Wiping disks
This article relies on the live media created here
HDD
nwipe
is a fork of dwipe
which is the utility used in the popular DBAN solution.
- Open "terminal emulator" from the application menu
- Run
sudo nwipe
in the terminal to launch our nwipe session - Navigate up and down the list with the arrow keys, select disks by size with the space bar.
- Removing extra disks from the machine may make this selection easier. Choosing the wrong disk will cause data loss
- You can change the wipe method by pressing
m
. DoD short is the default and recomended method. It makes 3 passes over the disk. - You can change the number of rounds by pressing
r
. This multiplies the method. Leaving DoD short and setting 2 rounds would make 6 passes (1 is recommended).
- Press capital
S
to start the process
SSD
Secure erase article on kernel.org
NVMe SSD
This relies on the application nvme-cli
. It might not be included on all Linux distros, you might have to install it. It is included in the r/Techsupport rescue media.
- Open "terminal emulator" from the application menu.
- Run
sudo nvme list
to see the list of valid nvme drives.- Some SSDs will not be listed here. If your drive isn't listed, put your computer to sleep and then wake it up. This is mainly an issue with Samsung drives.
- Run
sudo nvme format -s2 /dev/nvmeX
where X is the location of your drive.- Example:
sudo nvme format -s2 /dev/nvme0n1
Choosing the wrong disk will cause data loss - Some manufacturers lock their drives. If you get an invalid field error, you will have to use a tool from your SSDs manufacturer. When doing this, make sure you do a secure erase.
- Example: