I want to introduce a software, KillDisk. I used it to wipe out or erase an HDD. I have an HDD with a Smart Warning.
Western Digital WD Caviar Green.
- WD20EARS, 2.0TB SATA/64MB Cache.
- Product of Thailand
- Date: 19, Jul 2010
It is about 14 years old. It’s still working, but the SMART information has a warning. I am not comfortable storing data on my PC or whatever devices.
So, I removed it. Before sending it to the recycle depot, I should wipe it out.
Formatting is not good enough. It is only a rewrite of the FAT table. The data on it can be restored or recovered.
Now, it is time for KillDisk.
I installed KillDisk on the PC, and mounted the HDD on it.
There are three disks on this PC. The middle one is the 2TB WD HDD.
- Selected the whole disk.
- Erase Disk.
- I chose “One Pass Zero”. There are other choices, with higher security standards. I am using the Free version with a limit function.
- Confirmed and run.
It took about 7 hours to complete.
Done.
The whole disk was erased.
The Free version of KillDisk is good for the Home user. You may have one or two disks that need to secure and clean the data. So it is one of the best choices.
