Erasing Used Hard Drive

D

Daarken

Weaksauce
Joined
Jan 3, 2006
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103
I am asking on behalf of a non profit refurbished computer provider that reconditions used PC's and then donates them to low income families, churches, and schools.
They have been offered a large number of used systems, however both companies want to remove the hard drives and destroy them before donating the systems.
Both companies indicated that if the organization can has a utility that documents (printout) the wipe/complete erase of the hard drives they will provide the systems with the existing hard drives.
The non-profit does not have the funds to provide new drives, or to purchase a "professional" utility.
Does anyone have any suggestions?
 
Windows disk formatting allows you to over write with all 0's with however many passes you want
 
I'd love a low cost appliance for this. I have a pile of disks and the last time I started down the road, my machine was tied up forever. Maybe I'll re-purpose an old PC that's to be mothballed.
 
reBOOT Canada (similar charity to your non-profit) used DBAN - I know, I used to be their CTO.

If you use a lot of untrained volunteers you can modify the startup of DBAN so that when it boots from the CD/USB key it will automatically erase the drive using the specification you want (single-pass, DoD, RCMP, etc.) without having to select anything. That way you can make sure the drives are erased to the specification the donors may demand.
 
rtangwai said:
reBOOT Canada (similar charity to your non-profit) used DBAN - I know, I used to be their CTO.

If you use a lot of untrained volunteers you can modify the startup of DBAN so that when it boots from the CD/USB key it will automatically erase the drive using the specification you want (single-pass, DoD, RCMP, etc.) without having to select anything. That way you can make sure the drives are erased to the specification the donors may demand.
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Would you mind if I PM'd you?
 
Another vote for Killdisk. Our clients like the certificates it creates for data destruction.
 
For hard drives, I always use badblocks 4 pass data destructive test however I always have linux machines running (home and work).
 
thebufenator said:
Windows disk formatting allows you to over write with all 0's with however many passes you want
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I think you missed the part about being able to print out a report.

I do use this method though when wiping drives of my own along with a small script I wrote myself to then fill the drive with random data.
 
Note if its a SSD use secure erase (once is enough) not software erase tools

one it waste of writes to the SSD and its not as full reset, a secure erase that resets PAGE table and NAND and if its a SED drive secure erase resets the encryption keys so all date is effectively wiped at that point as well, typically if its a SED drive secure erase is less then 2 minutes but can be instant on some drives (samsung)
 
no need to downlaod 3rd party tools if you have any modern windows

format will do it or cipher command will do it
 
besides the cetificate then is there any reason to use software instead of just format with windows? I have a bunch of older drives id like to donate so i dont want to destroy them but also dont want any personal/financial information at risk.
 
besides the cetificate then is there any reason to use software instead of just format with windows?
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I say a more thorough level of testing to ensure the drives are in working order.
 
I used DBAN in the past though I am curious how would one provide "proof"?

Take a picture of the screen? I can't even remember if DAN displays details of the hdd such as a serial number.
 
if you going to the level of DBAN just use secure erase command

and to speed secure erase up Only buy SED HDDs and SSDs drives as they only require max 1 second (samsung after command has been ran) to 2 minutes to erase the drive,,as all it has to do on a HDD is destroy and remake the encryptions keys which most drives do is less than 30 seconds, on a SSD with SED as well as resetting the encryption keys it sends a Mass TRIM command to all nand space and resets the page map area (if the SSD drive takes a long time to erase its not a SED drive but all data is still erased)
 
just dont use it on a SSD (heck even just doing a quick format form windows is effectively a secure erase on a SSD as Trim command is sent to all of free space)
 
brentsg said:
I feel bad for anyone that has to do this in bulk for an organization.
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Sometimes why they just destroyed them ( normally they don't do it in house they usually pay a company to do it)

DBAN is typically excessive still unless your really paranoid (on a ssd it's very unnecessary as a quick format or secure erase will do exactly the same thing but far quicker and actually complete zero data )

if the hdd is a SED drive use secure erase command as all data is instantly unrecoverable once ran (not quick or full format) over DBAN unless it's a Normal hdd
 
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