Erase Hard Disk Boot to DOS

3.2. Boot to DOS (Interactive Mode)

This section describes using Active@ KillDisk using the DOS Interactive screens. For "hands-off" operation, please see the next section, below. Here are the steps:

• With the PC power off, insert the Active@ KillDisk 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, run Active@ KillDisk by typing:
  KILLDISK.EXE

The Detected Physical Devices screen appears as below:

Figure 3-3 Detected Physical Devices

All system hard drives will be displayed along with their system information.

• Using the keyboard arrow keys, select the drive you want to erase. Press [Enter]. The Data Erase Warning screen appears.

Figure 3-4 Data Erase Warning

Confirm your choice to erase data on selected drive by pressing the letter [Y] on the keyboard. The Level of Security screen appears.

Figure 3-5 Level of Security

Each number between 1 and 99 indicates three disk write head passes, as described in the DoD standard specifications. A higher number of passes will ensure a higher level of security. Each time the write head passes over the disk surface, more of the residual data charge will be removed from the disk surface.

Key in the level of security by number between 1 and 99 and press [Enter]. (Active@ KillDisk Professional version only). The Active KillDisk screen appears.

Figure 3-6 Active@ KillDisk

This is the final step before removing data from the selected drive for ever. Once the process has started, you may stop it by pressing the [Esc] key.

Type KILLDISK and press [ENTER]. Progress of the erasing procedure will be monitored in the Disk Erasing screen, similar to the one below:

Figure 3-7 Disk Erasing in Progress

If, for any reason you wish to stop the process after it has begun, press the [Esc] key. Please note, however that erased data will not be recoverable.

There is nothing more to do until the end of the disk erasing process. The application will operate on its own without human intervention. If there are any errors, for example due to bad clusters, they will be reported on the Interactive screen. If such a message appears, it will be possible to cancel the operation (by pressing [Esc]), or continue erasing data.