safe format my laptop's hdd

im planning on selling my laptop and i want to securely format my hdd. thing is i dont have another computer so i need a program that will run from usb stick while deleting/formating the hdd.
any free suggestions and how long does it normally take for a 500gb to be securely formated?
thanks

 

I've always heard good things about Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe and Data Clearing but its run from a CD

edit: http://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-dban-to-a-usb-flash-drive-using-windows/ <-- how to use Dban from a USB drive.

Or you could try Killdisk http://www.killdisk.com/

 

thanks s2. ill try them out and tell you how it goes.
+1

 

one more thing how long would it take to format and wipe a 500gig hdd with dban or killdisk

 

I have never personally used either, and my 500gb hd on my mac only took like a minute to reformat when it was blank so I'm not 100% sure on the time, sorry.

 

I'm quite sure that was quick format.

 

Yea it was a blank hard drive to just format to use in my Mac. I don't know how long it would take with data on it is what I'm getting at.

 

If you're looking to do any form of secure erase to your HDD, it's going to take a while. If the program you were recommended does not work, you might also try the Ulitmate Boot CD.

If the drive formats in less than a minute, that's not the same as securely erasing the data. The data is still there, but the drive no longer knows that it has anything on it. A secure erase is going to write data over every single bit on the disk at least once, depending on the level of security you're going for.

When I've done a bit for bit clone of a 500GB/7200RPM drive to another of the same specs, it took just over 3hours to write every block from one disk to the other. When I had to run a repair utility to find and reallocated a bad sector, that process took several hours as well. Be prepared for this to take time if you want to make sure your data is truly unrecoverable. And, after secure erasing, you should then try a data recovery tool to see if anything is hanging around.

To be redundant, cuz I like to type on this keyboard... a disk with data on it is like having a tour guide in a foreign city. You don't have to go looking for anything. You ask the tour guide and he knows the locations of everything you need to know. Reformatting is like firing the tour guide and hiring a newbie/blank slate. All of the sights and destinations are still there, but the guide has no idea. Secure erasing is like firing the tour guide and then dropping a nuke on the city, obliterating the sights and destinations.

Ok, it was a cheezy analogy, but fun nonetheless.

 

Get a new HDD? And use the old internal as an external?

That's 100% failsafe

 

Format and install a copy of Windows as a trial. Then install CCleaner and run a 35 pass Gutmann wipe of the free space. This will work fine as each and every sector will be overwritten with random data 35 times. I know the physics behind this and am 100% confident that nothing will be recoverable.

 

Hard drives are cheap these days so just replace with a new one.
Like DetlevCM suggested

 

I am using Eraser.
Tried to use KillDisk to boot from USB Flash Drive but it didn't seem to work.

 

Thanks for all the suggestions.
I really dont want to buy a new hdd as i am getting a new laptop that already comes with an hdd. I habe one exyernal hdd already but it already has essential data in it

 

just boot into a copy of linux (live-cd/usb) and write random to the device multiple times, it would take quite a while(size x # of rounds / sequential throughput).

the suggested linux distro should do the job just fine.

 

can ccleaner wipe a system disk from windows and how long would that take for a 500gb for 1 pass?

 

is it possible to delete all my data and programs and then use ccleaner. then deactivate my current windows to revert it back to trial? would that be safe?

 

no idea but it is not recommended in general to run the wiper from the active OS.

500,000 / 100 => 5,000 seconds assuming it can have sustain rate of 100MB/s. A more realistic estimate would be 10,000 seconds or so.

 

Have you got a backup for that external drive?
If not, -> the second internal could be a mirror of it and back it up in case of failure.

 

Here's what I use to wipe my hard disk clean. I have two partition, C (OS) and D (Data). I never put any of my data in C.
1. Format C to factory default.
2. Use Eraser to wipe unused disk space on D, 1-pass. Its an already empty partition.
3. Format D. Not using quick format.
4. Wipe unused disk space on C using CCleaner.
5. Re-run Eraser for unused disk space on C and D just in case, but this time, using 7-pass.

Didn't use DBAN because I don't trust my notebook's DVD drive is strong enough.
Didn't use KillDisk because I've tried and it just won't boot from the thumb drive. I already set booting from USB Flash disk as the highest priority in F2 Boot Options.

 

Hi, this link is from a thread somewhere on NBR (can't remeber where), but this is a tool for specifically writing over data to prevent recovery.
Free Privacy Software (ENGLISH)
The one your looking for is called 'Prevent Restore'

 

Honestly, you can download those Legal copies of Windows 7 from somewhere around here, so, just grab the ISO, burn it to a disc, install it without the serial, of course formatting it during the process, and then use CCleaner and/or Eraser. Both offer Gutmann capability. The reason I am sticking to the W7 install is because if you are planning on selling the hardware, it will be much easier if you tell people it has a Windows 7 trial running on it so they at least have some functionality. In addition, you could inform them of the Legal activation rearm so they can get another 90 days out of the trial.

 

can you plug a HDD like that and being able to boot on a completely different machine ? The idea is good but I don't know if Microsoft has designed Windows boot up to work that way.

 

Is the drive to be wiped the Momentus XT in the OPs sig? Seagate have been asked what happens to the SSD part of the drive when the drive is wiped, but hadn't replied to anyone last time I looked. It wouldn't be easy to get to the SSD but....

This would make it much more important to completely wipe and reinstall IMO.

 

What a waste of time. 35x overwriting ~400 GB would require approx. 350 000 seconds. This is four full days.

Overwriting once is enough with the high data densities of modern HDDs. And even zeros are good enough. Even 3 letter organizations would have a hard time.
--> Secure deletion: a single overwrite will do it - The H: Security news and Open source developments

Michael

 

A long time ago I tried something like this on a slowish drive. If I remember right it wiped at about 80GB/hour for a single pass which would take a lot longer than 4 days And wiping cluster tips is of course much slower.

I'd also suggest using Eraser ahead of Ccleaner for wiping free space.

 

in the time the OP has spent discussing this they could have chosen the slowest software around and still done a 5x wipe process.

and then installed a win7 trial on top of it.

 

ok here are my issues. i will be selling my laptop next week. i dont have a spare hdd and my bluray player seems to be acting up - it reads bd's fine but cant seem to read cd/dvd's with any consistency.
so because of the dvd issue im looking at a secure erase i can run from my usb in dos.
also i have a copy of windows 7 disk i bought when i purchased my laptop. it says 'recovery disk for windows 7 home premium'. i dont plan on selling the win7 disk with the laptop and plan to use this on a laptop i will purchase in the future. would the disk work on this new laptop, or is it specifically tied to the laptop it was purchased with?

 

Dban together with Unetbootin should do the trick.

It might probably be tied to your other laptop (mabe even serves for factory restore only).
But why do you want to install Windows on that laptop-to-be-sold?

Michael

 

would a new laptop come with a version of Windows anyway (seems that was the case for the current one, what you bought seems to be just a recovery media, not a new license if I am not mistaken) ?

If my understanding of the OEM license still holds, you cannot transfer it from one machine to another like what you want to do. In fact, the OEM key is very likely not working for any new machine unless they come from the same vendor.

Otherwise, just do what others have suggested:

1. use unetbootin to create a bootable USB of Dban
2. boot using that USB then wipe the HDD(for rounds that you feel comfortable)
3. use the freely downloadable Windows 7 trial image(again you need to make this into USB bootable) and install it
4. sell the laptop

 

i buy sager laptops and for the most part you can buy them without the o/s.
i however bought my sager with windows 7 home premium. i was however surprised to find out that i did not recieve a windows 7 retail disc but something that said 'recovery dvd-rom for windows 7 home premium' so now i am a bit wary if i can use this in a new laptop i will be buying to replace this one.
i did backup the activation key using abr and i am indeed getting another sager.
but i guess it is best to ask my reseller first.