Got a load of old disk drives that we need to completely wipe of all trace of customers data. Any suggestions what might be the best software available to do this? Do I need anything special or can this be done using any of the Linux Live CDs?

I like this one best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yd_O7-rqcHc

Works great as long as you don't expect to be re-using the drives later.

Seriously though, DBAN is my go to.

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dd? http://www.noah.org/wiki/Dd_-_Destroyer_of_Disks

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DBAN works and would be suitable for this purpose. You can use dd and urandom also.

Don't use dd with urandom, it's terribly slow. Go for this instead:
# cryptsetup open --type plain -d /dev/urandom /dev/<block-device> to_be_wiped
# cat /dev/zero > /dev/mapper/to_be_wiped

See FAQ item 2.19: https://code.google.com/p/cryptsetup...AskedQuestions

Usually I use dd.
With urandom, the job is very slow. We're talking about many hours or days, depends on disk size and processor speed.

For my external 300GB hd, with an old cpu (AMD Sempron LE-1150), my times are:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/tobewiped bs=1MB (3 hours)
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/tobewiped bs=1MB (30 hours)

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Sounds like the easiest way is just to use dd from a Linux Live CD.

dd and then drill through the platters.

There are also companies that will come on-site and physically shred disk drives.

which is preferred"
- speed?.
- accuracy?.

if you have several old ide drives,
then you have to connect & reboot for each one. ..

so, maybe reboot each time with a live_cd,
- use either DD or Gparted
then put a drill bit thru that drive. ..

Another method is shred, which is included with most live CDs in my limited experience. The effect is similar to doing 25 passes of dd with /dev/urandom, but I've no idea how it compares for speed.

If you want you can try my encryption wizards suite.

https://github.com/LCyberspazio/TwoCentsCryptoFrontend

It uses dd(1) for disk wiping... use it at your own risk.

It does nothing special... just run repeatedly the dd command as specified in this topic.
By the way... dd wiping is slow. It's acceptable for volumes in the order of 4GB, more is a pain!

If I remember well, the default is 3. Then you can specify the number of passed with -n option.

Why not just fill the drive with zeros using dd? Much faster than filling it with random data. It won't be possible to restore any data even when filled with zeros, not with any software anyway. And if the drives contains such sensitive data that it could pose a threat to national security you should physically shred them anyway.

Wear eye protection.

Get a big,

Hammer.

Hit it like you live.

Turn in parts to recycle company.


For the most part, you have to write every bit once or more to actually destroy to some degree all data. No matter what you use, it takes time. It is best if you can boot up to the fastest mode the drive can handle.

Some apps may not write all bits, they know that damaging one out of 8 or so the data will be lost. They would be faster.

Dban is one of the favored for this task. It generally uses the fastest means to securely wipe a drive.

Norton's ghost used to be pretty fast as it used file by file. It still may be that one could create a scheme that just put new files over old data. Set it to have smaller files use more area to speed it up.

Before whipping out the hammers and drills, maybe you should ask if the HDD is still working and will be used again ...