badstrong.blogg.se - Disk wiper

Even if the data was overwritten, it may still be retrievable if new data is not completely taking up the cluster of space that it once was. With the use of recovery software, these deleted files would be recovered. In this case, it will delete the reference of data within the table, which means you will not be able to find it. It could still be available on other locations of the drive. These tools are easy to use and can help ensure that your personal information is permanently and professionally erased.īelieve it or not, when you delete data from your hard drive it does not mean that it is fully erased. Can also try the command "shred" ex: # shred -n 6 -z -v want to sell your old computer and you’ve heard that you should securely erase the hard drive data first, but how? There’s a bunch of free hard drive wipe tools available online.try the command "wipe filename" (cf more detail man wipe or wipe -h).

Filling the third partition with random data : dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdX3 bs=1M #replace X with the target drive letter.

Filling the second partition on the /dev/sda disk with all zeros : dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX2 bs=1M #replace X with the target drive letter.

If /dev/sda is the whole disk, then (on Linux, because the naming scheme vary from one Linux to another) /dev/sda3 is the third partition on the disk. You can wipe a partition using the same method than for the whole disk. If you messed up your master boot record (MBR) you can wipe it using this command :ĭd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hdX bs=446 count=1 #replace X with the target drive letter. If you replace the device name, you can also wipe USB sticks and other peripherals. Use for example gparted to find the correct drive.

sda is usually the first hard drive, the second drive would be sdb and so on. Important Note: You need to replace sdX with the device name you want to overwrite. The reason one should fill with urandom in case of required security is explained here: If you are wiping your hard drive for security, you should populate it with random data rather than zeros (This is going to take even longer than the first example.) : dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sdX bs=1M #replace X with the target drive letter.Filling the disk with all zeros (This may take a while, as it is making every bit of data 0) : dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=1M #replace X with the target drive letter.This will overwrite all partitions, master boot records, and data.