Wipe Hard Drive Clean Using Free Software http://geekyprojects.com/storage/wipe-hard-drive-clean-using-free-software/
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Wipe Hard Drive Clean Using Free Software
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26. Apr 2011, 14:40 UhrPablo Garcia
Selling your computer but worried of somebody trying to
get a hold of your personal information? As some of you
know, whenever a file is deleted from the computer, it
does not really gets deleted but rather the opearting
system identifies the space as available so it can be
re-recorded again. This is a huge problem since your hard
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drive can fall in the wrong hands. In this article I will cover
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my favorite method for wiping a hard drive clean, a
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method that is reliable and can even be run under
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Windows using Virtualbox.
There is a free program for this purpose which
everybody seems to prefer, however, I do not. That
program is Darik s Boot and Nuke (DBan). Dban
seems to have terrible USB detection capabilities.
Fortunately, there is a better solution. Parted Magic offers
you several options. Some are meant to be a quick solutions and some like nwipe (a fork of dban) are
for the paranoid. However, all of these options will make your data unrecoverable, regardless of the
one you pick.
Using USB vs. SATA Controller
It is important to mention that, as convenient as connecting your hard drive by USB is, it is always
faster to connect the hard drive directly using either the computer s SATA or IDE cables. Bear this in
mind before starting to wipe a large hard drive, or you might end up waiting days rather than hours.
WARNING!: When working with any of these programs, make sure you have the correct hard drive
selected. Once you wipe the hard drive with any of these methods, your data will be unrecoverable!
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Wipe Hard Drive Clean Using Free Software http://geekyprojects.com/storage/wipe-hard-drive-clean-using-free-software/
Instructions
Download the Parted Magic ISO image and burn it to a CD.
Boot your computer with Parted Magic s LiveCD. Make sure your CD-ROM is set as first boot device in
your computer s BIOS.
Click Parted Magic start button, click on  System Tools and  Erase Disk .
This will bring up the  Disk Erasing 1013 window, which will give you several options to pick
from.
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Wipe Hard Drive Clean Using Free Software http://geekyprojects.com/storage/wipe-hard-drive-clean-using-free-software/
Using Dd disk, Ddpart, Shred or Secure Erase Command
Dd disk, Ddpart, Shred and the Secure Erase command are all meant to be quick solutions. If you are
in a hurry to wipe your hard drive and don t want to wait several hours, these are the solutions for
you. They are safe enough to keep your data out of the average  wrong hands but they are not as
secure as nwipe, which I will be discussing in the next section. However, going into which method is
more secure over another is not the purpose of this article. If you would like to know more about how
these methods work, read this article by Peter Gunntman, the leading authority in the field.
The instructions to start Dd disk, Dd part, Shred and the Secure Erase Command are pretty much the
same. The following set of instructions apply to all except nwipe. For instructions on how to use nwipe,
go to the next section.
Once you have the  Disk Erasing 101 menu open, select any of the methods previously discussed
and click  Continue .
On the next window, select the drive you will be wiping. Be 100% sure of the selection you make, or
you will probably end up wiping a different drive. Once the wiping process is started there is no going
back; your data will be lost. Click  OK to continue.
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Next, you will receive a warning asking if you are really sure of what you are doing, if you are, click
 OK .
The wiping process will begin immediately after clicking  OK without any further warning.
Nwipe Instructions
If you are truly paranoid about the data you have in your hard drive, Nwipe will give some peace of
mind. Nwipe uses the most advanced and secure wiping techniques. It is a fork of the famous Dban
and offers pretty much the same capabilities.
Contrary to the previous options we just discussed, Nwipe requires an existing accessible and readable
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Wipe Hard Drive Clean Using Free Software http://geekyprojects.com/storage/wipe-hard-drive-clean-using-free-software/
partition, otherwise the drive will not be detected. Parted Magic must be able to see and access the
drive. If the drive does not have a filesystem, Nwipe will not detect it. To check this you can either click
on the icon named  Mount Devices and see if it comes out on the list of devices to be mounted, or
click on  My Documents and see if it appears on the left hand side column.
To open Nwipe, select it from the  Disk Erasing 101 menu and click  Continue .
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Wipe Hard Drive Clean Using Free Software http://geekyprojects.com/storage/wipe-hard-drive-clean-using-free-software/
Using the UP and Down arrow keys on your keyboard, navigate to the drive you want to wipe and
press the  Space bar to select it.
Nwipe comes without any instructions, at least not the version that comes with Parted Magic. It does
not even state the keyboard shortcuts to press to start the wiping process or to change the wiping
method. I had to figure out how to use it by pressing each key on the keyboard. Very unusual, but
fortunately I was able to figure them out. Here they are:
WARNING! Nwipe (just like Dban) does not give you any warning before starting to wipe the drive, so
be really sure you have the correct drive identified and selected before starting the wiping
process!
Nwipe Keyboard Shortcuts
Shortcut Action
F10 Start wiping drive
p Pseudo Random Number Generator (PRNG)
r Number of rounds
v Check if the drive is actually empty
m Wiping method Before starting, make sure you have all the
desired settings in place (you can use the
defaults) and press  F10 to start wiping your drive.
Windows Won t Detect My Hard Drive After Running Nwipe  What to do
Each hard drive comes with a low level manufacturer s partition table (not to be confused with the
actual partition type: FAT32, NTFS, EXT3, etc.) Windows needs this partition table in order to  see the
drive. Make sure you create this partition table before using or giving your drive to someone else, or
that person will have a hard time determining what is wrong with the drive.
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To create this partition table, open the  Partition Editor (Gparted) on Parted Magic s Desktop and
select the drive you just wiped. On the top menu, click on  Device and then on  Create a partition
table . Select the partition table type depending on the operating system you will be installing or just
click on  Apply to select the default (MS-DOS) if you are using a Windows operating system.
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Related Posts :
What is RAID? Levels and How to Repair a Damaged How to Recover Data Even How to Clone Hard Drive to
Types Partition Table or MB... When Hard Drive is D... Smaller Drive
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19.11.11, 05:51: How to Recover Data Even When Hard Drive is Damaged (from Prashant)
14.11.11, 08:26: How to Clone Hard Drive to Smaller Drive (from Merrill Yee)
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07.11.11, 09:27: How to Recover Data From a Broken Hard Drive (from Pablo Garcia)
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