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How to completely erase HDD Linux

New Post has been published on https://www.sudouser.org/2017/06/16/how-to-completely-erase-hdd-linux/

How to completely erase HDD Linux

Hard disk drive contains everything from photographs to our credit card bills. One must erase the data completely before selling it to anyone otherwise one can recover the data from our hard drive and use it against us. Simply deleting the OS files won’t remove all the data from hard disk and only way that we have is to overwrite every block of it with zeros or with some random number.

How to completely erase HDD Linux

How to use DBAN (Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN)) to completely erase HDD

Download DBAN from http://www.dban.org/download

Burn .iso file to CD or USB

Boot server from DBAN CD or USB

Press “enter” to boot DBAN in interactive mode

5. Select the disk to wipe using the space bar

6. Press M until the PRNG stream method is selected and press space

7. Press R, 8 and <Enter> to select 8 rounds. <Enter> to get to previous screen

8. Press F10 to start

9. Ensure the disk is wiped without errors

10. Repeat steps 5-10 for any additional disk in the server.

11. Remove the CD or USB

We might need to wait for 40 min to few hours

Use shred command to completely erase HDD

Shred deletes files by overwriting it to hide its contentCommand:

Command:

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo shred -n 5 -vzu /dev/sda

Command  Output:

Where, -n, –iterations=N Overwrite N times instead of the default (25)

-u, –remove truncate and remove file after overwriting

-v, –verbose show progress

-z, –zeroadd a final overwrite with zeros to hide shredding and a final overwrite with zeros to hide shredding

Use dd command to completely erase HDD

Command :

ubuntu@ubuntu:~$ sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda

This will write /dev/sda with ascii code 0x00

Command Output:-

Where,

if is, Read from file

of is, Write to file

By performing above step you can erase your hard drive completely.