KillDisk is a software used to erase and wipe disk securely and completely on operating systems like Windows, MacOSX, Linux. KillDisk can be used from inside the operating system or by booting the KillDisk without an operating system. It is also called as Hard Drive Eraser by its developer.
KillDisk Features
KillDisk provides a lot of different features for different versions. Paid versions have business or enterprise level features like support, batch mode, etc. In this tutorial, we will just look to the KillDisk Freeware which is free.
- Erase multiple devices at once
- Support for Windows, Linux and MacOSX operating systems
- Support for Hard drives over 4 TB in size
- Optionally erase only free space
- Support for different disk technologies like SSD
Download KillDisk For Windows
We will download the killdisk from the following link. KillDisk is provided in different prices and features where we will use the KillDisk for Home as Freeware version.
https://www.killdisk.com/eraser.html
Install KillDisk
We will click to the downloaded exe which will request Admin right with the following screen. We will click to the Yes.
After that, we will follow standard Windows Next->Next procedure.
KillDisk Main Screen
The KillDisk application provides GUI which can be used to erase and wipe the disk. We can see that currently attached disks are listed in the main pain. In the left sidebar properties about the selected disk is listed. There is also an output pane on the bottom which will provide information about the operations like erase and wipe.
Disk Properties
Selected disk properties are listed in the left sidebar like below. The following information is provided about the selected disk.
- `Name` is the disk technical name
- `Platform Name` is the disk technical path
- `BIOS Name` is the disk partition format
- `Product Name` is the disk manufacturer and vendor name
- `Serial Number`
- `Product Version`
- `Status` show current working status
- `Type` is the HDD type
- `Device Size` provides size information about disk or partition
- `Size`
- `Free Space`
- `Unallocated Span`
- `Device Geometry` is about disk logical properties
- `Partition Style` is partition type which is MBR in this example
- `Total Sectors`
- `Bytes per Sector`
Wipe Disk
We can wipe a specific disk or partition first selecting partition like below. In this example, we will select the PhysicalDrive1or D. Then we will click to the Wipe Disk from the menu bar.
We will see the following screen which provides the wipe configuration. We can start the wipe operation just by clicking the Start button. Following wipe configuration can be set;
- `Erase method` will be select which type of data will be overwritten to the current data. In this case, one time pass zeros.
- `Verify Erasure of` will specify the verify size after the wipe completed.
- `Wipe unused clusters` will wipe the unused disk area
- `Wipe metadata and system files area` will wipe specially allocated file system and metadata area
- `Wipe slack space in file clusters`
When the wipe starts we will see the following screen where the wiped disk progress will be shown. We can see the completed percentage, time to left etc.
After the wipe operation is complete we will see the following result screen which provides some information about the wipe operation result. The following information is provided with this result.
- `Wiping` status
- `Errors`
- `Erase Method`
- `Elapsed`
Erase Disk
We can erase the by selecting disk and clicking Erase Disk button like below.
We will see the following erase disk configuration screen. We can set similar configuration like Wipe Disk.
Befıre erasing all disk data we need to confirm this action. We need to the printed KEyphrase to the Type keyphrase box like below. then we will click to the OK.
During the disk or partition erase we will see the progress like below which will provide information like completed percentage, time left etc.
After the erase is completed we will see the following result screen which provide some information about the erase.
View Raw Disk Data
We can also use KillDisk in order to see disk data in raw mode. Raw mode means no structure or presentation just the hexadecimal value. We will click to the Disk Viewer after selecting the disk like below.
Following screen or tab will be opened which shows the disk data in raw with offset address and ASCII presentation.
Wipe, Erase Operation Logs
All operations about the KillDisk are logged and printer in the Output pane like below. We can see the operations like Disk Erase, Disk Wipe, Analyzing etc.
