Security·4,770 discussions

Erasing HDD

Tags: Hardware

Hello,

I want to sell my PC (including HDD). I had some sensitive data on it, but I need the money, so please don’t tell me to physically destroy it 😀 I know you can get rid of it by wiping/erasing it. The problem is that commonly used DBAN can’t wipe host protected area, device configuration overlay and bad sectors. I know that this probably shouldn’t be an issue, but… Probably. I heard that HDDErase by CMRR should do the trick. Is that a good choice? And what software would you recommend to check if the data are erased correctly? Thanks 🙂

Topic

Well it depends on what you want here

In reply to Erasing HDD

Just remember that a wiped HDD can be recovered so if the data is Sensitive the drive should really be removed and replaced.

However saying that DBAN is still the best software available to wipe a HDD that doesn’t mean that it’s perfect and will totally destroy any data on the drive and render it impossible to recover just that it will be harder for someone who doesn’t know what they are doing to get the data.

With DBAN you wipe the entire drive and then reload the OS and any software that is licensed to that system and in most cases that’s OK but you need to remember that Sensitive is realitive to people and what you may not consider sensitive may possibly be sensitive to others who can recover it easily.

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