Storage Solutions Secure erasing External HDD

DarkAngel

DarkAngel

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I am planning to sell my older WD Passport. I wanna make sure that the drive is securely the data before selling just for Peace of Mind. Just wanna make sure that the Data is not recoverable using the freeware s/w out there.

So which settings in eraser to use for erasing data and free space in the drive. Does just overwriting data once or twice deem it unrecoverable ?

Please let me know of a good, less time consuming method to render the data irrecoverable using freewares and most commonly found recovery tools.... TIA :)
 
If you have HD Tune installed in your PC, it has an option to erase data through zero fill or Gutmann method. Alternatively, you can download Eraser from here Eraser and use it.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

P.S: Use DBAN with caution. It deletes data from ANY hard disk it detects on the computer.
 
logistopath said:
If you have HD Tune installed in your PC, it has an option to erase data through zero fill or Gutmann method. Alternatively, you can download Eraser from here Eraser and use it.

--- Updated Post - Automerged ---

P.S: Use DBAN with caution. It deletes data from ANY hard disk it detects on the computer.
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Which Gutmann method? The light 10 pass or 35 pass one? Also can anyone let me know the approx time duration to secure erase a 320GB portable HDD? Does using these reduce HDD life :ashamed:
 
^^ You can choose between 1 pass and 35 pass. :P I'm not sure about the effect on HDD life, but if you are gonna use it just this once, I believe it should make not much of a difference.
 
logistopath said:
^^ You can choose between 1 pass and 35 pass. :P I'm not sure about the effect on HDD life, but if you are gonna use it just this once, I believe it should make not much of a difference.
Click to expand...
Have been doing some googling and many people reckon even 1 or two passes would suffice and the 10/35 passes are very time consuming. Eraser doesnt have a option to choose no. of passes :(

So i guess i will use the US DoD method (3 passes)

Also i want to know whether we can zero fill a primary drive? (I wanna zero fill my laptop HDD.)
 
Yes, for erasing HDD, I second the suggestion for HD Tune.

Regarding zero fill, you can try few good utilitie like Kill Disk. What it does is, it places a zero into every single part of the hard drives memory space thus making all files completely erased and unrecoverable.
 
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