Disk Wipe Bootable USB Tools: 9 Best to Use in 2023
A lot of computer users will know that when you delete a file, it isn’t actually completely gone from the system and can often be recovered with a simple piece of data recovery software. This fact is especially important if you are giving away or selling an old computer system / hard drive, or just letting someone borrow an external hard drive or even USB stick because the other user could easily recover data you thought was gone, posing a major security risk.
Even a format and reinstall of the operating system in that situation still doesn’t mean all the old data is completely safe from being recovered by others. The same thing applies to external storage media like USB sticks or memory cards, and these are perhaps more important as they are far more likely to change hands than internal devices.
What you can do is make sure that before a hard drive, SSD or USB stick goes to somebody else, temporarily or permanently, any data that you don’t ever want to be read by others or recovered from these devices gets wiped clean and cannot be retrieved. One way is to wipe the free space on the drive meaning only those files currently visible can be viewed. Another way is to completely wipe the drive or partition clean so no data at all is left on it and nothing at all can be recovered. Here’s a selection of tools that can perform this task and wipe a hard drive clean making it more secure before it leaves your possession.
The Aomei partition software is a popular tool that helps users erase a disk completely. The software offers four wiping methods, allowing users more control over the process. The first step is to download and install the application. Then right-click on the hard drive you want to delete and choose “Wipe Hard Drive.” Choose your preferred wiping method and click “OK.” This action will return you to the main interface, where you’ll then choose Apply > Proceed.
Different wiping protocols apply to a hard disk drive (HDD) and a solid-state drive (SSD). Using the same erasing method for both drivers can either shorten the life span or damage its performance. To combat this, the Aomei partitioner provides a “Wipe Hard Drive” for an HDD device and a “Secure Erase SSD” for an SSD device. Furthermore, the app makes it easy for users to customize their experience, like resizing the partition and creating quick partition recovery.
Download AOMEI Partition Assistant
2. Darik’s Boot And Nuke (DBAN)
DBAN is a very well known and respected data wiping tool that runs from a bootable disc and is great for when you want to sanitize more than a single drive or system drive because it can automatically erase all found partitions. Burn the ISO to CD or create a bootable USB stick and boot to DBAN. Press Enter at the prompt to be taken to interactive mode where you choose your settings. If you type autonuke at the prompt, IT WILL ERASE ALL DRIVES WITHOUT CONFIRMATION, so is something you should be very careful with.
In interactive mode you can change the PRNG (Pseudo Random Number Generator) type, the number of rounds to perform each method and the type of wiping method used. There are 6 to choose from ranging from a basic zero fill, to the default 3 pass DOD Short, DOD standard (7 pass), RCMP (8 pass), Gutmann (35 pass) and the recommended PRNG random data fill which the number of passes is determined by the rounds set. DBAN is a powerful tool but could also be dangerous in inexperienced hands, use with care.
Download Darik’s Boot And Nuke
3. HDShredder
The free version of HDShredder is quite limited in functions compared to the paid versions, but can still perform a 1 pass erase on whole hard drives (not partitions). It doesn’t make clear though whether it is a 0 fill or random fill type of method used in the single pass so maybe is not the software to choose if the drive is going to somebody you don’t know.
The good news is the program comes in a portable Windows executable, an IMG floppy image and also an ISO CD/USB image all included in the zip file so you have multiple ways to get the erasing done. A hex viewer is available to inspect the drive for data and multiple drives can be selected at once using the MultiShred tick box. The Windows program works on XP and above.
4. Parted Magic Eraser
Parted Magic with GParted is one of the best Linux bootable CD environments around today for partitioning and erasing hard drives and is also recommended by companies like Corsair for erasing SSD’s. Simply download the Parted Magic ISO and write it to CD or USB and boot from it. These days the Disk Eraser icon is on the desktop, but if yours isn’t it’s found in the Start menu -> System Tools.
In the main window will be options to zero the MBR, drive or partition using different methods, and for multi pass options there’s the NWipe tool which is actually a fork from and very similar to Darik’s wiping tool in DBAN. The Internal Secure Erase method is the most important because it issues the ATA erase command found in the firmware of nearly all drives since 2001. This is more secure than overwriting with 0’s, 1’s or random data using 3rd party tools and is the recommended way to wipe a hard drive or SSD if your drive supports it. Parted Magic is also found on the Hiren’s Boot CD repair disc.
5. CMRR HDDErase
HDDErase was developed by The Center for Magnetic Recording Research (CMRR) and originally sponsored by the National Security Agency. This tool works exclusively by issuing the ATA Secure Erase Command which is a preferred method for SSD’s and HDD’s made since 2001 (bigger than 15GB), and is DOS based meaning it needs to be run from a floppy, CD or bootable USB stick. The ISO can be burned straight out and includes the HDDErase executable or you can manually copy the file to your own DOS distro.
Boot the disc and at the prompt type hdderase, this will start the process and all you need to do is select your drive and follow the prompts to secure erase it. If your drive supports it there may also be an option to perform an Enhanced Secure Erase which will write set patterns instead of zero’s to the drive. Because the erase is performed within the drive itself, this method is considered more secure and thorough than overwriting with a 3rd party utility. HDDErase is also present on the Ultimate Boot CD and Hiren’s Boot CD repair discs.
Download HDDErase
6. Roadkil’s Disk Wipe
I always use this tool because it’s simple and written in Java so can be used on my personal Mac as well as the Windows workstation at office.
softpedia.com/get/Security/Secure-cleaning/Shred.shtml
An interesting tool but pointless for what we are trying to do here because it can’t wipe a hard drive, only files or free space.
Note that some of the above tools will NOT securely wipe a harddrive. They will wipe a harddrive – which means a casual user wont be able to recover files. However, writing Random Data is not enough to stop determined hackers. Even multiple passes of writing Random Data is not enough to stop determined hackers with the right tools.
Read this old paper (it’s well written and a really good read), and you will get an idea of some of the issues:
* “Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic and Solid-State Memory” by Peter Gutmann of the University of Auckland, New Zealand, The Sixth USENIX Security Symposium, July 22–25, 1996, San Jose, California, USA, usenix.org/publications/library/proceedings/sec96/full_papers/gutmann/
We link to the update of the article you mention on page 2 in which Mr. Gutmann says a few scrubs with random data is the best you can do and the types of drives he was talking about in the original article don’t exist anymore. He also says the chances of being able to recover any meaningful data from a modern hard drive is close to zero. While it’s not an absolute zero chance, it’s low enough for the vast majority of users.
Um…in the 4th program “4. CMRR HDDErase” all 4 files in the zip file are password protected.
Any reason for this, is that normal, it it safe to use AND what’s the password please?
Also, can this article be updated please, it’s been 3+ years and I’d like to know if all this info is still accurate or not.
Thanks!
The unpack password is on the download page. We have to password protect files that produce false positives with online scanners like Virus Total. If we don’t do that our download server quickly gets marked as a malicious source.
That does not make sense. If the ZIP file is clean and does NOT contains items that infected with viruses or malware, then your web site / server should never be flagged as a malicious source.
If the ZIP file triggers a couple of false positives, then I doubt your web site / server would be flagged as a malicious source
I don’t think you quite understand. If you have an executable with false positives and Zip it, the archive contains a file with false positives. AV scanners open archives and will easily pick that up. The only way to help stop a scanner detecting a file with false positives is to Zip and password protect it.
It only takes a small number of files/archives with false positives for a server to get flagged as malicious. When we password Zipped any of our files with false positives, our server went from malicious to clean within days. We let some files with FP’s through and it got flagged again.
Almost any smaller server could get flagged as malicious even if all the detections are false positives. AV scanners don’t differentiate between false and real positives, to them, ALL positives are real.
Check using Sandboxie and regexport and check malicious keys
The doesn’t make any difference, it’s whether a file gets marked as malicious by an online antivirus engine like VT, not whether it actually is malicious.
I have personally used the freespace wiping feature from a number of tools, such as CCleaner, BCWipe, DBAN etc. BCWipe stands out with their management of reserved space feature for the free space wiping. The tool allows you to lock freespace after wiping once, so you don’t need to wipe free space every now and then. This feature in BCWipe is particularly handy while wiping free space on SSD drives – less wear. The feature is smart enough to release the locked space when needed, so the drive does not run into low disk space. BCWipe is also very user friendly with a simple GUI, so quite easy to use.
hey can u suggest me any data wiping tool more efficient than DBAN.???
Why are you suggesting DBAN is not efficient? They all wipe the drive so will do a similar job.
Anyway, that’s why we give you eight choices, if one isn’t to your liking there are others to choose from.
I tried DBAN on a UEFI enabled disks. It does not seem to work.
DBAN works on UEFI systems, it depends on what you mean by doesn’t work. Doesn’t boot, refuses to wipe, fails while wiping???
Yes I also try many time same issue as like KHAIRIL ANWAR JUSOH.
BCWipe and BCWipe Total WipeOut. First is for selective wiping and the later is for whole disk wiping. They have been in business since 1995 and the tool is used by Department of defence and Airforce.
I used Darik’s Boot And Nuke (DBAN) from a bootable USB drive.
After creating the bootable USB drive, I hit F2 and changed the boot sequence of my laptop to pick USB first. Once booted from USB drive, I used the autonuke option. Two and a half hours later, the Hard drive has been wiped clean. I repeated the DBAN autonuke a second time just for good measure.
I used Hiten Boot Disk to see if any files could be recovered from hard drive and there’s nothing there! Success! Thanks
This really helped me get around a pesky FBI investigation
Thanks for your article but I need additional help please. I have a Dell Latitude E5530 and I want to prevent deleted files from being recovered. I want to keep existing files. What is the best software for that purpose please? Thanks.
Arthur
CCleaner has this feature
rofl, be sure to trust with the data so important and dangerous that you want to wipe with a 7pass and zeroing with the corporation that had a malware attack that infected over 2.3 million users who downloaded or updated their CCleaner app between August and September
I have used Unistal’s data wipe software which wipes the data from the hard drive so that it can never be recovered from any software.
Thanks for the useful information Raymond And HAL9000.
Thanks a lot Ray!!!
nice post..
Today I read your column and it’s really very nice in order for us users to protect our privacy.
Nice post Mr. Ray. Thank you very much and more power in this blog.
very very very nice
thanks a lot Mr. Raymond
Only this week i discovered your blog, and i do enjoy reading it. I’m surfing through every page, from your first page.
thanks for the post…really very useful….
saw the thing in action…..