Best Software To Wipe Hard-drive

[Thinkfreely]

I got a bunch of older desktops for free I plan on wiping however they have some sensitive data on the hard drives. Usually I would do a regular format but given that I want the data to be more cleanly "wiped" as I either sell or give these to charity anyone have a recommendation for either a free or paid service that is better then just doing a regular format?

[Radium_Angel]

4 minutes ago, Thinkfreely said:

format

DBAN.

 

All you need

[aisle9]

7 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

DBAN.

 

All you need

This. Booting into DBAN will massacre everything.

 

If you're not comfortable using DBAN (it's easy), you can install Windows 10 and do a Windows reset, erasing everything. That puts a nice, thorough wipe on your drive.

[Thinkfreely]

7 minutes ago, Radium_Angel said:

DBAN.

 

All you need

Is the hardrive still usable after?

[Thinkfreely]

1 minute ago, aisle9 said:

This. Booting into DBAN will massacre everything.

 

If you're not comfortable using DBAN (it's easy), you can install Windows 10 and do a Windows reset, erasing everything. That puts a nice, thorough wipe on your drive.

My question though is after using this to wipe it can install windows onto that hard drive, or it like using a earth magnet and it bricks it.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Thinkfreely said:

My question though is after using this to wipe it can install windows onto that hard drive, or it like using a earth magnet and it bricks it.

It's a fully functional hard drive after the wipe.

[Radium_Angel]

3 minutes ago, Thinkfreely said:

Is the hardrive still usable after?

Yup, just blank.

[Thinkfreely]

Thank you all.

[Turtle Rig]

2 minutes ago, aisle9 said:

It's a fully functional hard drive after the wipe.

Data can still be recovered using recovery software.  We used to run a business harddrivedatasavers and even multiple formats plus deletes and we were able to recover all their lost stuff.  Now I don't know about DBAN, but I still wouldn't trust it.  Best thing to do is take a hammer and smash the hard drive to pieces lol.  But in this case you want to save it or give to charity I think your fine, I don't think charity will steal your lost data and what not.

[Thinkfreely]

1 minute ago, Turtle Rig said:

Data can still be recovered using recovery software.  We used to run a business harddrivedatasavers and even multiple formats plus deletes and we were able to recover all their lost stuff.  Now I don't know about DBAN, but I still wouldn't trust it.  Best thing to do is take a hammer and smash the hard drive to pieces lol.  But in this case you want to save it or give to charity I think your fine, I don't think charity will steal your lost data and what not.

So given your experience do you think since The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until its data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable, which is achieved by overwriting the data with pseudorandom numbers generated by Mersenne Twister or ISAAC it would still be recoverable.

[aisle9]

1 minute ago, Turtle Rig said:

Data can still be recovered using recovery software.  We used to run a business harddrivedatasavers and even multiple formats plus deletes and we were able to recover all their lost stuff.  Now I don't know about DBAN, but I still wouldn't trust it.  Best thing to do is take a hammer and smash the hard drive to pieces lol.  But in this case you want to save it or give to charity I think your fine, I don't think charity will steal your lost data and what not.

IIRC, DBAN first wipes the drive with 0s, then with 1s, then with a random mix of 0s and 1s. It basically renders the data eliminated. I've got friends in IT who use three DBAN passes as their "everything must die" option when wiping old drives.

[Origami Cactus]

3 minutes ago, Turtle Rig said:

Data can still be recovered using recovery software.  We used to run a business harddrivedatasavers and even multiple formats plus deletes and we were able to recover all their lost stuff.  Now I don't know about DBAN, but I still wouldn't trust it.  Best thing to do is take a hammer and smash the hard drive to pieces lol.  But in this case you want to save it or give to charity I think your fine, I don't think charity will steal your lost data and what not.

IF you write every single bit of data over, especially multiple times, then there shouldn't be any recovering of it, and AFAIK that is what DBAN does.

 

Formats and deletes don't actually delete any data, they just hide it.

[Origami Cactus]

7 minutes ago, Thinkfreely said:

So given your experience do you think since The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until its data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable, which is achieved by overwriting the data with pseudorandom numbers generated by Mersenne Twister or ISAAC it would still be recoverable.

@Turtle Rig said that the info was still there after formats and deletes, which just hide the data, meanwhile if you use a real data destruction tool such as DBAN then every single piece of data is overwritten multiple times, so pretty much no recovery.

[Turtle Rig]

3 minutes ago, Origami Cactus said:

@Turtle Rig said that the info was still there after formats and deletes, which just hide the data, meanwhile if you use a real data destruction tool such as DBAN then every single piece of data is overwritten multiple times, so pretty much no recovery.

Good post Origami Cactus, I just hear about DBAN just now.  I still wouldn't put money that after a DBAN your completely safe.  You can delete partition create new one, do a format to a slow format but 500 dollar Recovery software will still recover.  As I said I don't know about DBAN so it's kinda up in the air.  Now that SSDs are 50 bucks and up hard drives are a thing of the past.  Unless you give it to charity I wouldn't trust it to give it to someone or sell it to someone.

[Origami Cactus]

Just now, Turtle Rig said:

Good post Origami Cactus, I just hear about DBAN just now.  I still wouldn't put money that after a DBAN your completely safe.  You can delete partition create new one, do a format to a slow format but 500 dollar Recovery software will still recover.  As I said I don't know about DBAN so it's kinda up in the air.  Now that SSDs are 50 bucks and up hard drives are a thing of the past.  Unless you give it to charity I wouldn't trust it to give it to someone or sell it to someone.

All the things you listed are still just hiding the data, but they don't delete it in any way.

Formatting, deleting, partitions etc don't actually touch the data, they just leave it there, but hide it from view. You don't need a 500$ program to recover that data, free ones like Recuva work just as well.

I know that some people don't trust off the shelf programs, so they have written their own scrips, which write over the data so much that it is unrecoverable, but drive still works.

Would i trust it when giving the drive to FBI?

I don't know, i lack information on that subject, but no one normal is getting your data after completely rewriting every single part of the drive, with whatever fancy software.

[Turtle Rig]

1 minute ago, Origami Cactus said:

All the things you listed are still just hiding the data, but they don't delete it in any way.

Formatting, deleting, partitions etc don't actually touch the data, they just leave it there, but hide it from view. You don't need a 500$ program to recover that data, free ones like Recuva work just as well.

I know that some people don't trust off the shelf programs, so they have written their own scrips, which write over the data so much that it is unrecoverable, but drive still works.

Would i trust it when giving the drive to FBI?

I don't know, i lack information on that subject, but no one normal is getting your data after completely rewriting every single part of the drive, with whatever fancy software.

What you stated is all true.  But honestly if it was me I would take a hammer and smart phone camera and smash the living sh*T out of the drive and record it and post it here LOL.