DBAN
From The Black OP Security Wiki
DBAN doesn't delete bad sectors, nor HPA (Host Protected Area) nor the DCO (Device Configuration Overlay) so your paranoid talk ends here. Use the ATA Secure Erase feature included in all Hard Drives instead as described in http://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase
I'll put it in the main page since is important to all paranoid users since they are being given bad information which could compromise their privacy. Basically information can be hidden in those sectors/hidden partitions and this program DOESN'T DELETE IT (See their faq) So the only way to get ride of all crap is using the ATA Secure Erase, which is not a program but a HARD DISK FEATURE and takes considerably less time (300gb form 133hours DBAN to 88 minutes of this) Since you're talking about absolute paranoia making people use DBAN is just incorrect and you're just confusing them giving them bad information. So what's the point of this wiki? Delete this page about this program and write one about the other one. By the way to completely destroy a HD: ATA SE first, then Dban and then physically destroy the SURFACE (100%) of the platters from both sides and then cut it to pieces, hammer it, use a potent magnet on it for at least a week and then and get ride of it with nobody knowing it into different containers different days. 100% data destruction assured.
DONT READ THE REST ----->
Main Page >> DBAN
Drive wipes: DBAN (almost all computers)
DBAN is a free and open source drive wiping program. It is used to fully erase all information off a hard drive. Deleting files on a hard drive only reallocates the space, it does not technically remove the files. Even when a hard drive is formatted it is still vulnerable to forensic analysis. Using a program like DBAN is a safe way to wipe the entire contents of a hard drive between projects, or even randomly every few months to provide a fresh start. It is also good to use in emergency situations that are not time sensitive (An expected visit versus a knock on the door). For secure removal of single files, Heidi eraser is suggested. DBAN is for entire hard drives. DBAN also will work on most USB sticks.
You need to boot DBAN, so you are going to need to burn it to a CD or put it on a USB stick or floppy after downloading it.
FAQ
Q. So this will destroy my hard drive right?
A. No, your hard drive will still work after you do this, but you will need to reinstall and operating system and everything that was on your hard drive is going to be gone forever. So back up things you want to keep and make sure you have an OS CD around somewhere.
Quick Notes
1. Keep in mind that using DBAN will fully erase the contents of your drive in such a way that it will be virtually impossible to restore. With that in mind, the first step to running DBAN is creating a DBAN boot media. To do this, you will need to download either a DBAN .exe or a DBAN .iso . Both can be found at sourceforge.
2. If you plan on saving DBAN to a CD or a DVD, download the .iso, if you plan on saving DBAN to a floppy or USB, download the .exe file. Mac-How
3. If you downloaded the .iso file, insert a blank CD or DVD into your burner, and write the ISO to the media. This can be accomplished with a variety of programs, ISOrecorder being one free program for windows XP.
4. If you downloaded the .exe file, insert a floppy disk or a USB thumb drive and run the .exe program. Simply follow the instructions to create the boot disk or drive.
5. You now have DBAN on a boot media. To run DBAN, boot from the media that it is installed on (for example, if you made a CD version of DBAN, insert the CD, restart your computer and set the CD drive to be the first boot media in BIOS, and then restart again)
6. If you use Mac - you can use secure erase mac tool
Steps
1. After booting into DBAN, you are presented with a screen like the one below. If you want to have DBAN autonuke your hard drives, simply type in autonuke and hit enter.
2. If you would like to define the settings yourself, or only target specific hard drives, simply hit the enter key and allow it to load.
3. The manual screen of DBAN allows you to select which drives you would like to wipe. There are also a variety of key commands displayed at the bottom.
4. Hit the P key on your keyboard to select the pseudo-random number generator you would like to use. The two options you have are Mersenne Twister and ISAAC. I have heard some criticism of the Mersenne Twister algorithm, and many prefer to use ISAAC. I still prefer to use Mersenne Twister as it has a higher proven period than ISAAC. It should be noted however that ISAAC makes it more difficult to recover the initial PRNG state by cryptanalysis of the stream.
5. Go back to the main screen and press the M key. Now you are able to select the wipe algorithm you want to use. I suggest you just go with 8 passes of random data. Many forensic scientists say that a single wipe is adequate, but I still prefer to use 8 as some forensic scientists say data can be recovered after multiple passes. Even after a single pass it will be difficult for the adversary to recover data though.
Quick Erase simply blanks your drives with 0's, and as I said before may be adequate for unrecoverable data destruction. I would avoid it though.
RCMP is the algorithm used by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police to do data wipes.
Both the DoD algorithms are used by the Department of Defense to do data wipes, the shorter version being used for less classified data.
The Gutmann wipe is an extremely long process that wipes your drive over 30 times. It will take over a day to finish. You do *not* need to do this wipe unless you have a very old hard drive (pre-2000). Essentially any hard drive made after 2000 is going to have such a dense platter that such a wipe is not necessary and will only waste time. On a modern computer, 8 passes of random data will be just as adequate. Peter Gutmann, the person who made the Gutmann Wipe algorithm, has said this himself.
PRNG stream fills the drive with the data from the PRNG. It doesn't use any special patterns. This is what you should likely use.
6. Go back to the main screen and press the R key. Here you get to select a number of rounds. A pass is how many times your hard drive is gone over by a certain algorithm (for example, DoD short has three passes). Rounds are the number of times that the wipe process is repeated (so DoD short with two rounds has 6 passes). If you selected PRNG you will want to do 8 rounds. The other algorithms are likely fine at 1 round. Quick erase is always a single round.
7. After you have all of your settings selected, go back to the main screen and press F10. Note that near instantly upon pressing F10 you are not going to be able to be able to stop data destruction, so make sure you really want to destroy the data on all the devices you have selected.
