How to Wipe a Hard Drive?

This KB provides step-wise instructions for "how to wipe a hard drive" using BitRaser Drive Eraser software. The purpose of this KB is to help you wipe the hard drive easily such that the data residing on it; is permanently erased forever with no scope for recovery using any tool, technique, or lab procedure. The method helps you sanitize the hard drive in line with data privacy & protection laws, thereby guaranteeing regulatory compliance for your organization. For individuals it helps maintain their privacy.

Types of Hard Drives You Can Wipe

Using the method, you can wipe or erase—

• SATA hard drives, solid-state drive (SSD), internally or externally attached to a desktop, laptop, workstation machine, etc.
• PATA hard drives: Hard disk drives with Parallel AT Attachment (PATA) interface
• USB drives: all hard drives with a Universal Serial Bus (USB)
• Hard drives using IDE, Fibre Channel, or FireWire interfaces
• Non-volatile storage media using NVM Express or NVMe

Steps to Wipe a Hard Drive Using BitRaser Drive Eraser:

BitRaser Drive Eraser can begin erasing or wiping a hard drive within 15 minutes ^* . Please follow the below instructions to wipe a hard disk drive or solid-state drive. Check detailed instructions in the BitRaser Drive Eraser deployment guide

Note: ^* The total wiping duration can differ based on the hard drive type, storage capacity, and erasure standard chosen. A 250 GB SSD can be wiped within 2-3 minutes using 'secure erasure' method. A 500 GB HDD would take about an hour to wipe using 'single pass' erasure method

Requirements :

• A Blank USB flash drive: 2 GB or higher capacity to create a bootable wiping media
• Internet: Wi-Fi or Ethernet
• Desktop or laptop: to connect in order to wipe the hard drive

You may like to watch this video for quick understanding and then follow the steps.

Stage 1: Download BitRaser Drive Eraser ISO file [Duration: 5 minutes]

Download BitRaser software ISO file from BitRaser cloud account, as follows:

1. Log in to your BitRaser cloud account using credentials sent to you on email.
2. Click the 'Download BitRaser Drive ISO' link in the dropdown menu.

Stage 2: Create BitRaser bootable USB [Duration: 5 minutes]

In this stage, you will create a bootable USB by burning the BitRaser Drive Eraser ISO image on an empty USB flash drive. Using the bootable media, you will be able to wipe the hard drives including OS without installing BitRaser. Please follow these steps to create the bootable media:

1. Visit https://rufus.ie  to download Rufus – an open-source application used for creating bootable USB flash drives.
2. Install Rufus on the system and then plug a USB drive into the system.
3. Launch Rufus and follow the instructions as per the below image.

4. Click 'START' to begin the bootable media creation process.

5. Click 'YES' on the pop-up message box to proceed further.

Stage 3: Start wiping the hard drive [Duration: 5 minutes]

After creating the bootable media, follow these steps to start wiping the hard drives:

1. Plug the bootable media into the machine (laptop or desktop PC).
2. Now, plug the hard drives you need to wipe into the PC or laptop
3. Power ON the system and press the Function keys to enter the Boot menu



4. Select USB Device (i.e., bootable USB) and press Enter. The computer will boot, and 'BitRaser' Menu will appear.



5. Press Enter to initialize 'BitRaser Drive Eraser' software.
   • The software Home screen will appear, listing all the drives.
6. Select the hard drive(s) you need to erase. Also, select the Erasure Method (wiping algorithm) from the dropdown menu. Click the 'Settings' icon in the top menu.



7. Next, refer to the BitRaser deployment guide and follow the instructions from STEP 5 and onwards in STAGE 3.

After wiping the hard drives, BitRaser Drive Eraser software will generate digitally signed erasure reports & certificate that are uploaded automatically to your BitRaser Cloud account.

Hope this article helped you.