Worst Case Scenario PC Guide

So shit happens, we can all agree on that, but what do you do if that worst case scenario happens?

Lets say you have something on your PC you need to get rid of before the men in black come to take it from you. First off you need to get DBAN aka Darik's Boot and Nuke, this is a powerful piece of software that incorporates military grade wipe methods for you to use. Just follow this guide I provide about DBAN and you'll be good.

Steps:

Go tohttp://www.dban.org/and download DBAN.

Next you're going to want a USB or a disk to burn the ISO onto, personally I recommend a disk because its easy to break afterwards, but so is throwing a USB in the woods c;.

One you've done that go ahead and boot into DBAN from BIOS, and you should be greeted with a screen like this:



Now what you're gonna wanna do is press enter to start DBAN in interactive mode.

Next you should see a screen like this :




Select the disk you want to wipe, then you're going to press "M" to chose the wipe method, I'll explain each one now:

Quick Erase : This method should be used for when you are re-allocating a device internally within your company or just wish to wipe the device before reinstalling an OS. It will only complete one round using the Write Zero sanitation method and therefore has a low security rating. Use this is you are going to re-use the device yourself.

RCMP TSSIT OPS-II :This is the advised sanitation method that has been certified by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police department as a secure method of wiping data from a device, although their new standard for wiping data is to use the CSECmethod even though most wiping tools still use the older (and still adept) OPS-II method. The TSSIT stands for theTechnical Security Standard for Information Technology. This method is very effective at wiping all traces from a driverenderingrecovery impossible using either a software or hardware recovery process. It uses 8 passes in total, with the first 7 passes writing different characters (0 on first pass, 1 on 2nd pass, 0 on third pass, 1 on 4th pass etc) and then on the 8th pass will write a random character and verify the write.

DOD Short :This uses the same method as theDoD 5220.22-M standard method below, but instead of the full 7 passes it will instead use 3 passes consisting on pass 1,2 & 7 of the standardDoD 5220.22-M sanitation method. Pass 1 write 0, Pass 2 write 1, Pass 3 Write random character and verify the write.

DoD 5220.22-M :As stated above this is the standard method approved by the DoD (US Department ofDefense) and uses the full 7 passes, with the final one being a verification of the write as well as writing arandom character.

Gutman :This method used to be the go-to method for the most paranoid of people and was originally created for older drives encoded usingMFM/RLL and was designed to flip the bits on the drives, using 35 passes in total. Newer drives are encoded differently meaning that this method is no longer necessary and considered pointless to some. The author of this method, Peter Gutman, has previously stated that for most modern drives, a few passes using random data is the best you can do.

Once you've chosen your wipe method, press F10 to start the wipe. Then just wait to be done, and you're good. I'll add more to this guide shortly, but as always if you have any questions leave them below, and ill do my best to answer them.

Sources:http://www.techfleece.com/2013/08/22/how-to-securely-wipe-your-hard-drive-using-dban/ (Used this to best explain the wipe methods)

Warning do not attempt to use Darik's tool if you have Solid State Drive (SSD).
It will slow it down and in the worst scenario it wont function.

In case if you have SSD, and data needs to be wiped, what to do?

11-11-2015, 02:30 PM

Gnar Wrote: Warning do not attempt to use Darik's tool if you have Solid State Drive (SSD).
It will slow it down and in the worst scenario it wont function.

Correct, I forgot to tell you what to do if you have an SSD.

Download Parted Magic, you can use ATA Secure Erase which will purge all the data from the SSD.

Will be the data recoverable?

12-11-2015, 05:38 PM

bxhdwh Wrote: Will be the data recoverable?

No, not likely.

Let`s try, thank you.

I think I have a better idea.

Take out the HDD
Take a hammer
Destroy the fuck out of the platters.
Collect the destroyed platters.
Go find some random guys bin.
Deposit destroyed platters.

13-11-2015, 08:14 AM

NSA Wrote: I think I have a better idea.

Take out the HDD
Take a hammer
Destroy the fuck out of the platters.
Collect the destroyed platters.
Go find some random guys bin.
Deposit destroyed platters.

Well that depends what you have on that drive haha.

13-11-2015, 04:47 PM

Aimi Wrote:

13-11-2015, 08:14 AM

NSA Wrote: I think I have a better idea.

Take out the HDD
Take a hammer
Destroy the fuck out of the platters.
Collect the destroyed platters.
Go find some random guys bin.
Deposit destroyed platters.

Well that depends what you have on that drive haha.

If you need to use my method. You should probably already be in prison.