ARM CPus. Though from what I can tell, the most powerful one you can get for a reasonable price is about 1/6th as powerful as a 2013 core-i7.

If you bought Windoze installed on your computer, that CPu # and Windoze # is staying with that HD# forever.

$0.02

Being an it/tech guy that sounds like some conspiracy shit to me. Got any proof/evidence to back it up.

 

[SenorNoob]

Being an it/tech guy that sounds like some conspiracy shit to me. Got any proof/evidence to back it up.

Same here. Only thing I'm aware of is Windows product keys being stored in BIOS/UEFI since Windows 8. That's only for OEM systems.

 

[Bgunner]

Last thing I knew HDD's were completely erasable so that no data was recoverable. Yes this may take quite a few re writes from 0's to 1's and 1's to 0's to get the job done. My kid works in IT and why I want to erase the drive's I send him so that nothing is recoverable just incase he has the idea of spying on dad. IT doesn't seem to pay a lot in his case as he was mentioning doing door dash for more money. I guess working for Pizza Hut's IT department sucks for pay.

Edit: on second thought maybe I should put some animal pornography on there like dogs going at it and maybe some cows just to make him say WTF. lol

 

[fastpakr]

Being an it/tech guy that sounds like some conspiracy shit to me. Got any proof/evidence to back it up.

Agreed. 100% conspiracy nonsense.