How To Wipe Your HDD (December 30, 2006)
I had the job to erase the HDDs of our oldest computer (100Mhz with Win 95). Since a villain could hypothetically get the data even if you do a format C: I searched the web for help. Eventually I came across dban which is just what I was looking for:
- small: dban fits on one floppy
- free: it’s open source!
- sophisticated wiping mechanisms
How to create a dban boot floppy on linux
- Download dban, pick the
*.exefile - Unzip the downloaded file:
unzip dban-1.0.7_i386.exe - Get a floppy, optionally format it and put dban on it:
mount /dev/fd0 && dd if=dban-1.0.7_i386.ima of=/dev/fd0 bs=1024 && umount /dev/fd0 - Done
Now put the floppy in the target pc and boot it up. Make sure (via your BIOS) that a floppy has the highest boot priority. You should be welcomed by a screen with a warning, saying dban is dangerous, ‘cause it will wipe all your data. That’s just what I’m looking for - thanks!