I'm planning to sell a few of my external hard drives, but I want to make sure all the data is completely wiped and unrecoverable. I've heard some concerns about tools like DBAN and the Windows 'clean all' command not being completely reliable for wiping drives. If I use VeraCrypt on a drive that's already full, can I encrypt it and format it to ensure that all the files are gone for good? What are my best options for secure wiping?
3 Answers
Instead of those methods, you might want to try Eraser. It's user-friendly and lets you set it to do several passes with random data, which helps to ensure the data is really gone. It's efficient and doesn’t demand too much processing power.
If the data you had was really sensitive, multiple overwrites could be the way to go, especially with older hard drives. Older tech might not overwrite data cleanly, leaving data lingering in hidden sectors. Newer drives are better, but if you're encrypting first, make sure to get everything wiped before you sell.
If you're worried about recovery, a single overwrite is usually sufficient for casual data deletion. But if it’s sensitive information, consider doing multiple overwrites to be extra safe. As for VeraCrypt, you can definitely encrypt the drive first, but keep in mind it’s best to wipe the data before selling it. Just remember that thorough overwriting helps discourage any potential data recovery attempts.
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