41 replies to this topic

[darren rose]

Hi all

What is the best script around for a disk eraser app in win7pe?

Need it to be secure delete so nothing can be recovered

thanks

[Wonko the Sane]

Hi all

What is the best script around for a disk eraser app in win7pe?

Need it to be secure delete so nothing can be recovered

Reboot and use secure erase.
See:
http://reboot.pro/13601/
steve6375's Nuke:
http://www.rmprepusb...-your-hard-disk

BTW in Vista and 7 the common "format" command without the /q switch does wipe the contents of the partition (though it will be anyway slower than secure erase ATA command).



Wonko

[al_jo]

Don’t know if good or bad but here is a simple script for WipeDisk:
http://al-jo.zxq.net/WipeDisk.7z
and one for DiskWipe:
http://al-jo.zxq.net/DiskWipe.7z
that can be used while running a Win7PE.

[Blackcrack]

jup, Wipedisk

http://www.gaijin.at/dlwipedisk.php

up to 14 diffrent possibilitys for wiping in this little exe

there be very useful programs like wipefile too and so on ..

wipefile it is good for killing files who can be psych on harddisk..
it was easily fully overwritten

and who we be on this point.. it was not get a kill-dir ? a dos/cmd proggy
for killing folders who cant normal deleting ? it is good on usb-stiks who have bugs like i think..
knows anyone killdir.exe (or was it a com ) ?


best regards
Blacky

Edited by Blackcrack, 04 May 2012 - 09:36 AM.

[darren rose]

Thank you all for your replies - I will give wipedisk a go I think

[darren rose]

diskwipe script doesn't work - when launching diskwipe.exe in PE I just get a error - "the instruction at 0x0042b27d reference memory at 0x00000000. The memory could not be read"

And wipedisk works but doesn't do what I need

The disks I am trying to wipe have been encrypted with truecrypt (sorry should of said that in post 1!) - so even though it says it has wiped the disk, the truecrypt bootloader is still present

Looks like I will have to stick to using diskpart clean option to remove this manually first before running a tool - unless anyone knows a tool which will blitz the bootloader as well as securely erasing the disk

[homes32]

DBAN

simple, effective, easy to build into GRUB4DOS or syslinux bootloader menu. and your choice of wipe methods

[Wonko the Sane]

DBAN

simple, effective, easy to build into GRUB4DOS or syslinux bootloader menu. and your choice of wipe methods

.... and MUCH slower than native ATA commands .

@darrenrose
Really, you have anyway to boot from an "external device" to wipe a "system" disk, this external device may well have a dual boot option, and when you want to wipe a disk you boot to this second option, be it Secure Erase, DBAN or another "self-standing" tool.

To recap:

• Safe Erase (and/or any mini Linux distro with hdparm) use internal commands and write zeroes using native device commands in the fastest possible way.
• DBAN, as well as many other tools give you the (senseless) possibility to use other (completely UNneeded) wiping methods at the cost of MUCH more time needed

Wonko

[al_jo]

Both scripts/programs for WipeDisk & DiskWipe are working just fine here on 3 different system without encryption while running the Win7PE.
Try changing the topic description to:
“best ‘encrypted with Truecrypt’ disk eraser for use in win7pe”

Ps. Is it not possible to remove the encryption with Truecrypt before wiping?

Edit:
There is a script for latest Truecrypt here:
http://al-jo.99k.org/TrueCrypt.7z

Another program that can “wipe” is MiniToolsPartitionWizard & a script is here:
http://al-jo.99k.org...titionWizard.7z

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•  Untitled.png   43.76KB   7 downloads

[darren rose]

Ps. Is it not possible to remove the encryption with Truecrypt before wiping?

yes I could use truecrypt to unencrypt the drive first - but it takes several hours to unencrypt - hence why I don't want to do it this way

was just hoping for a simple solution - not a problem will stick with using diskpart to remove the truecrypt header and then use another method to wipe the disk

[darren rose]

.... and MUCH slower than native ATA commands .

@darrenrose
Really, you have anyway to boot from an "external device" to wipe a "system" disk, this external device may well have a dual boot option, and when you want to wipe a disk you boot to this second option, be it Secure Erase, DBAN or another "self-standing" tool.

To recap:

• Safe Erase (and/or any mini Linux distro with hdparm) use internal commands and write zeroes using native device commands in the fastest possible way.
• DBAN, as well as many other tools give you the (senseless) possibility to use other (completely UNneeded) wiping methods at the cost of MUCH more time needed

Wonko

Can you give me a link to secure erase or safe erase - as did google it but couldn't find what you meant

[Wonko the Sane]

Can you give me a link to secure erase or safe erase - as did google it but couldn't find what you meant

Hmmm.
Explanation:
I already gave to you appropriate links:
RE-READ, this time slowly, my previous post (#2 in this thread, a direct reply - that you seemingly ignored - to your initial post/question) AND click on the links given there (they were given for a reason ).
Further explanation:
There are two links in that post, the first one links to a thread where:

• a question similar to your one was asked
• a comparison of time taken by Secure Erase and DBAN is present (including links to them)
• the *need* to secure erase and the *how* to do it is dicussed extensively
• several approaches were tested
• a working - easy to use solution - was given by member steve6375, making use of Secure Erase

Second link is to the solution by steve6375, tested and ready to be added to *any* grub4dos managed device.

And yes, you google-fu (though unneeded in this occasion) is low , at least in my google , the FIRST result searching for "Secure Erase" (without quotes) leads to this page (not-so-casually it's homepage):
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu...cureErase.shtml



Wonko

[darren rose]

Thanks Wonko - yes I did miss you original link - sorry - but drop the attitude problem

Checked http://cmrr.ucsd.edu...cureErase.shtml = seems to be quite old and not updated for a long time - was looking for something more current and supported

original question clearly stated a disk eraser to run in win7pe - obviously the reason I may have missed your post is that neither of your suggestion do this

[steve6375]

My solution actually has two methods - the first involves booting from a USB drive, the second does not require any external boot media.

[al_jo]

As this topic is about eraser/wiper application scripts that can be used while running a Win7PE and perhaps
there are some users (other then DarrenRose) interested in just that, there is a summary of eraser/wiper scripts here:
http://al-jo.zxq.net/WipeDisk.7z
http://al-jo.zxq.net/DiskWipe.7z
http://al-jo.99k.org...titionWizard.7z
and a new one, HardWipe:
http://al-jo.zxq.net/HardWipe.7z (Must be used with “Run with Runscanner”, see attachment.)

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•  runscanner.gif   35.28KB   11 downloads

[Wonko the Sane]

Thanks Wonko - yes I did miss you original link - sorry - but drop the attitude problem

Checked http://cmrr.ucsd.edu...cureErase.shtml = seems to be quite old and not updated for a long time - was looking for something more current and supported

original question clearly stated a disk eraser to run in win7pe - obviously the reason I may have missed your post is that neither of your suggestion do this

You (like BTW everyone else) are very welcome to :

• ask the "wrong" questions ("chosen method" instead of "goal")
• ignore advice not strictly corresponding to your question
• use wiping methods and apps that are slower (and less comprehensive) than the method you chose
• assume that latest is always better (native ATA commands are INSIDE the disk, placed there by their manufacturers - that should know what they are doing)

Wonko

[darren rose]

I accept that using ATA Commands is better - so sticking to my requirements, what app that runs in win7pe would give me disk wiping with ATA commands?

I want it in Win7pe as once the wipe is done, an image will be applied from the same place - so saves time etc if all can be done from one place

[Wonko the Sane]

I accept that using ATA Commands is better - so sticking to my requirements, what app that runs in win7pe would give me disk wiping with ATA commands?

None (or not one entirely reliable) as you might have gathered had you read the given thread.
The issue is that we do have a hdparm Win32 port that could work from a PE BUT seemingly the HAL (actually the "standard" MS disk driver ATAPI.SYS) locks it's functions.
So one could use it nonetheless if the PE uses a non-locking disk driver (Uniata was suggested, but seemingly noone tested it) and in any case since even Uniata is not really universal it is not a "surely working" solution.
READ the given thread, we have evidence (by cdob ) that "manufacturer" drivers do not "freeze" the ATA device, in which case using hdparm under a Win32 would be possible, but - as I see it - it is not (yet) a "one-size-fits-all" solution.

I want it in Win7pe as once the wipe is done, an image will be applied from the same place - so saves time etc if all can be done from one place

And - again - if you are looking for speed, *anything* not using native ATA commands will be slower.
How much slower?
We miss some serious benchmarking, but steve6375 gave in that thread a couple of values from experiments.

2.5" 250GB HDD took 82 mins to erase using HDDErase

with DBAN the same 2.5" 250GB drive took 3.5hrs (instead of 85 mins with HDDErase).

I do not expect any Win32 app to be significantly faster than DBAN, so if you compare the 3.5x60=210 minutes with 82 or 85 of the ATA erase, you could take your decision.
If we take this report as example:
Method #1 (wiping from 7PE with *any* wiping utility but hdparm/native ATA): 230.9 minutes

• 0.9 minutes ->booting the PE
• 200 minutes.>wiping
• 30 minutes (say) -> deploying the image

And we compare with:
Method #2 : 116.1 minutes

• 0.2 minutes -> booting HDDerase
• 85 minutes ->wiping
• 0.9 minutes ->booting the PE
• 30 minutes (say)->deploying the image

Now - if you believe that a single 00 wipe pass is more than enough, virtually *any* tool will do, and it is just a matter of finding the fastest one (and this can only be found by experiment).

Even a simple dd-like tool would do, and - as said - you can even use the built-in format command (though cannot say if it will be any faster - or better said how much slower - than a dd-like tool or specific wiping tool).
If you:

• delete all partitions
• create new one
• format it without the /q switch

ALL "mapped" sectors of the disk will be re-written with the only exception of the hidden sectors before first partition in Vista or 7 2048 sectors which you can wipe in a snap with *any* dd-like tool, i.e.:

• wipe first 2048 sectors
• access the disk in dik manager (initialize the disk)
• create new single partition extending over the whole disk
• format it without the /q switch

You are effectively wiping the whole disk.
If you are after "simpler" this is the simplest way.
If you are after "speed" you will have to test the various wiping solutions (there are tens of them).


Wonko

[al_jo]

Did some tests while running a Win7PE , using a 2GB UFD, concerning the software mentioned here and a new one: HDDLLF (script is here).
All was using one pass zeros (except M$) & Recuva was the recovery program.
Wiping time: about 10 minutes for all (20 minutes for M$ 2-pass).
Result:
DiskWipe: 10 of 210 files was recoverable
WipeDisk: 23 of 247 files was recoverable
PartitionWizard: 23 of 246 files was recoverable
HDDLLF: 17 of 17 files was recoverable
HardWipe: 0 of 0 files was recoverable

Note: there where 265 files from start.

Also tested M$ Disk Format Utility with these switches:
format [driveletter]: /x /fs:ntfs /p:2 (2 pass)
result: 20 of 264 files was recoverable

Not so “scientific” tests, but perhaps an indication?

[darren rose]

@al-jo - excellent, very interesting information - thanks

P.S. do we have a script for hardwipe? as this looks like a good choice

[al_jo]

@darren rose
Have a look here:
http://reboot.pro/16812/#entry153746

[darren rose]

cheers - sorry had missed that!!

[Wonko the Sane]

Just for the record, an UFD is not a hard disk and may behave differently, particularly because of the wear-leveling algorithms.

@al-jo
If you are into experimenting, can you try the following? (on the same UFD)
Presuming that the UFD is physical drive 1

dsfo .PHYSICALDRIVE1 0 0 C:mybackup.img

this will make an image of the UFD.
Run this batch, save it as "makesparse.cmd") with command line makesparse.cmd C:mybackup.img :

@ECHO OFF

SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS

if %1.==. goto :eof

CALL :getsize %1

mksparse C:heapsofzeroes.img %Size%

GOTO :EOF



:getsize

ECHO Image has size %~z1 bytes

pause

Set Size=%~z1

GOTO :EOF

It should create a SPARSE image of the same size of the backup/UFD as C:heapsofzeroes.img.
Now:

dsfi .PHYSICALDRIVE1 0 0 C:heapsofzeroes.img

Can you recover anything with Recuva?
(links to tools used are in the Mkimg/Mbrbatch thread: http://reboot.pro/?showtopic=3191 )
How long does it take?

Can you try again creating instead of a sparse image a "full sized" image with fsz?


Wonko

[darren rose]

hardwipe script doesn't seem to work for me - even running with runscanner as you say

I get "the software must be re-installed . the installation either did not suceed or has been corrupted by a virus or hard-disk fault"

[al_jo]

@darren
I'm getting the same message if I don't "rightclick" on HWIPE, choose "run with runscanner" & choose a profile.

@Wonko
Tried to do as described (but don't know what it has to do with this topic) & mybackup.img is 2GB but the heapsofzeroes.img is only 16Kb. No errors.
Got this error: failed to create sparsefile
the cmd file attached

Attached Files

•  makesparse.7z   296bytes   2 downloads