Summary: 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.
Related:
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Secure Delete: what is it, and do I need it? Secure Delete is a way to make sure that when you delete a file it cannot be recovered. Understanding Secure Delete is important to protect sensitive data properly.
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I deleted a file by mistake - can I get it back? It is sometimes possible to recover an file deleted by accident. Stop using the disk, check your recycle bin, and perhaps pull out an undelete utility.
Article C3585 - December 6, 2008
Hi Leo, that was a good article about computer theft and how hackers can get about everything personal from a stolen computer hard drive. I was wondering if online banking files can be accessed too or if not, why not?
Thanks a bunch, Rick.
10-Dec-2008
Another fine article, Leo.
Back in May I donated my old circa 1997 Gateway 2000 266 mHz PII w/256 MB of SDRAM and a massive 8 GB hard drive running Win 98SE (flawlessly, I might add) to our local Goodwill charity. I included all the manuals and all the OEM (and subsequent) software on CD (back in 1997, Gateway actually included a very nice book, holding all the OEM software CDs!), all the cabling, and the 19" monitor.
I used Sammi Torvaldsen/Heidi Computers free "Eraser" software (which incorporates the erasing methodology used in DBAN as well as several others) to totally wipe everything on the drive before donating it.
I urge folks to consider donating solid, functional (if older) computing hardware to charities such as Goodwill. You get a small tax write-off and the charity gets to resell the system to someone who can put it to use!
Posted by: WordsMytrh at December 9, 2008 9:46 PMI would like to delete the files on my laptop and give it to a friend, but I want to keep Windows XP loaded. Will DBAN do this for me?
Thanks don
16-Dec-2008
I WANT TO CLEAN EVERYTHING OFF MY HARD DRIVE & REINSTALL MY ORIGINAL PROGRAMS. I WONDER HOW TO DO THIS. IS THIS PROGRAM GOOD FOR THAT?
THANKS,
JO
- 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
16-Dec-2008
I used a DBAN cd to delete data from an old laptop, but I did not realize I had my external backup hard drive attached to it. Could the dban process have started with the external hard drive attached? The external hard drive is now not being recognised when connected to another computer. Also I cannot reboot the old laptop I was trying to DBAN, I am wondering what occured?
Posted by: Mohit Kashyap at January 6, 2009 8:27 AMWill it be possible to retrieve the data off my external hard drive?
Leo,
Afer I use the "DBAN" and erase everything off of my HD, how do I go about reformatting it and then reinstalling windows or Linux or whatever? I'm not the smartest kid on the block, but I would like to try and do it with one of my old computers, just so that I'll know that I can do it, if I ever have to. Thank you
09-Sep-2009
Posted by: Kenny at September 8, 2009 11:01 AM
Hi Leo - thanks for all your advice, help and hints.
I have a computer running Windows XP. I want to delete everything and then re-install Windows. I am told I need to access BIOS to do this. What is BIOS please and how do I re-install XP?
Thanks a lot.
Posted by: MARIAN COOPER at September 8, 2009 7:32 PMMarian
I recently used DBAN on a computer I was disposing of and found it very effective. It's difficult to overstate it's effectiveness, since it can completely and utterly obliterate everything.
But it would also be worth emphasizing that it will if required obliterate only one disk, if you have more than one, or one partition if a disk is partitioned.
Posted by: James at September 11, 2009 4:22 AMok i had an issue with DBAN you see im useing linux and im giveing my laptop to my bro and he wants xp so i used DBAN and linux still comes up know what im doing wrong here? It seems like it doesnt delete it please help.
13-Sep-2009
Posted by: Jess at September 12, 2009 3:55 PM
I have a 2 year old Dell Laptop (Vista) that I am going to give to a friend. The hard drive has a PC Restore partition which can be used to restore the computer to the factory delivered state. Can I use DBAN to only nuke the main hard drive partition and leave the PC Restore partition alone?
Posted by: Ed at September 20, 2009 9:05 AM