I've been looking into data wiping tools for hard drives and came across DBAN, which I thought was excellent. However, I read some comments suggesting it might not work well with modern SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) drives. Are there other methods I can use to ensure that files are permanently deleted from my HDDs?
3 Answers
Both DBAN and ShredOS can work on SMR drives, but you might be in for a long wait since SMR drives aren't exactly known for their speedy write operations. These days, ShredOS is generally a better choice because it's actively maintained.
Are you planning to sell or dispose of the SMR drive? ShredOS should do the trick. Alternatively, booting from a Linux live USB and using the 'shred' command is another solid option. Just a heads-up though: DBAN is pretty old (from 2015), so it might not even work properly with newer SMR drive controllers.
If you really want to make sure no one can recover your data, consider going for physical destruction. Hitting the drive with a hammer or using a power drill guarantees that the data is permanently gone. Just make sure to only do that if you're ready to throw it away for good!
I’m in the process of selling, and I’ve used ShredOS on both internal and external drives. It does its job, but it’s pretty slow, and I'm concerned about whether all files will be wiped for good.