Securely Erase Hybrid Drives using BitRaser Drive Eraser

BitRaser^® Knowledge Base

How to Wipe Hybrid Drives?

Oct 06, 2021

This KB shares simple steps to wipe Hybrid Drives using ‘BitRaser Drive Eraser’. IT asset managers in an organization can use this DIY tool to erase hybrid drives on their company premises. The method illustrated in this KB helps you to permanently sanitize the hybrid drive beyond any scope of recovery and adhere to global regulatory norms and ensure compliance.

Hybrid drives are a combination of mechanical hard drives and solid-state drives. They offer the best of both drives, with lower cost and higher storage space. They are bigger and costlier than an HDD but offer faster performance than any mechanical drive. They are also referred to as SSHDs—Solid State Hybrid Drives. Hybrid drives automatically caches data in the flash SSD storage to offer faster speed for most used files in a system. Hybrid drives appear as a single drive in the operating system without the need to manually allocate storage to a mechanical drive or SSD. The firmware of the drive ensures the transfer of files to either of the drive for faster and improved performance.

Steps to Wipe SSHDs (Hybrid Drives) using BitRaser Drive Eraser

Please follow these steps to start wiping one or multiple hybrid drives within 15 minutes.

Requirements:

USB flash drive: 2 GB or higher capacity to create bootable wiping media
Internet: Wi-Fi or Ethernet
Desktop or laptop: to connect the hybrid drive for wiping

You can watch this video to get visual instructions for the steps described below that are applicable for wiping any kind of drives mechanical, SSD, or hybrid drive.

Stage 1: Download BitRaser Drive Eraser ISO from Cloud Console [Duration: 5 minutes]

Sign in to your BitRaser cloud account with the credentials emailed to you post-purchase.
From the dropdown menu, click the 'Download BitRaser Drive ISO' link.

Stage 2: Prepare Bootable USB Media to Erase Hybrid Drive [Duration: 5 minutes]

Perform this step to burn BitRaser ISO on the USB drive in order to create a bootable USB wiping media. You can boot directly to the BitRaser software after the system restart without the need to install the software on your device. Follow the below-mentioned steps to create the bootable USB:

Go to https://rufus.ie – an open–source software that allows the creation of bootable USB media in a few simple steps.

First, Download the Rufus application.
Now, Install the ‘Rufus’ tool and connect the USB flash drive to the host machine.
Launch ‘Rufus’ and follow the simple instructions according to the images shown below.

Click on the ‘START’ button and then click ‘YES’ to begin the process of writing the ISO image on USB.

Note:

In case you have a Mac system, you will need to download the 'balenaEtcher' utility to prepare the bootable USB. You can download the utility by clicking on the link - https://www.balena.io/etcher/

Next, follow the steps in the below KB to create BitRaser bootable USB on Mac:

https://www.bitraser.com/deployment/how-to-wipe-mac.php

Stage 3: Start Wiping the SSHD Using Bootable Media [Duration: 5 minutes]

Connect the bootable USB drive to your PC
Next, plug the Hybrid Drive (or Ensure that it is connected) that needs to be wiped into the PC
Power ‘ON’ the system. Press the relevant Function keys to enter the QuickBoot menu

Boot menu

Now Select the bootable USB and press Enter.

The computer will boot, and the 'BitRaser' Menu will appear.

Press Enter to start the 'BitRaser Drive Eraser' software.

BitRaser’s Home screen will appear after initialization, listing all the drives connected to the host machine. The interface will display the number of licenses left as '0'.

Note: In some cases, a single SSHD may be displayed as two separate drives.

Click the 'Settings' icon in the top menu.

You can now connect the host machine to the internet and acquire your licenses with your BitRaser Cloud log in credentials as follows:

Click on the ‘Network’ Tab available on the right side of the interface of the ‘Settings’ menu
To connect with Ethernet follow the steps as outlined below

Select the Ethernet radio button on the ‘Network’ Tab.
Choose Automatic (DHCP) in Configuration. All other fields will be auto-populated.
Click Connect.
Your host machine is now connected to the internet.

To connect with Wi-Fi follow the steps as outlined below:

Select the Wireless radio button.
Click on the SSID Name drop-down menu and select your wireless network as displayed
Enter your wireless network password & click connect.
Your host machine is now connected to the internet.

9. Now click the BitRaser Server tab on the left side of the Network tab

10. Enter bitrasercloud.com in the Host URL section, and enter your login username & password in the User Name and Password section. Click Connect.

The software will automatically acquire licenses from your BitRaser cloud account. You would be able to see the License Left count in the bottom right corner.

11. Now, Select the drive(s) you want to erase.

12. ‘NIST Purge’ is selected as the default ‘Erasure’ method along with other methods available in the drop-down menu. ‘NIST Purge’ allows the secure erasure of SSHDs within a few seconds and is recommended for faster wiping.

13. Once you press the Erase button, a confirmation pop box will appear seeking your permission to start the erasure process.

The software will now start wiping your hybrid drive displaying the progress of erasure.

Once the SSHD is completely wiped, BitRaser software generates tamper-proof erasure reports & certificates and uploads them automatically to the BitRaser Cloud account. We hope this article helped you in wiping your Hybrid Drive (SSHD).