How to completely erase data/information in hard disks

[mclariosa]

How to completely erase data/information in hard disks?

We are planning to dispose our unused hard disk and just like to make sure that data information are completely destroyed or erased.

Thank you.

 

[Necr0v]

Look at DBAN,

http://www.dban.org/

It's free and works!

 

[Necr0v]

If you're disposing of them though a hammer through the platter will surely fix it as well...

 

[vortical]

Alternatively Ccleaner has a tool that will overwrite and wipe any harddisk completely 35x over to make certain no information can possibly be recovered
https://www.piriform.com/ccleaner

 

[USAFRet]

Darik's Boot And Nuke

How many drives do you have? This may take some time.
What will you do with them after wiping? Sell or throw away? Some locales have a local service that will actually shred drives.

 

[chris_shadez]

go to 'My Computer', 'right click' on the hard drive you wish to erase, you'll see an option 'Format...'
Format will erase everything on that disk,
However, should someone strangely want to go through length to do so, with the right tools, data can be recovered from a standard 'format' erase.

A free small piece of software called CCleaner has a 'Drive Wiper' in its 'Tools' pane. Under 'Security' it shows 'Simple Overwright (1pass) It is these options which securely erase the data for good, unrecoverable. '1 pass' option is good enough but 3/7/35 pass options are there depending on your paranoia of the lengths people will go to to try retrieving that erased data
http://download.cnet.com/CCleaner/

If there are multiple hard disks in that computer, erase the ones without the OS first of course

 

[Hawkeye22]

Use diskpart's clean all command.

 

[Joseph J]

Late to the party but I thought I would reply - just in case anyone searches the forum.

Just be aware ... i'm sure you know but I'll type it anyway...DO NOT use Clean All on SSD's

350GB normally takes about an hour depending on your system.

I cleaned a 3TB today) 11HOURS!!! my MSI ran ALL DAY!!( I cleaned a 3TB today) day 11HOURS!!! (or 30mins ago)

 

[USAFRet]

Just be aware ... DO NOT USE ON SSD
350GB normally takes about an hour depending on your system.

I cleaned a 3TB today) 11HOURS!!! my MSI ran ALL DAY!!( I cleaned a 3TB today) day 11HOURS!!! (or 30mins ago)

1. This thread is 5 years old.
2. "DO NOT USE ON SSD" - what specific tool are you referring to with this directive?

 

[Joseph J]

1. This thread is 5 years old.
2. "DO NOT USE ON SSD" - what specific tool are you referring to with this directive?

I edited the post to clarify why I added a response to an old post ... I couldn't find time estimations for the job I did today

 

[USAFRet]

I edited the post to clarify why I added a response to an old post ... I couldn't find time estimations for the job I did today

If you want 'clean all', it's going to take time. Be it HDD or SSD.

 

[demyansk]

Give a call to Hillary, she's an expert. I had to do it, sorry

 

[USAFRet]

and...we're done here.