To securely wipe a solid-state drive (SSD), see Securely erase a solid-state drive.To securely delete individual files/directories on a Linux system, use the shred command.To securely delete individual files/directories on a Windows system, use the SDelete command.Disks must be “Not Frozen” before an erase is possible. If the “Sleep” button doesn’t work, Parted Magic provides a built in workaround. This information could be accessed from any dialog.Įasily disable security if a failed erase or power outage occurs. Then select the location where the log file could be saved.įeatures of this program could be explained in the built-in documentation. The Results dialog could be expanded to offer more compression options. The log file will disappear when the computer reboots. Use the Mount Devices program located in the panel to save this file to a disk. The location of the log file is displayed near the bottom. When the erase process has been completed, this dialog displays success or failure. You may still access the “Help” menu from this dialog. Do not shut off the power or reboot the computer. “Unknown time remaining” could be displayed instead. Very old disks cannot display this information. Parted Magic displays the time remaining when possible. The drive may become “bricked” if the power is shut off. Once the erase has started, it cannot be stopped. Press the “Start Erase” button when ready. This makes it difficult to erase the wrong drive. Tick the check box “I allow this utility to erase the listed devices.” to continue. You can still make changes at this time by pressing the “Back” button. This dialog displays the choices from the first dialog. The “beep” check box makes the computer beep when the erase completed. You can see if your drive supports “enhanced erase” by hovering your mouse over the second column. “Enhanced” generates a new public encryption key so the data could be undecipherable. The fourth column toggles between “Secure” and “Enhanced”. Do not ever change it to “NULL” or empty (blank). It is best to leave it “password” unless you know what you are doing. The fourth column displays the temporary security password. The “Frozen” label is normal when first starting this program. The third column will then be labeled “Not Frozen”. Pressing any key or the power button could wake it up. The computer could be placed into a sleep mode to unfreeze them. Modern computers will “freeze” the disk at boot. Important Secure Erase information can be discovered by hovering your mouse over the second column so information could be displayed about your device. Secure Erase by Parted Magic works with both SSD (Solid State Drives) and HDD (Hard Disk Drives).

Disk utility secure erase