Questions tagged [secure-erase]

Secure erase is the practice of erasing content in such a way that it cannot be (easily) restored.

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SSD drive erase with 7 pas DoD 5220.22-M

On conventional hard disks, I was using DOD Short /3 pass and DOD 5220 7 pass. This method can be used on SSD and NVMe drives as well? I mean it will not affect the disk performance? Or there is ...
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Hard Disk Identification of SATA Hard Disk (generic), SSD

I need to secure erase the following drive types: SSD Disk >>> hdparm <<< If there is a better tool /approach, please let me know. Hard Disk >>> shred /scrub /nwipe Is it ...
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Secure Erase NVMe Drive with nvme cli //CMD_SEQ_ERROR:

Trying to Secure Erase NVM drive but failed with CMD_SEQ_ERROR: Below is a summary of what/how I am doing to perform the Secure Erase.
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Cannot Delete My Folder

I can't delete a folder that is taking over 9GB. It's a timeshift backup folder but I can't delete it. Which commands should I use for it? I tried sudo rm -rf /timeshift to delete it but it did not ...
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is there is an easy method do a basic scrub of my harddrive partions now that i have ubuntu running on my old laptop?

i did a 'new install' of ubuntu on an old windows laptop. I probably will sell/donate this machine and want to 'rewrite' all the free disk space because i think when ubuntu created new 'partion tables?...
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wipe usb drive - read only error

I have an usb drive of 8gb and I tried to wipe it in all the way dd mkusb mkfs gparted utility disk windows diskpart mac utility disk diskutil erase anytime i get "read only permission denied&...
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swap- do I need to delete it on ssd [duplicate]

Respected admin, I am a proud linux user since last 5 years. My notebook configuration is core i5 with 12gb ddr3,120 gb ssd, 640gb hdd. Now when I have shifted on ssd I simply made default install of ...
Pruthviraj Ambekar-Deshmukh's user avatar
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How to securely erase a partition of a SSD

I know there are ways to securely erase a whole SSD with Ubuntu tools, but my usecase is to just erase a partition of the SSD, since I want to sell my old notebook and need to make sure that the ...
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Fastest and effective way to make data unrecoverable on a 1TB external USB drive [duplicate]

I have a 1TB USB external drive that I need to return for warranty and need a fast way to hide my data in case anyone tried to recover data from it! I know about dd, shred etc... but I'm afraid (I'm ...
Frank's user avatar
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Can HDPARM Secure Erase only one partition?

My question is not about how to erase an SSD with HDPARM. I have already done that but I am not sure if the process was completely successful (due to my own fault). When performing the enhanced secure ...
Folt's user avatar
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Installing and using dcfldd on 20.04.4 LTS [duplicate]

I was unable to install dcfldd onto my live-ubuntu-usb which I want to do in order to wipe my HD that I am planning to sell. I tried both with simple sudo apt install dcfldd As well as by trying to ...
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How to add "Safe Remove" option to context menu with srm? Ubuntu 20.04

I want to secure delete files from context menu, same as like here for Linux Mint KDE 18.4 but with Ubuntu 20.04 and nautilus.
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Why is there an option to overwrite free space twice nautilus

What is the benefit of overwriting free space more than once? If you install the plugin that adds this option there are options like: overwrite free space -> overwrite once, overwrite 2 times (save ...
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how to securely erase disk I am currently on?

I am going to sell my notebook and want to erase my 256GB SDD before so that data cannot be restored under any circumstances. Using tools like shred and dd I can do that with certain partitions which ...
CD86's user avatar
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How to delete recoverable files?

I see a lot of posts about how to recover deleted files. But I'm asking about how to make sure that deleted files are un-recoverable. On an HDD and/or SSD. Sometimes we end up doing a delete instead ...
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Securely erase the drive with DBAN using USB to boot

I am selling my laptop and I want to make sure to erase all the data. I am on ubuntu 18.04 in Dell. I have tried to use DBAN with a USB boot. I am using rufus to create my boot, but when I run rufus ...
Farah Mind's user avatar
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Uninstall ubuntu issue

I have been trying to remove ubuntu. But I can't. I installed Ubuntu on hdd(drive) and has windows in c. I tried to delete the ubuntu volume using disk management on windows but the delete volume ...
Bright Burn's user avatar
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How to erase free space on a hard drive quickly and easily?

I want to sell my ubuntu laptop which I use mostly for surfing the web. I want to make it difficult to recover all the data which I deleted from the laptop. I heard that we can do this by overwriting ...
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how to fill an SD card with zeros? [duplicate]

I probably have a corrupted SD card. And I'd like to fill it with zeros, 100%. So what commands should I type, assuming the device is /dev/sdc?
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Does disks tool erase .shred files?

Does disks tool erase .shred files?
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How to securely wipe my SSD before reinstalling an encrypted Ubuntu? [duplicate]

I think I didn't encrypt my drive when I installed Ubuntu and I would like to use the opportunity to change that when I install Ubuntu 20.04. I'd like to make sure that all data is permanently wiped ...
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How to delete a file from an external disk without moving the file from the external disk to the local disk?

As you know there are multiple ways of recovering the files even after it was deleted. I have a USB 8GB pen, it contains many files, one of them I would like to delete it. if I clicked on move to the ...
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Disks utility erase failed - potential hard drive damage

I bought a new Dell precision 3530 with Ubuntu and a 1TB secondary hard drive. The secondary hard drive volume was not recognized so as a first step, I tried to format it by selected the erase data ...
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How to write zeros in one pass to free space on FAT32 drive? [duplicate]

Most people will think either using dd or sfill to usually wipe free space with zeros... however, the limit with FAT32 drives are that the largest file size can only be 4 GB. How can I create ...
Andrew Larson's user avatar
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Shrink tool vs SHIFT+Del on SSD

Since we all know the general rule about random writing on SSD disks, I was wondering if shred command makes any sense on Ubuntu running on an SSD disk. If shred reports fake result that it has ...
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hdparm secure-erase error: "ERASE_PREPARE: Invalid argument"

(Although I'm playing with fire, please pitch advice to a Noob... Thanks) Now then, Trying a low level format of a 2TB damaged HDD so that it can use SMART to self mark bad sectors/blocks. ...
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3 answers
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Securely erase encrypted HDD?

I have an old computer running Lubuntu, and I want to give it away. Before that, I want to make sure none of my data can be recovered from the hard drive. I tried doing this using shred and dd from ...
Kinami's user avatar
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Safely remove contents from .Private folder : Ubuntu 16.04

I have a problem with my growing .Private folder. I want to keep the encryption going but want to remove the stale copies of the files under .Private folder in my home directory. 1) Is it possible to ...
Pavithra Shenoy's user avatar
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1 answer
931 views

What is the accelerate method of free space wiping with random fill?

I am currently using sfill to wipe free space in my root partition ( /dev/sdaX). Its default setting is a 38 pass sudo sfill -v directory/mountpoint but its taking hours to complete this step. I then ...
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Wiping free disk space by deleting large amount of files regularly?

I was looking for a better way to securely clean free space in my ubuntu system. I found this link and there are some valuable advices to wipe free disk space. I have tried bleachbit method with free ...
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secure erase with hdparm - can still see file content

I downloaded latest stable Ubuntu (ubuntu-16.04.3-desktop-amd64.iso image that I double checked for authenticity) and used it to boot my new Win10 system which I wanted to wipe. I followed the ...
Justin's user avatar
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6 votes
5 answers
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How to know the progress of sfill free space wiping process?

I want to wipe free space in my ubuntu partition and after a search found this sfill software which I installed using sudo apt install secure-delete Then I have used this command to wipe free ...
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Which partitions and in what order should I shred

I am selling my old laptop and I do not want my data to be recoverable with recovery tools. I found this post How to wipe a hard disk completely so that no data recovery tools can retrieve anything? ...
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ubuntu install to erase harddrive

I bought used Asus Eee 1101HAB on Ebay running Windows XP and want to erase everything from the previous owner and run Ubuntu. Can i install Ubuntu in a way that will erase or wipe the hard drive in ...
scott's user avatar
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secure-delete, "Warning: Couldn't find a free filename for X"

I want to use secure-delete to securely delete folders/files and I did the following test: mkdir foldertest echo "something" > foldertest/filetest.txt srm -rv foldertest/ here the results: Using ...
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How to completely delete a file, so that data recovery softwares can't recover it? [duplicate]

Deleted files can be recovered using recovery programs, is there any way to completely remove the files?
Md Tahsin Rahman's user avatar
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1 answer
910 views

Sfill caused a disk max capacity error to show [closed]

The ooooooo.ooo created by sfill is now larger than my root directory. Can i let it run or do i need to cancel it and make a larger root partition?
Joeybreh's user avatar
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1 answer
1k views

What is the difference between the -f and -l options of secure-delete srm?

Regarding the secure-delete command in Linux, what is the difference between srm -f, srm -l and srm -fl ? Which is fastest? Which is most secure?
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Overwriting the whole disk with zeroes (bad sectors)

I found bad sectors on my usb external drive and so I want to perform a full wipe overwriting the disk with zeroes. I found this command: sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sd<disk-letter> bs=8M ...
Generoso's user avatar
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How can I shred all disks but /dev/sda and log the output to a file?

I'm trying to make one command that will take all drives that are not sda and run shred on them and dump the output to a log file. So far I have find /dev/ -name "sd?" -not -name "sda" -exec [shred -...
Ben Stumpf's user avatar
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637 views

Securely wipe RAM before shutdown

I want my machine to wipe RAM before every shutdown, so I can prevent cold-boot attacks. I read How to wipe RAM on shutdown (prevent Cold Boot Attacks)?, but I don't know at which version of Ubuntu ...
PKM's user avatar
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23 votes
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How to securely wipe files from SSD drive?

When trying to securely wipe SSDs, we have several problems: SSDs wear out after a limited amount of erase cycles SSDs have a controller that dynamically maps LBAs (logical block addresses used by ...
Byte Commander's user avatar
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11 votes
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What happens when I use 'dd' to overwrite the disk from which Ubuntu is running?

What would happen if I use sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda from an Ubuntu install running from /dev/sda? I tried it in a VM, and it appears to correctly have wiped the disk. Will this be the case ...
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File contents remains on disk after securely erasing it

I have tried wipe, shred, srm, peazip's secure erase, etc. No matter with what options I securely erase the file with all those utilities and then do a search with a hex editor on disk, the contents ...
Anonymous's user avatar
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2k views

Is it insecure to to have a password on the clipboard?

So I've been using truecrypt for several years now. About 6 months ago before I learned off my password (it was really long and I didn't want it vulnerable to word-lists) I used to copy and paste it ...
Ben Dover's user avatar
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2 answers
10k views

secure erase returns input/output error

I've already given a detailed description of my predicament in my previous question. Now I've got this: sudo hdparm --user-master u --security-erase my_password /dev/sda returns: ...
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Force all deletes to be secure

I have setup an Ubuntu Server for my university project. Aside from full disk encryption I also intend to use Dafturn Ofris (a Linux deepfreeze) to make file recovery difficult or for any forensics ...
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GUI tool to securely overwrite whole hard drive

My friend has a Windows laptop that we want to totally wipe and then turn over to a hardware technician (whom we don't trust with the data on the hard drive.) I want to securely wipe, rather than ...
Fiksdal's user avatar
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How do I wipe my USB properly?

USB - 16GB - Had viruses Nwiped USB...didn't complete. Used DoD Short method. Didn't complete Now I can only read 16MiB of USB fdisk -l /dev/sdb Disk /dev/sdb: 16 MB, 16777216 bytes 255 heads, ...
Electro's user avatar
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Erase windows 8.1 installation [duplicate]

My primary operating system is Ubuntu 14.04 lts and then I installed windows 8.1 in another partition. Now, I don't need longer windows installation. Can I just erase the windows files and reformat my ...
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