How to Wipe Your Hard Drive Clean

Whether you’re trying to destroy or erase data from your hard drives when the FBI knocks on your door, or just want to securely, and permanently do emergency data destruction to protect yourself from identity theft, before you sell or recycle your computer, there’s an easy solution.

The free open-source boot disk utility, called Darik’s Boot and Nuke (DBAN), automatically and completely deletes the content of every hard disk it can find on, or connected to, your computer when you run it.

The bootable DBAN can run from CDs, DVDs, thumb drives, and floppy disks.

The process is easy:

How to automatically wipe all hard drives

WARNING: THIS WILL PERMANENTLY ERASE ALL DATA ON ALL HARD DRIVE HOOKED TO THE PC!!!

1. Boot from the DBAN floppy or CD image.
2. Enter ‘autonuke’ at the boot prompt.

Darik’s Boot and Nuke website is here.

Click here to download the exe to write the image to a floppy disk.

Click here if you don’t have a floppy disk, and would like to create a DBAN CD image instead.

Keep the disk in a safe place. If it falls into the wrong hands your system could be toast, or just a big toaster.