Boot to wipe HD

[bluedoor3]

How does one go about on boot up, usng a USB stick it will wipe the HD clean so a new install of any OS can happen ?

Currently this particular pc has Mint, previous owner was dumping the box, but gave it away, has no p/w etc.

I am aware of software out there that can be downloaded, so many to choose but what one safely works ?

Have tried " Active @ Killdisk from a list of "reccmended HD wipes", but it seems to have frozen when formating a USB stick. 45 minutes and it did nothing during the first stage of formating usb stick.( 4.5 Gig )

Prefer USB stick method, set to boot from usb in bios etc can do.
Thanks

[MintBean]

You don't need to. Just boot from the Mint installation media and install with the 'use whole disc' option.

[bluedoor3]

OK, so it will wipe all previous info etc from previous owner ?
I was thinking,( after reading) that without a complete wipe, previous stuff just get put away in HD somewhere.

[Mark Phelps]

The term "wipe" refers to a process in which ones, and zeroes, or BOTH, are written to the drive to overwrite stuff that was previously there. It is this process that then prevents previous files, folders, and data from being retrieved using forensic software (regardless of the silliness you see on TV and in the movies!)

But formatting or reformatting does NONE of this; instead, it simply blanks tables that exist on the drive, effective leaving the data still there.

Any half-decent "file recovery" app can then find and retrieve that data.

That data does not get "put away" anywhere on the drive; instead, it is left in place.

[Mute Ant]

A Live Session Mint has several ways to wipe a hard drive. You don't need anything extra. You do need to be sure you are writing to the correct drive. Here /dev/sdX is just a dummy drive to discourage thoughtless cut-and-paste from wiping something important.

Point-and-Click: The Disks accessory will format a whole drive 'Empty' and 'Fill with Zeroes'.

Console: sudo dd bs=4M status=progress if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX ### Write zero bytes to the whole drive, with a progress report.
I get 5GB/minute write speed with this command.

Console: If it's SSD you should use the ATA Secure Erase command. SSD have a sneaky short-cut to 'forget' data without actually writing anything new...
sudo hdparm --security-set-pass PWD /dev/sdX ### Set an ATA password to lock the drive.
sudo hdparm --security-erase PWD /dev/sdX ### Wipe the drive and the password.

[wheatpenny]

There is a Terminal command that blanks the hard drive in a couple of seconds.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=8 && sync

But user with extreme caution. There is no conformation (like "are you sure?). Just run the command and a couple seconds later you have a blank HD.

[kukamuumuka]

There is a Terminal command that blanks the hard drive in a couple of seconds.

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=1M count=8 && sync

But user with extreme caution. There is no conformation (like "are you sure?). Just run the command and a couple seconds later you have a blank HD.

Quite small hard drive if it takes only few seconds.

[wheatpenny]

It's a 1 TB hard drive.

[Flemur]

There is a Terminal command that blanks the hard drive in a couple of seconds.
...
It's a 1 TB hard drive.

That write speed of 500,000,000,000 byes/second sounds pretty cool - where can I get one of those?

[wheatpenny]

It might be so quick because I'm a real hard drive space miser, and I usually have only 100 GB or less on the drive (most of my stuff is on flash drives). But I have used that command several times and it has never taken more than a couple seconds.

[kukamuumuka]

It might be so quick because I'm a real hard drive space miser, and I usually have only 100 GB or less on the drive (most of my stuff is on flash drives). But I have used that command several times and it has never taken more than a couple seconds.

If it takes only for few seconds, it does not wipe all data. Only partition table is written ... I think.

(bs=1M count=8) = 8MB

[wheatpenny]

That's probably what it does then. when I run the command and then reboot i get an error message that says "Operating System not found". and when I reinstall Windows it shows as "unallocated space" for the entire drive.

[Flemur]

OK, so it will wipe all previous info etc from previous owner ?
I was thinking,( after reading) that without a complete wipe, previous stuff just get put away in HD somewhere.

After partition formatting (in the install), the old data might still technically be there, but you'll never see it unless you go out you way find it with disk-recovery software. Just like when you delete a file in normal use, it's technically still there but you can't see it without a hassle.

[kukamuumuka]

That's probably what it does then. when I run the command and then reboot i get an error message that says "Operating System not found". and when I reinstall Windows it shows as "unallocated space" for the entire drive.

Correct. Actually first 512 bytes (bs=512 count=1) is enough for that.