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Free Reliable Disk Wiping Software

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by trinianouk

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Hi;

My company is selling some of our old dell computers and I need to wipe the disk clean so that the data is not recoverable. I would like the disk to be reusable after wiping.

I used a piece of software called KillDisk on one of them, and I had a nightmere returning the disk to a usable state. The disk was 20Gb before,and after wiping the disk went down to 8025MB and I still can't get it back to 20GB its a Maxtor Athena. I think the sectors are screwed.

Would like some recommendations on reliable disk wiping software...that won't have me banging my head against the desk after.

Thanks in advance.
Jason.

6 replies

by dspeacock

The first determination you have to make is what kind of data was stored on the drive(s). there is some data (financial, HR, protected health information etc.) that pretty much mandates the destruction of the hard drive either through industrial strength degaussing or actual physical destruction.

If the data doesn't fall into the sensitive category, any program that performs a triple overwrite of 1s and 0s will suffice (I believe Norton falls into this category)

by coinclay

Eraser 5.3 is a pretty good disk wiping freeware. I used it on about 10 of my computers to wipe out personal data on older computers.

by johns.nz

Do a Google search for DBAN
There are several similar free products out there but DBAN works for me.
Have used many time with no trouble reusing the disks.
Comes as a small .exe that makes a bootable floppy. There is also an ISO image version for bootable CD for computers that don?t have a floppy drive.

..jrs

by tonythetiger

[i]There is also an ISO image version for bootable CD for computers that don?t have a floppy drive.[/i]

... are so filthy that the floppies don't work! :)

Actually, I found it faster (and less backbreaking) put one machine on the bench, and hook up the other hard drives one at a time.

by wesley.chin

I have heard from someone who used it that it does the job. Google "Bcwipe"

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