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11 Posts
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12449
March 28th, 2017 11:00
How do I wipe the hard drive, and why is it so difficult?
This is for the purpose of returning a laptop.
When I reset Windows 10, it says deleting my files will just make it "harder" for people to access them.
I understand the files may still be accessible using data recovery software. I'm guessing the reason for this has something to do with the reset process leaving the binary data of the hard drive state mostly intact while only deleting the pointers to that data. If that's the case, shouldn't there be an easy way to just wipe over everything and reset it to zero?
I've looked into DBAN. I don't understand what this means, but I hear DBAN works with an earlier version of the hardware BIOS and what I have is UEFI which DBAN doesn't work with.
Also, DBAN nukes some things it shouldn't, like the operating system itself, so that needs to be backed up. Shouldn't there be a way to wipe only the data that has resulted from someone actually using the computer?
Saltgrass
3 Apprentice
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4.3K Posts
1
March 28th, 2017 11:00
It is hard because every bit has to be overwritten, maybe more than once. It takes a very long time for Diskpart to do a "clean all" command because of the size of today's drives.
A reset may reformat a drive but it is not workable for most users to be forced to wait hours for their systems to become available.
I just did a reset and it gave me the message about not removing all personal files, so if the system is being sold, to run a second reset...
Philip_Yip
9 Legend
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16.1K Posts
1
March 28th, 2017 15:00
Darik's Boot and Nuke is pretty old now and probably won't run well on modern hardware (fail to boot on a system with UEFI and SecureBoot Enabled) and doesn't work on new storage devices such as a SSD or SSHD.
I wrote a guide which explains what DBAN and Diskpart Clean All does and why they don't work so well on SSDs. Magic Parted should be used instead for these drive types. See here for details:
http://dellwindowsreinstallationguide.com/cleaning-up-a-drive-format-vs-secure-wipe-ssd-and-hdd/
TharosTheDragon
11 Posts
0
March 28th, 2017 15:00
I didn't get any message like that when I did the reset, though.