Want to Sell Reminder: Properly Wipe Storage Devices Before Selling

[TheDude]

Hi Guys, I will be selling few drives. What is your opinion about CCleaner's utility Wipe Drive or Wipe Free Disk space (for clearing up personal drives).
Thanks

 

[yoshim]

I tried DBAN the other day before selling a hard drive and it did not work for me. I forgot what the error message was exactly, but I ended up just formatting it.

I remember trying DBAN before years ago and it also had the same issue. Are the other ones more user friendly?

 

[AkG]

IF you just formatted the drive the data is still there and can be found again.

All you should need to do is open a command promt (with admin privileges) in windows and type in:
cipher /w:X
where 'X' is the drive letter of the NON-OS drive you want to securely erase.... just make sure the drive is empty before doing this as it will overwrite all free space with garbage and then delete the mega-file.

For more info on windows cipher:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/bb490878.aspx
or
Cipher command line tool in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

 

[sswilson]

IF you just formatted the drive the data is still there and can be found again.

All you should need to do is open a command promt (with admin privileges) in windows and type in:
cipher /w:X
where 'X' is the drive letter of the NON-OS drive you want to securely erase.... just make sure the drive is empty before doing this as it will overwrite all free space with garbage and then delete the mega-file.

For more info on windows cipher:
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-ca/library/bb490878.aspx
or
Cipher command line tool in Windows 10 / 8 / 7

Hrmmmm.... never heard of that before. If I'm reading this right it only affects the "unused" portion of the drive so you'd need to do a format and/or partition prior to using this command? (or at the very least delete everything on the drive?)

 

[AkG]

Yes. It wont touch any files on it that are linked in the internal table as still good/being used/etc.
Thats why you delete all the files first... or do what I do and simply quick format it then run the cmd line program.

 

[sswilson]

I don't have a spare mechanical drive kicking around otherwise I'd test it myself.... how long does the process typically take? (Proper DoD wipe is many hours if not days depending on the drive.... ).

 

[AkG]

Its not a proper DoD wipe its a (IIRC) single pass... which is more than enough for avg joes (if you have peeps who have access to a clean room then yeah its not enough..use a hammer... but for most its more than enough as the '35 passes needed' is an urban legend outside of NSA level paranoia - even Gutmann himself stated that in the paper that started the urban legend that 1 or 2 passes is enough for most and that was back in the 90s when bit size on a platter was HUGE compared to today! ).

It depends on the drive but its not exactly 'fast'. Not 5 pass slow...but not fast. Set it up, make sure its working and go to bed. In the morning it will be done.

Edit: Another tool that also works and 'may' be more secure is SDelete.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/dd776514.aspx

 

[wedge22]

Any suggestions for a tool to wipe an SSD that is the only drive in the system and therefore has the OS installed on it, something that can be booted from a USB key would be great.

 

[Lpfan4ever]

Any suggestions for a tool to wipe an SSD that is the only drive in the system and therefore has the OS installed on it, something that can be booted from a USB key would be great.

I can't remember the name of the software right now, but Hiren's Boot CD has a bootable linux part of it that will do that. Can't remember if it's called Partition Magic or something else.

 

[lowfat]

Any suggestions for a tool to wipe an SSD that is the only drive in the system and therefore has the OS installed on it, something that can be booted from a USB key would be great.

If the drive has TRIM and you are using a TRIM enabled OS, a quick format erases all cells.

@Lpfan4ever you are probably thinking of Parted Magic