How to wipe a HDD, with a catch

kayson · Oct 3, 2010

My friend wants to wipe his HDD before he sends his laptop back to Dell, going further than just a reformat. Normally I'd recommend CCleaner with a single pass of all 0's, but there are some constraints: he won't take the hard drive out, so it has to be something that's bootable. I suggested darik's boot and nuke but he can't get it to run without errors. I also suggested running a ubuntu livecd and finding a drive wiping program for unix. I've found the livecd, but not sure if there are any easy drive wiping programs on unix.

Any suggestions?

Know Nuttin · Oct 3, 2010

manufacturer's tools to run a write pass?

migidarra · Oct 3, 2010

Why won't he take the HDD out? AFAIK there aren't any companies that void warranty if you remove a HDD. I could definitely be wrong though. Also remember that dell has THE MOST ABSOLUTE TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. I have alienware m11x R1. Its good product(except about 3 things that aren't that bad yet). But the customer support is terrible and ive read a lot of horror stories about them. Anyway sorry about the hate on dell. Just convince him to let you take it out and wipe it. or Know Nuttin's recommendatoin,

Regards,
Migidarra

kayson · Oct 3, 2010

migidarra said:
Why won't he take the HDD out? AFAIK there aren't any companies that void warranty if you remove a HDD. I could definitely be wrong though. Also remember that dell has THE MOST ABSOLUTE TERRIBLE CUSTOMER SERVICE EVER. I have alienware m11x R1. Its good product(except about 3 things that aren't that bad yet). But the customer support is terrible and ive read a lot of horror stories about them. Anyway sorry about the hate on dell. Just convince him to let you take it out and wipe it. or Know Nuttin's recommendatoin,

Regards,
Migidarra

He has the same laptop lol i dont know why he refuses to take the hdd out. but even if he does I don't think he has another computer to put it in...

Jmtyra · Oct 3, 2010

If he's getting errors completing a full DBAN wipe then he needs to do a chkdsk (or similar) to fix his bad sectors first, then give it another go at DBAN. IIRC, the Ultimate Boot CD (free, google it) has a software-based HDD repair tool that he could use.

Kinda weird tho that he doesn't wanna remove the drive. hehe.

RJARRRPCGP · Oct 4, 2010

Jmtyra said:
If he's getting errors completing a full DBAN wipe then he needs to do a chkdsk (or similar) to fix his bad sectors first, then give it another go at DBAN. IIRC, the Ultimate Boot CD (free, google it) has a software-based HDD repair tool that he could use.

Kinda weird tho that he doesn't wanna remove the drive. hehe.

Chkdsk cannot correct problems that cause DBAN to fail.

Also, DBAN is low level.

Automata · Oct 4, 2010

What errors do you get with DBAN? I thought there was an option to ignore errors.

Another way is to boot a live linux CD and use "dd" to wipe the drive. Just a simple command line and everything will be overwritten.

Jmtyra · Oct 4, 2010

RJARRRPCGP said:
Chkdsk cannot correct problems that cause DBAN to fail.

Oh. DBAN doesn't look at sectors labeled as bad, then? :shrug:

CompuTamer · Oct 4, 2010

Ubuntu has a command that you can run from the Terminal to write 0s to the drive. For the life of me i can't remember it though.

Automata · Oct 4, 2010

CompuTamer said:
Ubuntu has a command that you can run from the Terminal to write 0s to the drive. For the life of me i can't remember it though.

thideras said:
Another way is to boot a live linux CD and use "dd" to wipe the drive. Just a simple command line and everything will be overwritten.

It is available on any linux platform.

How to wipe a HDD, with a catch

kayson

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