Dban vs oem software

AlecEiffel

Hi all.

I am going to do a one pass overwrite of an old hdd before I reuse it. I am thinking of using dban single pass of zeroes but I see western digital also have erasing software. Will each be equally good? The western digital software seems to run from the hdd so how does it do that if it's erasing it? (Dban runs from a disk).

Tvm.

System

Will each be equally good

It all depends on your level of paranoia.

TBH for re-use I just delete the partition, vreate a new one and quick format the new partition.


Reality. Nobody gives a $£$ about the data on your disk unless they know that there is something really worth employing good forensic techniques to extract it.

esuhl

I can't see why it would be necessary to use DBAN (etc.) to blank the drive if you're going to be re-using it.

Either do a full format or install CCleaner in the new OS and use the "wipe free space" option if you think it's necessary.

Big_Graeme

bsod wrote: »

just format it, full format if you're worried about what was on it before being recoverable, quick format if not.

Hogwash, complete hogwash.

AlecEiffel

Thanks all. I'm wanting to do a simple wipe as I just wanted to clear off all the old stuff fairly securely (finance stuff, job apps etc) and I may be using it as a portable drive (just in case it went walkabout at some point) or maybe tinker about installing Linux etc, therefore taking it to absolutely nothing seemed preferable. Dban seemed quicker than ccleaning the free space especially when wipe mft is checked.

patman99

As you are reusing it yourself, a simple format will suffice.

If you were selling/passing-on the HDD, then running DBAN to wipe it beyond recovery would be the obvious choice.

I had a paniced phonecall from a friend who had got as far as formatting and partitioning a spare HDD before he realised thet it was the drive he had archived some very important stuff on. Luckily, I managed to retrieve almost everything from it using Easus Recovery Wizard Pro.

I have never managed to recover info from a HDD that has been DBANed yet.