Boot to DOS
(Command Line Mode)

3.3. Boot to DOS (Command Line Mode)

• With the PC power off, insert the Active@ KillDisk Interactive mode USB / floppy disk into drive A:
• Start the PC by turning on the power. The screen will display the Microsoft DOS prompt.
• At the DOS prompt, display Active@ KillDisk parameters by typing:
  
  A:\>KILLDISK -?
  
  
• A list of parameters will be displayed. An explanation follows:

Table 3-2 Command Line Parameter Descriptions

Parameter	Description	Note
	No parameter	With no parameter, the DOS Interactive screens will appear.
-?	Question mark	The table of parameters will appear.
-noconfirmation	Skip confirmation steps before erasing starts	By default, confirmation steps will appear in command line mode for each hard drive or USB / floppy: Are you sure? Number of passes? 'KILLDISK' This gives you an opportunity to check the level of security.
-passes:[1-99]	Number of passes to overwrite data on disk (1 to 99)	Available only with Active@ KillDisk Professional version. Default value is 1.
-ignoreerrors	Do not display error messages (if any)	By default, the erasing process will stop each time a disk error is encountered. You have the option to continue erasing or to stop the process and deal with the error.
-killalldrives	Automatically wipe all detected drives and USB / floppy	Caution: All drive devices attached to the system will be erased, including USB / floppy drives, Zip drives and Jazz drives.
-killallUSB / floppy	Automatically wipe all detected USB / floppy drives	If the system supports two USB / floppy drives, insert USB / floppy in both drives.
-killallhdds	Automatically wipe all detected fixed disk drives	Caution: Data from all detected fixed disk drives will be erased.

Key the command and parameters into the DOS screen at the prompt. Here is an example:
A:\>KILLDISK.EXE -killallhdds –passes:7 -noconfirmation

In the example above, all detected hard disks will be erased in seven passes with no user confirmation.

Press [Enter] to complete the command and start the process. After operation has completed successfully information on how drives have been erased is displayed on the screen.

3.3.1. Automatic Boot and Execute (autoexec.bat)  

You can use Active@ KillDisk in a DOS executable batch file by including a command line containing call of the program and parameters.

In the Microsoft DOS screen, open a new autoexec.bat file or edit an existing one with the following command:

A:\>edit autoexec.bat

The Microsoft DOS file edit screen will appear.

Enter the command line parameters as needed. In the example above, all detected hard disks will be erased in seven passes with no user confirmation.

Save the autoexec.bat file in the root directory of the USB / floppy and exit the Edit utility.

Remove the USB / floppy from this USB / floppy drive.

The USB / floppy is now ready for automatic data erasing.

Turn off power to the PC. Go to the machine that requires data erasing and begin the process as described in Boot to DOS (Command Line Mode), above.

3.4. Erase Operation Complete  

After operation is completed successfully information on how drives have been erased is displayed as in the screen below:

Figure 3-8 Active@ KillDisk Erased Drives Message