DBAN disk wiping

[DIYspanner]

Has anyone used the latest version (2.2.8) with success ?


Tried it over the weekend and it failed with errors on a 160GB IDE drive. Thinking there were poor sectors, I ran HDD Regenerator on the drive which identified thousand of sectors errors.


Thinking DBAN 2.2.8 may be buggy, I tried an old copy of DBAN (1.0.7) on drive and it wiped the disk successfully which then accepted a clean install of Win XP.

 

[kbdiy]

Ok so just for my own edification, why would you not just reformat the drive as part of the XP install, rather than using this software? Not challenging what you have done, just trying to get a better understanding.

 

[DIYspanner]

I occasionally buy 2nd hand HDDs from ebay and even though sellers claim to have wiped them clean, I also wipe them for my own peace of mind.


Indeed, if its just me doing an install on one of my existing HDDs, I merely Quick Format.

 

[kbdiy]

Thanks - just wondered if I was missing something but that makes sense now.

 

[DIYspanner]

My apologies, I forgot to mention that DBAN is also handy for wiping a HDD if you have the likes of Linux partitions and want to remove them since Microsoft OS don't support Linux (as far as I'm aware).


Sadly for DBAN 1.0.7, it doesn't support the wiping of SATA HDDs but then you can use KillDisk 9.0 which does.

 

[CylonRaider]

http://gparted.org/livecd.php

 

[Monkeh]

So a program told you the drive was massively faulty and you just pressed ahead anyway?

My apologies, I forgot to mention that DBAN is also handy for wiping a HDD if you have the likes of Linux partitions and want to remove them since Microsoft OS don't support Linux (as far as I'm aware).

You don't need to use DBAN to wipe it. The Windows installer will do this quite fine by itself.

 

[DIYspanner]

To be clear, I wipe any HDD I buy 2nd hand.

I'd decided to use the latest version of DBAN and when I started the wiping process, all seemed well. As it takes about 7 hours for DBAN to wipe a 160GB HDD, I left it to it. When I went back to the PC, DBAN had completed but with errors, hence my thinking faulty sectors.

Then using HDD Regenerator, lots and lots of sectors were being regenerated.

I called it a day but then decided to try my old DBAN 1.0.7 which performed a satisfactory wipe of the HDD.



By the way, correct me if I'm wrong, a Windows installation only removes the file allocation tables when formatting so any data recorded on a HDD is still there until overwritten?

Windows installs can't remove Linux partition as far as I'm aware!

 

[CylonRaider]

Windows installs can't remove Linux partition as far as I'm aware!

It can.

Windows can't access a linux partition but it can still see it and remove it !!

 

[DIYspanner]

Most obliged CylonRaider.


I noted your link to gparted above but the website makes no mention of DBAN or KillDisk that I could see. Is there a disk wiping program in gparted ?

 

[Monkeh]

Windows installs can't remove Linux partition as far as I'm aware!

Of course it can, the partition table doesn't magically become gibberish. If I can read and write them by hand, Windows can sure as hell do it.

You're correct in that it doesn't actually remove data, but that's irrelevant as the OS and filesystem don't care what data may have been there before.

 

[DIYspanner]

You're correct in that it doesn't actually remove data, but that's irrelevant as the OS and filesystem don't care what data may have been there before.

I just like the idea of a clean and empty HDD when buying 2nd hand.


I once bought x2 new Hitachi HDDs and the controller cards died on both of them rendering them useless. With those, I took the lids of and smashed the glass disks to bits to clean them.

 

[Monkeh]

If you buy new ones you get a warranty.

 

[DIYspanner]

If you buy new ones you get a warranty.

Sadly, not five years after purchase.

 

[empip]

Gosh, how did you smash the glass disks ? Did you bin the shards of glass ?