Erase Hard Drive
Modes of Operation

4.2 Modes of Operation

4.2.1 Interactive Mode

The steps for erasing data and wiping data are similar. Follow steps 1 through 10 and then click the link to complete either the erasing process or the wiping process.

If you are booting from a CD/DVD-ROM drive, check that the drive has boot priority in the BIOS settings of your computer.

Here are the steps for interactive operation:

1. Start the Active@ KillDisk either from bootable CD/DVD, from a USB / floppy device or from the Programs menu. The Detected Physical Devices screen appears.
   
   Detected Physical Devices
   
   
2. All system physical devices and logical partitions are displayed in a list.
   Hard drive devices are numbered by the system BIOS. A system with a single hard drive shows as number 0. Subsequent hard drive devices are numbered consecutively. For example the second device will be shown as Hard Disk 1.
3. Select a device and read the detailed information about the device in the right pane. Below the device, select a logical partition. The information in the right pane changes.
   Be certain that the drive you are pointing to is the one that you want to erase or the one you want to wipe. If you choose to erase, all data will be permanently erased with no chance for recovery.
   To preview the sectors in a device, press CTRL + V or click View Data on the toolbar.
   The Data Viewer screen appears.
   
   Data Viewer
   
   
4. To scroll up and down, use the keyboard arrow keys, PAGE UP, PAGE DOWN, HOME and END navigation keys, or use the related buttons on the toolbar.
5. To jump to a specific sector, in the Sector box, type the sector number and press ENTER or click Go on the toolbar.
6. When you are satisfied with the identification of the device, press ESC to close this screen.
7. To preview the files in a logical partition, select the partition and press ENTER. KillDisk scans the MFT records for the partition. The Folders and Files screen appears.
   
   Files Preview
   
   
8. Press TAB to move between panels or choose a panel with the mouse.
9. To select an item in the list, use PAGE DOWN, PAGE UP or the up or down arrow keys or use the mouse.
10. To open a folder, double-click the folder or select it and press ENTER.
    KillDisk scans the MFT records for this folder. The files in the folder appear in the right panel. Existing files and folders marked by yellow icons and deleted files and folders marked by gray icons.
    If you are wiping data from unoccupied areas, the gray-coloured file names are removed after the wiping process completes.
    You may use Data Viewer to inspect the work done by the wiping process. After wiping, the data in these areas and the place these files hold in the root records or MFT records are gone.

At this point, link to the steps to either erase the data or wipe the data.