I'm basically looking for a program to use (preferably free or very low cost) that I can install on a USB flash drive, that will allow me to boot from the device and wipe the hard drives on the computer. I have a few computers that I am looking at selling, and I want the hard drives to be clean. Do you guys know of any?

http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/

it includes DBAN, Darik's Boot and Nuke, which is the standard wiping tool. UBCD can also easily be installed to a USB drive.

Also it can be done with any linux distro using the dd command. ( dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/driveyouwishtowipe )

http://wiki.ultimatebootcd.com/index.php?title=Tutorials:USB_Installation | http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-and-boot-ultimate-boot-cd-ubcd-from-a-usb-device/

I'll check that out. Thanks.

Looks like this is all I'll need if it works properly: http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm

Can anyone vouch for KillDisk?

I'd suggest you just use DBAN like DEFRON suggested. It is very simple to use and works very well.

I most certainly would NOT vouch for any non-FOSS program to do this job.

DBAN supports everything from the simple drive zeroing, to the DOD standard overwrite, to the super-overkill Gutmann method of overwriting the drive 35 times.

Not to mention UBCD is just a useful tool to have in general since it includes so many useful programs.

I use DBAN to stay HIPAA compliant for my job.

KillDisk free only supports one-pass zero. While arguably this is enough, I believe at least a 1-pass random write should be done if not the DOD-short (3-pass) or DOD-long (7 passes, HIPAA-compliant).

EDIT: Oh, also, if any of these drives are SSDs, the only way to erase data is by removing the drive and physically destroying it (preferably with thermite with the fun recorded and uploaded to Youtube). SSDs cannot be successfully overwritten by standard means and physical destruction is the only way to guarantee data destruction.

Thanks for the info. Do you know if DBAN can be run from a USB drive? I only ask because I currently have no disks on hand to burn DBAN onto, but I obviously have mountains of flash drives.

I already linked to instructions on how to install UBCD to a flash drive. UBCD includes DBAN among other tools.

I plan on using UBCD in the future, and thanks very much for introducing me to it, but my internet here is terrible, and I'm not prepared to wait for a 390mb download.

Here we go: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-dban-to-a-usb-flash-drive-using-windows/

That is the method I have used in the past to get DBAN on a flash drive, and it worked wonderfully.

Get a magnet.

Shifty: Problem sovler!

I had no idea about this!

What sort of app could I use to try to recover data from my old SSD? (it's Intel X-18M 160GB)

Apparently I was a little hasty, it's just incredibly unpredictable to overwrite the data to the point to be sure the best method is destruction. The erase tool provided by the SSD maker has the highest probability of working, but it isn't guaranteed to work either. To use standard data overwrite tools such as DBAN would take 10s of hours to have a high probability of success

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/solid-state-flash-translation-layer-NAND-FAST-11-Sanitization,12252.html

As for what programs can recover data from your SSD: Scalpel, PhotoRec, foremost, and a few other tools can do it. Pros do a dd of a drive before running any tools of it to create a raw dump, that way they can try the tools as many times as they want without worry of anything getting in the way : even the drive dying

Basically to preemptively make sure an SSD stays safe you need to encrypt it so that way even if erasure fails, all the information on it is encrypted.

Best thread name!

Yup, it worked great. I formatted my computer and re-installed Windows 7 without any problems at all. I also DBANed my friend's roommate's laptop for refusing to stop verbally abusing my firends and family on Facebook.


Oh wow, I lol'd so hard when I re-read the title. I guess a mod changed it when they saw I found what I needed.