Hi All,
We need to cleanly wipe some of our company HDDs to insure nothing can be recovered.
Is this best done with the reinitialize disk surface?
If so what are the best configuration options to run to insure there is no chance of data recovery?
Thanks in advance for the help.
Secure Wiping of HDD
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hdsentinel
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Re: Secure Wiping of HDD
Yes, I can confirm that Disk menu -> Surface test -> Reinitialize Disk Surface is the best possible function to perform a complete, secure wipe, to delete all information and prevent data recovery.
This destroys not only all user-related files, but also all information related to possible file systems: NTFS/FAT metadata, possible RAID metadata, recovery partition(s), partition(s) created under non-Windows systems (Linux/MAC), unpartitioned area and so.
The Reinitialize Disk Surface function (as all other tests under the Disk menu -> Surface test) can be used on both hard disks, SSDs, hybrid drives, pendrives, memory cards, etc. (generally all kind of storage).
The Reinitialize Disk Surface function performs multiple overwrite passes with special patterns, then clears all sectors with zeroes and then reads back all sectors both to verify if they can be read - and confirm that they are really empty.
Generally the default settings is secure: before the zero-fill and the mentioned verification, it performs 3 overwrite passes by alternating the mentioned initialization pattern and its inverse. If you prefer, you can adjust this count: select Disk menu -> Surface test and the disk drive plus the test type.
Before starting the test, select Configuration tab and there you can adjust this "Surface reinitalization level" option.
Alternatively you can enable the "Repeat test" option to perform the whole procedure two or more times.
More information: https://www.hdsentinel.com/help/en/61_surfacetest.html
This destroys not only all user-related files, but also all information related to possible file systems: NTFS/FAT metadata, possible RAID metadata, recovery partition(s), partition(s) created under non-Windows systems (Linux/MAC), unpartitioned area and so.
The Reinitialize Disk Surface function (as all other tests under the Disk menu -> Surface test) can be used on both hard disks, SSDs, hybrid drives, pendrives, memory cards, etc. (generally all kind of storage).
The Reinitialize Disk Surface function performs multiple overwrite passes with special patterns, then clears all sectors with zeroes and then reads back all sectors both to verify if they can be read - and confirm that they are really empty.
Generally the default settings is secure: before the zero-fill and the mentioned verification, it performs 3 overwrite passes by alternating the mentioned initialization pattern and its inverse. If you prefer, you can adjust this count: select Disk menu -> Surface test and the disk drive plus the test type.
Before starting the test, select Configuration tab and there you can adjust this "Surface reinitalization level" option.
Alternatively you can enable the "Repeat test" option to perform the whole procedure two or more times.
More information: https://www.hdsentinel.com/help/en/61_surfacetest.html