Erasing software and procedure?

[scs1980]

First time on the forum so I would like to say hello.
I have acquired a few hard drives from a friend of mine and I intend to bin all the small stuff and keep all the larger drives with the intension's to clear them with some erasing software, Eraser or dban keep coming up in my search, then check there health with some software that I will look into over the next few days, any info? I have bought a usb to sata/ide cable but I am now wondering whether this is actually possible to do it this way because a friend of mine says you have to run the erases software via floppy/disc drive???? Is it possible to use this usb cable, chose drive then run software? I have never done anything like this so any info will be a big help. thanks

 

[bledd]

Four options (there are many, but I'll present you with four)

1. Use DBAN this is a boot cd, so you burn it to a cd, then boot from that (pc un-usable whilst it's doing this) takes a few hours for each drive.

2. Use CCleaner's 'Drive Wiper' on each drive, you can do this from within Windows.

3. Just quick format them in Windows, this is what I'd do unless you're giving them out to other people and worried they may try to recover the data.

4. Hammer a nail through the drive

Welcome to the forums

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DBAN should work over USB, never tried, CCleaner 100% will work.