Introduction: How to Safely Erase a Hard Drive in Linux Mint

By Robot Octopus Arm Article
About: I used to be a mechanic who fixed big and small engines alike. Now, do to a spinal injury, I can't do all that I used to, but I get around. I love Linux, electronics, cars, and I make it my life's work to shar…

Do you have a hard drive that you wish to sell or dispose of? Then it is a must that you erase the data off of it, and format it. If you don't, thieves could take your valuable or sensitive data and see your private photographs, videos, find where you live, access your medical records, steal your money or worse.

There are 2 simple measures I recommend if you wish to erase your data. Of course, no method of data erasure is 100% reliable, but if you take some precautions, you will be much safer than if you had not put any effort into wiping the drive.

(PLEASE NOTE: In continuing to read this guide, you consent that I shall not be held liable for loss/corruption of data, or damage to your hard drive or equipment. Please use discretion when reading this guide, and follow all recommended safety guidelines related to handling sensitive electronic equipment. A guide to handling electronic circuit boards can be found HERE)

Step 1: Method 1: Using the DD Command

The first method is what I always use when I need to erase a hard drive. It makes use of the DD command, and overwrites the hard drive with zeros to make sure that everything is gone. Once you have the drive plugged in, proceed with the instructions.

1. Open the terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T)

2. Find your hard drive letter, run the command lsblk. (Make sure you are not looking at your computer's hard drive! Usually it's sda)

3. Make sure that your hard drive is unmounted. You can do this using the file manager or use the umount command:

sudo umount /dev/sdX -l

Note: Replace the letter X with your drive letter.

4. Time to format your drive. Run the following command, replacing the sdX with your drive letter. (This will ERASE ANY DATA that is on your hard drive!)

sudo dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=10M

Please keep in mind that this process may take some time, up to hours depending on the size of your drive. Please be patient. Once the process is complete, move on to the next step.

Step 2: Format

Once your drive has been erased, it's generally good practice to format the drive, as a measure to ensure that it will be "like new". This whole process should remove any partitions that may be in the drive.

1. Open the Start menu.

2. Type "disks" and click on the silver "Disks" icon with the wrench.

3. Locate and click on your drive in the tab menu on the left.

4. Click the gears icon under your highlighted drive (Near the centre of the window)

5. Select "Format Partition..." A window will pop up.

6. Enter a name for your hard drive, and select the file system you wish to use in the drop-down menu. (Generally just leaving it at the default NTFS format will be acceptable.)

7. For a measure of added security, if you wish, you can select the option to "Overwrite existing data with zeros (slow)" option. It will repeat the process you went through in step 2. This is generally not needed, but if you want the extra layer of protection, go ahead and select this option.

8. Click "Format..." and a window will pop up to make sure you want to format it. Click "Format" and wait for the process to complete.

Step 3: Method 2: Shattering Results

By all intents and purposes your data is unlikely to ever be recovered by now. If you plan to resale the hard drive, it should be safe to do so now. However, if you really want to permanently remove any chance of the drive ever being usable again, it's time to bring out the hammer.

WEAR SAFETY GLASSES!

If you wish to continue, it's time to bring out that old screw driver set. Most hard drives use torx bits, so you may need a special screwdriver to open them, or you may be able to use a regular flat head screwdriver. Hey, this thing's supposed to be junk so why not experiment with it a bit? Just get the thing open. If you want a guide to opening these, check out Open a Harddrive, Without Using the Proper Tools. (Thanks chinnerz!)

Once inside, you will see a shiny disk with little arms over it. These are the guts of your hard drive. Take your screwdriver and undo any visible screws, removing the assembly as best as you can. You can be aggressive with this thing if you want to.

Once your shiny disks are out, take that hammer and lay the disks on some concrete and go to work. Beat every square inch of both sides until it is warped and scratched, then fold the platters in half using your hammer. Keep in mind that unlike the movies, most modern hard drives are made out of an aluminium-like alloy and ceramic so if you were expecting this thing to shatter like a mirror, sorry. Ain't gonna happen.

Keep beating this thing until you are sufficiently satisfied, then bury it in the back yard in a 6 foot deep hole and fill it in with reinforced concrete.

(On review, I find the last sentence to be a bit overly dramatic, let the reader use discernment.)

No chance anyone's ever gonna get your data now!

Step 4: Final Thoughts...

I hope you found this Instructable to be helpful. If you found this tutorial helpful or I have missed anything or you have a suggestion, please leave a comment and tell me what you think. I love to get responses from my readers!

Have a wonderful stolen-data free day!