HI, I am trying to erase an MBR off an old hard drive and then would like to erase another drive and write over it. I know there are a lot of programs out there but not sure if there is one that's best. I'm perfectly happy paying for a reliable program but if the best one is free I wont complain either.
Thanks
DBAN -- Darik's boot and nuke.
For a complete erase a hammer works really well.
Alternatives:
Blendtec Blender,
Inverted lawn mower
or
5 KG sledgehammer
diskpart then /cleanall on the pointed disk. Rewrites zero's to everything including the MBR. It's not secure, but it'll write over the MBR for you. I also use partedmagic or partition wizard for that.
Well I plan on re-using the disk so probably not something so harsh.
Would like something a bit more user friendly that I can show my brothers how to use as well.
DBAN or .308 Winchester.
What about this Drivescrubber program?
Acronis
DD
Simple but powerful
I like the stuff Piriform makes, and have used Recuva before... both for recovery of data and deletion.
well duh, it stands for Data Destroyer
I usually just overwrite the disks with zeroes followed by a random binary write and then zeroes again. I don't use anything made by someone else for something I'm trying to destroy.
The only truly reliable data destruction method involves a few screwdrivers, a pyrex pie pan, and about half a pint of aqua regia