Wiping a hard drive with DBAN

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Darik's Boot and Nuke - DBAN

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

Download DBAN - http://www.dban.org

Published: April 25, 2012 -- 11:17 GMT (04:17 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
Kicking off the process. This part of the launch process can take a few minites ... don't panic!

Published: April 25, 2012 -- 11:17 GMT (04:17 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
This (virtual) system only has a single drive so there's no chance of wiping a drive that you need! If you have multiple drives then you're going to need to think before you wipe!

Published: April 25, 2012 -- 11:17 GMT (04:17 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
There are six different options for wiping, with "Quick Erase" being the quickest, and "PRNG Stream" taking the longest. I recommend "DoD Short" or "DoD 5220.22-M" for drive wiping.

Published: April 25, 2012 -- 11:17 GMT (04:17 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
The wipe process kicks off, with this wipe estimated to take 2 hours.

Published: April 25, 2012 -- 11:17 GMT (04:17 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes
And it's done ... having taken a little over an hour. Job done, the drive is wiped.

Published: April 25, 2012 -- 11:17 GMT (04:17 PDT)
Caption by: Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

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Darik's Boot and Nuke - DBAN Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.