Erasing clerk computer hard drives

Discussions around the setup, operation, replacement, and disposal of clerk computers, not to include using MLS
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brad_p
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Joined: Sat Jan 12, 2013 6:29 pm

Erasing clerk computer hard drives

#1

Post by 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.
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Mikerowaved
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Joined: Sun Dec 23, 2007 12:56 am
Location: Layton, UT

Re: Erasing clerk computer hard drives

#2

Post by 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.)
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