Secure Erase My Hard Drive?

[gecko]

I am looking for a small program to write, say, zeroes over my entire
hard drive so as to render it unrestorable before I release it. I
know I could smash it or melt it, but I want to give it to someone to
use in their machine.

I have looked at a few program demos offered through Google, but they
all require purchase before they will do anything. Their demos merely
show that they can do it.

Is there a freeware or shareware version of 'secure erase' or 'write
zeroes' program available?

Thanks

-GECKO

 

[John McGaw]

I am looking for a small program to write, say, zeroes over my entire
hard drive so as to render it unrestorable before I release it. I
know I could smash it or melt it, but I want to give it to someone to
use in their machine.

I have looked at a few program demos offered through Google, but they
all require purchase before they will do anything. Their demos merely
show that they can do it.

Is there a freeware or shareware version of 'secure erase' or 'write
zeroes' program available?

Thanks

-GECKO

Simple, free, and very effective:

http://www.dban.org/

 

[Sjouke Burry]

I am looking for a small program to write, say, zeroes over my entire
hard drive so as to render it unrestorable before I release it. I
know I could smash it or melt it, but I want to give it to someone to
use in their machine.

I have looked at a few program demos offered through Google, but they
all require purchase before they will do anything. Their demos merely
show that they can do it.

Is there a freeware or shareware version of 'secure erase' or 'write
zeroes' program available?

Thanks

-GECKO

why write zero's? Just take any innocent file of a few MB,
rename it a, and execute a batch file containing

copy /b a+a+a+a+a+a+a+a+a+a b
copy /b b+b+b+b+b+b+b+b+b+b c
copy /b c+c+c+c+c+c+c+c+c+c d
copy /b d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d e
copy /b e+e+e+e+e+e+e+e+e+e f

that will be 100.000 times the first file a.

That will fill up the disk, and overwrite any private
data.

 

[Paul]

I am looking for a small program to write, say, zeroes over my entire
hard drive so as to render it unrestorable before I release it. I
know I could smash it or melt it, but I want to give it to someone to
use in their machine.

I have looked at a few program demos offered through Google, but they
all require purchase before they will do anything. Their demos merely
show that they can do it.

Is there a freeware or shareware version of 'secure erase' or 'write
zeroes' program available?

Thanks

-GECKO

There is a way, apparently, to set a secure erase bit in the
ATA interface. Thus, the drive itself has an internal command
for erasure. The command can even be "posted", meaning each time
the drive is powered up, it works on the task, and won't stop until
the entire disk is covered. It doesn't respond to user input
until the command is completed. Then it becomes ready for
usage as a normal disk again.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=129

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

Paul

 

[gecko]

why write zero's? Just take any innocent file of a few MB,
rename it a, and execute a batch file containing

copy /b a+a+a+a+a+a+a+a+a+a b
copy /b b+b+b+b+b+b+b+b+b+b c
copy /b c+c+c+c+c+c+c+c+c+c d
copy /b d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d+d e
copy /b e+e+e+e+e+e+e+e+e+e f

that will be 100.000 times the first file a.

That will fill up the disk, and overwrite any private
data.

Sounds like a good idea to me. Unless someone cautions me, I am going
to try it.
Thanks
-GECKO