Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.
When you are about to dispose of a computer or hard disk it's critical that you erase your data. DBAN does it, simply and securely.
I get questions surrounding data recovery fairly often. People are often concerned that files they've deleted might be recoverable after the fact, and it's good and security conscious of them to be concerned.
At the other end of the spectrum are people who give no thought at all to the potential recoverability of their data, and discard old computers and hard drives without giving it a second thought. We often hear about people who've picked up an old computer at a recycler or yard sale, only to find that the hard disk is full of the previous owner's sensitive data.
Identity theft often follows.
DBAN, short for Darik's Boot And Nuke, is a free utility dedicated to doing one thing, and one thing well...
Erasing hard drives.
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You boot from it, and you nuke the hard drive. It's that simple, and it's very, very effective.
DBAN is available as either an ISO file you can burn to create a bootable CD, or as an installer that will allow you to create a bootable floppy or USB stick.
Once you boot DBAN, there are several options which, for most practical purposes you can safely ignore. Press F10 and it will detect and erase everything on every hard disk on the machine.
Let me say that again, this time quoting the site:
| DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect. |
Once you run DBAN on a machine, whatever was on the hard disk is gone. Forever.
Which is exactly what you want when you're about to dispose of a machine or hard disk.
DBAN does have advanced options for overwriting data multiple times, using different algorithms to even more securely erase your data, but for common usage the defaults are plenty.
DBAN: Boot and Nuke your data.
I recommend it.
Article C3585 - December 6, 2008
Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he
was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed.
After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a place for answers
to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.
"DBAN only erases data. The normal sequence for reformatting and reinstalling is:
- Back up your data using a good backup program
- erase the hard drive. Technically this is optional, but DBAN is perfect for it
- reformat the hard drive. Also technically optional, and typically part of the next step
- boot from a Windows Installation CD and install Windows
- update Windows.
- install all your applications
- restore any data from your backup that you need"
Are you saying here that if you have the Windows Installation CD there is no need to erase anything using DBAN or anything else, and that using the Installation disk will do the job itself before installing the installation files?
29-Jul-2010
Posted by: Gwyn at July 27, 2010 4:21 PM
I tried to use DBAN on my laptop that is having problems after downloading an update from the Windows site. I boot from the disc and told it to "autonuke." DBAN started but soon after said "PCI(sysfs)" and didn't do anything after that. How do I get it to complete the erasing process? What could be the reason for this fail? Thanks!
Posted by: ninja at October 3, 2010 8:48 PMInteresting regarding DBAN.
Posted by: dave at October 19, 2010 9:52 AMKILL DISK is another free utility to completely wipe-ouy the Hard Drive before disposal.
Why throw away if the hard Drive is usable.
Re-Use for Back-ups as Internal or External source.
@ninja You will probably have to get into your BIOS and disable any card reader port to an external drive that is enabled by default, it usually hangs on something like that.
Posted by: Maarten at October 19, 2010 2:29 PMJust wanted to thank you for your very informative and useful website and newsletter
Posted by: louise mercier at January 29, 2012 6:40 PM