Free alternative to Killdisk?

slipd · 17 Feb 2012 at 18:15

Hi guys,

We used to have Killdisk at work which we used for flattening drives with sensitive info on before they were reused/sold etc.

I've just had a look on the Killdisk site and I don't really want to splash out on a bit of software that will literally only be used twice - I want to flatten 2 drives before eBaying them off. Are there any free alternatives out there that are similar in function to Killdisk? I know KD do a free DOS version but I want something a bit more thorough for complete piece of mind

Sin_Chase · 17 Feb 2012 at 18:22

Googled "opensouce secure erase" and this among others popped:

http://eraser.heidi.ie/

maj · 17 Feb 2012 at 18:48

Grimley · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:14

Either of those is good, though the last time I used eraser (on 64bit W7) it would crash on my system.

pepp77 · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:15

CCleaner has a built in disk eraser.

Beans on toast Dave · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:15

parted magic

that worked for me when acronis messed up the erase
very impressed

dekez · 17 Feb 2012 at 19:18

maj said:
DBan

pepp77 said:
CCleaner has a built in disk eraser.

I've used both of these and both seem to do a good job (ie take bloody ages), although never actually tried to recover the data afterwards so they could do sod all for all I know!

CCleaner is a lot simpler to use for windows based stuff, DBan better for stuff that doesn't have an OS as it's a bootable disk.

bledd · 17 Feb 2012 at 23:49

Dban is what you want. Burn iso to disc and boot from it. Takes a while, but it should do.

slipd · 17 Feb 2012 at 23:53

bledd. said:
Dban is what you want. Burn iso to disc and boot from it. Takes a while, but it should do.

The first drive is under way now

Thanks guys!