HDD and SSD - How to Safely Wipe Your Hard Drive

Whether selling your PC or recycling an old laptop, the last thing you want is for a stranger to gain access to any personal data these might contain. For this reason, we strongly advise thoroughly wiping all data from hard drives you plan on getting rid of. Below, we'll walk you through how to do this safely and efficiently.

When getting rid of any device that stored personal information at one point in time, you should wipe its hard drive to protect yourself. In the worst case, criminals might use unwiped hard drives to engage in identity theft causing financial and other kinds of damage.

The same applies for businesses, arguably to an even greater extent, since the hard drives on organizational computers might contain customer data, internal (privileged) information, or even trade secrets. Whatever the case, none of this data should ever fall into the hands of a third party. Data theft is not only dangerous for customers, it can also result in a loss of reputation or image.

Deleting Isn't Enough

Deleting files and then emptying your Recycle Bin is, unfortunately, not enough. This is because plenty of data remains on your hard drive even after you've deleted it and what's worse, can be restored with a minimum amount of effort. Even formatting your hard drive isn't the be-all-end-all many consider it to be. The silver lining is that if you accidentally deleted any files, thanks to the widespread availability of specialized recovery software, you can likely retrieve the data.

To make sure that your data can't be recovered when getting rid of a PC or laptop, you'll need to expend a bit more effort when deleting files. Below, we'll introduce you to a variety of methods for accomplishing this.

Before actually wiping your hard drive, it's important to determine whether it's an HDD or an SSD. These two types of hard drive read and write data by varying means, and as such, must be wiped differently.

For that reason, selecting the right approach to wiping a hard drive depends on what kind of drive it is. In the next section, we'll show you how to safely and thoroughly wipe both HDDs and SSDs/SSHDs.

So long as you have the proper software (most of the time freeware), wiping data from an HDD is fairly straightforward. In this guide, we used CCleaner and DBAN, two free solutions.

With CCleaner, a freeware solution, wiping a hard drive is fairly easy.

1. After activating "Secure Deletion", go to Tools > Drive Wiper to wipe your hard drive.

2. Next, choose the hard drive that should be wiped, select "Very Complex Overwrite" in the second drop-down menu, and click on "Wipe".

3. Your hard drive will be completely wiped.

DBAN, short for "Darik's Boot and Nuke", is, like CCleaner, also free to download. Unlike CCleaner though, DBAN is an ISO file, meaning that you'll need to execute the program via bootable CD or USB drive when starting your PC.

Simply set the desired parameters and wait for DBAN to finish wiping your hard drive.

Completely wiping an SSD or SSHD is somewhat more complicated than an HDD since data is deposited in different blocks of flash storage according to "Wear Levelling". This means that multiple overwriting passes on the hard drive won't necessarily catch all of the files you've stored on the device. With that said, there are some ways to completely wipe SSDs and SSHDs.

Modern hard drives can be wiped by executing the ATA command "Enhanced Security Erase". The German Federal Office for Information Security recommends the following:

"Utilize the tools provided by the hardware's developer for wiping a hard drive, including any defective storage areas. This is particularly recommended for SSDs or SSHDs."

This should be done in tandem with the classic approach to wiping a hard drive (overwriting data). Developers often provide special firmware capable of performing this with their SSDs, including:

• Corsair: Corsair SSD Toolbox
• Crucial: Crucial Storage Executive
• Intel: Intel Memory and Storage Tool
• OCZ: SSD Utility
• Samsung: Samsung Magician
• SanDisk: Sandisk SSD Dashboard
• Transcend: SSD Scope
• Western Digital: Western Digital Dashboard

Should no firmware or developer tools be available for your SSD or SSHD, you can use Parted Magic. Even though it was developed for Linux, the tool works on other operating systems (even apart from Windows) but must be executed via a USB stick. As such, it operates similarly to DBAN. The program is open source but costs $11.

Like DBAN, Parted Magic also starts when you boot up your PC or laptop, so long as you've loaded it onto a bootable USB stick or CD.

When the software opens, select "Disk Eraser" and choose "Internal Secure Erase". After that, identify the SSD you want to wipe and lean back. Within a short period of time, your SSD should be completely wiped.

Should deleting files via software be too much of a hassle, or if you simply want to ensure that your data will never be recoverable, you can physically destroy the hard drive in question. Doing this properly entails four steps:

1. 1.
   Turn your computer or laptop off. Disconnect the power cable (or charging cable and battery, if on a laptop), and remove the hard drive.
2. 2.
   Unscrew and open the hard drive.
3. 3.
   Remove the magnetic writing and reading head(s).
4. 4.
   The round disc contains your data and as such, must be destroyed. Exactly how you go about doing this is up to you, however, it's a good idea to wear safety gloves and goggles so that no jagged shards cause any injuries.

Emptying your Recycle Bin or formatting your hard drive aren't foolproof methods to make files and data permanently irretrievable. The good news is that with just a bit more effort and special software (most of which are free), you can safely, quickly, and properly wipe nearly any hard drive. Should digitally wiping your hard drive not be enough, there's always the option to make it physically unusable.