Question Help with wiping NAS HDD please

[Audio_Guy]

Hi, I have upgraded my Asustor NAS, and now have 4x2TB drives I would like to wipe. I have 2 issues:

1. I bought an external USB docking station to hold the drives, but my Win 10 computer does not recognize them. They don't show up in Windows Explorer. When I go to Device Manager, however, they do show up with the correct model number.

2. I downloaded dban and Rufus, wrote to flash drive, changed boot order to USB first. but my Win 10 laptop still boots to Windows.

I was hoping dban would see the drive even if Windows has issues. I'm assuming the Windows visibility issue is related to the NAS formatting?

Any insights on how to address these issues or how to wipe these drives appreciated.

Thanks

 

[Chicano]

As the computer starts up, try taping the F12 key, to bring up the Bios Boot Menu, where you can select and boot the USB Drive. Your motherboard may use a different key... if F12 doesn't work, check the boot menu option keys for all computers and laptops

If that doesn't work; In the BIOS boot order settings, enable the USB Drive and disable the Windows boot drive and optical drive. The BIOS will see the USB Drive as the only available boot drive and boot from it. Revert this setting when you're done.

Other options are Partition Manager applications... Minitool Partition Manager, EaseUS Partition Master, or GParted Live Bootable. Third party applications can sometimes see drives that the Windows Disk Manager can't, and GParted from Linux, should have a better chance.

MiniTool Partition Wizard Free 12.7
EaseUS Partition Master
GParted Live Bootable CD/DVD/USB

 

[Audio_Guy]

Thanks Chicano!

I was able to get it working by booting from USB on a Win 7 computer I had. I think it was the Win 10 security settings that were choking on the USB boot. DBAN did indeed recognize the drives, and is wiping them...very slowly. Looks like about 30 hours for the first drive. I will look at options for the next one to see if I can speed it up.

Thanks for your help.

Mark

 

[Chicano]

Thanks Chicano!

DBAN did indeed recognize the drives, and is wiping them...very slowly. Looks like about 30 hours for the first drive. I will look at options for the next one to see if I can speed it up.

Thanks for your help.

Mark

So you're "wiping" the first HDD?... Good luck with that... and better luck on the other 3 drives!. You may want to look up the differences between each form of removing data from an HDD.