How to Wipe a Hard Drive - Wipe your Hard Drive with WipeDrive

Attention!

• WipeDrive will permanently erase operating systems, program files, viruses, and your data. It also erases all partition tables and file systems, such as FAT or NTFS.
• If you intend to reinstall your operating system, make sure you have the necessary operating system installation disks or CDs prior to using WipeDrive. If you are not certain whether you have the needed disks to properly reinstall your operating system, please see WhiteCanyon's Operating System Installation Help section in our knowledgebase.

• If you purchased WipeDrive online, select the version that you will be using:
• WipeDrive Installer
• WipeDrive CD
• I purchased a retail copy of WipeDrive.

Use the WipeDrive Installer to Wipe a Hard Drive

1. Note: This step only applies to customers who purchased online. If you purchased a retail copy, skip to step 3.
2. Download the WipeDrive Installer to the computer that will be wiped. The WipeDrive Installer can be downloaded to another computer and easily copied to an external USB device or CD for use on the computer that will be wiped.
3. Once the WipeDrive Installer is on the computer that will be wiped, simply run it within Windows. This program will install itself to the computer and prompt for the computer to be restarted.
4. Select 'Yes' to restart the computer and begin the process to wipe the computer.
5. During the startup process a menu will appear providing a menu with options to boot into Windows or into WipeDrive. Select WipeDrive and press 'Enter'.
6. Once WipeDrive is running, see Wipe a Drive.

Use the WipeDrive CD to Wipe a Hard Drive

1. Note: This step only applies to customers who purchased online. If you purchased a retail copy, skip to the next step. Burn the WipeDrive.ISO file to CD. For detailed instructions please see How Do I Burn WipeDrive.ISO to CD
2. Insert the WipeDrive CD into your CD-ROM drive and then restart your computer.
3. You should see the WipeDrive screen shortly after you reboot. If you do not see WipeDrive, but instead see Windows, your computer is set to boot from your hard drive before the CD-ROM drive. You will need to change your computer's boot order sequence to boot from the CD-ROM drive. Changing your computer's boot order is easy to do; see How to Change the Boot Order..
4. Once WipeDrive is running, see Wipe a Hard Drive.

Wipe a Hard Drive

1. To wipe your drives, select option 1 from the main WipeDrive menu.
2. You will see the physical drives in your computer listed numerically.
3. Select the drive you want to wipe or select the option to wipe all drives.
4. Choose the number of overwrites to perform. One overwrite is more than sufficient for newer computers. If the computer is more than six years old, we recommend doing a DoD Level 2 overwrite, which is three passes with a verify.
5. Once you have selected the number of overwrites, answer 'Y' to the confirmation prompts to begin the wiping process.

Verify that the Drive was Wiped Successfully

• Option 2 is a Full Verify. WipeDrive will check every sector on the drive for uncleaned sectors.
• Option 3 is a Quick Verify. WipeDrive will spot check the drive for uncleaned sectors.
• Option 4 allows you to manually view specified sectors on the drive.

Log Files and Other Settings

• Other WipeDrive settings can be selected from the main WipeDrive menu, including a list of command line parameters.
• If you are running WipeDrive from a diskette, WipeDrive can save an event log of the wiping session.

Problems with WipeDrive