dban disc not working on laptop

[paul70]

i have used this in the past to wipe desktop pc's without any fuss , i have just acquired a 2nd hand laptop and tried to wipe it with dban but with no success . is it because its a disc about 2 year old or is it something else , the laptop is an E -system make and iam using vista home premium , any help would be great , thanks

[tgell]

Hello,
DBAN might not detect your SATA controller. One possibility would be to go into BIOS and then select Legacy IDE support for the controller.
Another would be to use Active@KillDisk. This only uses a one pass wipe with zeros.
A third option would be to use the hard drive's own internal security deletion using HDDerase.

Readme

Q: Can HDDerase.exe be used to erase my onboard or externally connected
(USB, etc.) SATA drives?

A: Yes, but some BIOS configuration may be required. Since HDDerase.exe only
detects drives on the primary and secondary IDE channels (ports 01F0-01F7 and
0170-0177) the BIOS must be configured so that the SATA drive is detected one of
these channels. For onboard SATA drives this can be done by switching the SATA
drive from "enhanced mode" to "compatibility mode" in BIOS (compatibility mode is
sometimes called "native mode" or "IDE mode"). E.g. BIOS >> IDE configuration >>
onboard IDE operate mode >> compatibility mode. Note - not all BIOSs support this
feature.


Q: Can hdderase.exe be used to erase my SCSI or USB drives?

A: No. Hdderase.exe is intended to be used only on SATA/ATA drives and will not
work with SCSI or USB drives.
There is at least one commercial company (http://www.deadondemand.com/ or
http://ensconcedata.com) making "data shredder" machines offering data erasure of
any drive, including SCSI.

[paul70]

thanks for the quick response , happy xmas

[tgell]

Good Luck and Merry Christmas to you also. And, I would like to wish every one on this board a Happy New Year also.