Erasing clerk computer hard drives

[brad_p]

This post is just explaining my success using the tool Shredos: https://github.com/PartialVolume/shredos.x86_64

Wiping hard drives isn't as easy as it seems. The church wants clerk computers wiped so they can repurpose the computers. But https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/hel ... e?lang=eng only mentions using Windows to do it. Unfortunately sometimes I just don't have an admin account on the clerk machine.

I tried using DBAN, but frankly the tool is harder to find and a pain to get working on a boot USB. Searching around, I found Shredos. It's actively maintained and it does the job. I used a img to USB writer (balenaEtcher in my case), selected the appropriate Shredos img file, and made a boot USB. From there on the clerk computer I had to change the boot order (on the Dell computers I was working on, I had to press F12 on the boot screen, then get into the BIOS, then make USB the #1 boot option). Shredos booted right up and found the hard drive. I had to push space to select it, then Shift + S to have it start. It takes about 6 hours as it runs a few passes, and then it's done.

[Mikerowaved]

Thanks for sharing! A little more info: ShreadOS uses nwipe, which is an ongoing, open source, fork of DBAN. (DBAN's last version was in 2015.) This is a nice wrapper for Nwipe that can be used with either a graphical user interface (GUI), or command-line interface (CLI). (Nwipe is CLI only.)

[danter]

It looks like with Lenovo Thinkcentre devices, you can erase hard drive via BIOS.
1. Power up device
2. press F2 once Lenovo appears on screen
3. Follow "reset PC" menu
4. Be sure to erase all files (menu option may be something like "recycle PC")

Sorry I cannot recall exact menu options for steps 3 and 4. It's a one and done process and I cannot try it again since I have run out of devices to reset at the moment.
It appears the process takes ~10 hours.

[Mikerowaved]

It looks like with Lenovo Thinkcentre devices, you can erase hard drive via BIOS.

Yes, the Dell PCs have that option in their BIOS settings as well. Thanks for pointing it out. Definitely the easiest solution so far (IMO).

[russellhltn]

I believe the Help Center asks for us to use the feature in Windows. The result is a wiped drive ready to re-install Windows.

I'm under the impression the returned computers are re-used somewhere. That may aid in their setup.

[lajackson]

I believe the Help Center asks for us to use the feature in Windows. The result is a wiped drive ready to re-install Windows.

It actually leaves a clean version of Windows with everything else wiped from the drive. It does not take 10 hours to wipe the drive(s), either.

And the computers are reused. There was a video about it at the Church News not too long ago.

[Mikerowaved]

If you're going to use "Reset this PC" through Windows, make sure in the Additional settings section, you click on Change settings, then enable the Clean data switch to securely wipe the drive. Yes, this takes quite a bit longer, but it does a more secure wipe than just removing files.

It's my understanding that the disposal companies the church contracts with will discard items with little to no value (in an environmentally friendly manor) and repurpose or resell items of value with an unknown percentage of the sale being returned to the church.

With the Windows 10/11 license keys being held on MS servers, selling a PC without an OS that WAS running Windows 10/11 previously, means it will automatically authenticate when a new copy of Windows is installed. This means there's very little difference in the resale value if it has an OS on it or not after being wiped.