zag Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 I've got 60 laptops to de-commission. Does anyone have a good (and quick) hard disk eraser? Preferably a boot CD so I can do it quickly without booting to the OS.
jinnantonnixx Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) You could try this: 1. http://www.dban.org/about A single pass wipe will be fine. 2. Download a Knoppix boot image and run the command dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda <---sometimes it's /dev/sda 3. http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ This has got a whole heap of goodies (including a bunch of disk wipers) Edited May 16, 2011 by jinnantonnixx
Hightower Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 These two tools work great in unison: Tool 1 Tool 2
zag Posted May 16, 2011 Author Posted May 16, 2011 Just tried DBAN but its taken 10mins already and its only 10% in! I need something quicker really
difinity Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 Then it's either physical damage to destroy the data or a hard drive degausser, which aren't cheap. When i wiped our old laptops here, i burned off 5 copies of DBAN and ran them over night.
laserblazer Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 I use Kill and that's slow. Nature of the beast, I think. I've also used the this tool, which is fast and fun to use. http://www.stayfitbug.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/sledgehammer.jpg
jinnantonnixx Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 Just tried DBAN but its taken 10mins already and its only 10% in! I need something quicker really It has to write to every byte on the disk, so it will take time. Have you chosen a single wipe? If so, best to set up a bunch of them to run overnight.
Dos_Box Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 I've got 60 laptops to de-commission. Does anyone have a good (and quick) hard disk eraser? Preferably a boot CD so I can do it quickly without booting to the OS. Were they classroom laptops or staff laptops with potentially confidential data on them?
somabc Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 You can use Shred in Linux to wipe the disk. Using Shred to Wipe Hard Drives – DoD Uses It – You Should Too! | fsckin w/ linux
tech_guy Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 Watch out with DBan - we used it to do some HDDs and data was still recoverable after the basic wipe.
jinnantonnixx Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 Watch out with DBan - we used it to do some HDDs and data was still recoverable after the basic wipe. You mentioned this before. What happened?
tech_guy Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) You mentioned this before. What happened? Don't ask - I'm still having some sleepless nights over it...! PM sent to you. Edited May 16, 2011 by tech_guy
apeo Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 Could use Hirens, i think there's a dos disk shredder. 1
zag Posted May 16, 2011 Author Posted May 16, 2011 (edited) Were they classroom laptops or staff laptops with potentially confidential data on them? Well yes they were classroom laptops, but they have nothing confidential on them. I just want a way to wipe the disks so they don't have the XP key on them really. EDIT: Dban took 2hrs to complete for just 1 laptop!! Edited May 16, 2011 by zag
Chris-W- Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 How about Hiren's BootCD as mentioned above? It's got a few HDD cleaners on there. Active Kill Disk is one I've used before. Relatively quick and loads into a RAM drive so you dont have to wait for each one to finish before removing the CD
Arthur Posted May 16, 2011 Posted May 16, 2011 Preferably a boot CD so I can do it quickly without booting to the OS. If you have a Windows Vista or 7 install disc handy you could use DiskPart to wipe the HDD from the command prompt... diskpart select disk 0 clean all exit The recovery discs on this webpage would also work too.
speckytecky Posted May 17, 2011 Posted May 17, 2011 Love some of the replies here - specially the hammer and pillar drill! Our free friend CCleaner has a wiper that seems pretty good - not tried it on a large capacity disk but it would probably suffice for the key removal the OP seeks.
mac_shinobi Posted May 17, 2011 Posted May 17, 2011 How about Hiren's BootCD as mentioned above? It's got a few HDD cleaners on there. Active Kill Disk is one I've used before. Relatively quick and loads into a RAM drive so you dont have to wait for each one to finish before removing the CD on the hirens page it shows what is on the disc but i do not see any download links for the iso - help Hiren's BootCD 13.2 - All in one Bootable CD » www.hiren.info
featured_spectre Posted May 17, 2011 Posted May 17, 2011 DBAN first Then use the linux HDD shred facility...works a charm
zag Posted May 17, 2011 Author Posted May 17, 2011 Ended up using Dban and 5 laptops setup at the same time to run using a "quick erase". That way I can do 5 an hour so should be done by the end of tomorrow
featured_spectre Posted May 17, 2011 Posted May 17, 2011 run the linux tool after as well as data is recoverable on quick erase
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