Wipe Data from a Device

4.2.1 Interactive Mode (continued)

4.2.1.2 Wipe Data from a Device

When you select a physical device (for example, Hard Disk 0), the wipe command processes all logical drives consecutively, deleting data in unoccupied areas.

Unallocated space is not touched. If KillDisk detects that a partition has been damaged or that it is not safe to proceed, KillDisk does not wipe data in that area. The reason it does not proceed is that a damaged partition might contain important data.

There are some cases where partitions on a device cannot be wiped; for example, if there is an unknown file system, or if the disk contains unallocated space. In these cases, the Wipe button is disabled. If you select a device and the Wipe button is disabled, select individual partitions (drives) and wipe them out separately.

If you want to erase data from the hard drive device permanently, see 4.2.1.1 Erase Data.

If you want to wipe data in unoccupied areas on selected logical drives, follow the steps in 4.2.3 Erase or Wipe Logical Drives (Partitions).

To wipe data from a device:

1. To choose a device to wipe, select the check box next to the device name. You may select multiple devices.
2. To wipe all data in unoccupied sectors on the selected partitions, press F9 or click Wipe. The Wipe Free Disk Space dialog box appears.
   
   Wipe Free Disk Space
   
   
3. To select a wipe method, choose a method from the Wipe Method drop-down list. Wipe methods are described in Chapter 6 Descriptions of Erase/Wipe Parameters in this guide.
4. You may change other parameters in this dialog box. For information on these parameters, see Chapter 6 Descriptions of Erase/Wipe Parameters in this guide.
5. To advance to the final step before erasing data, click Start. If the Skip Confirmation check box is clear, the Confirm Action dialog box appears.
   
   Confirm Action
   
   
6. This is the final step before wiping data residue from unoccupied space on the selected drive. After the process has started, you may stop it by pressing the ESC key.
   To confirm the wipe action, click Yes. Progress of the wiping procedure will be monitored in the Disk Wiping screen.
7. To stop the process for any reason, press the ESC key. Please note that all existing applications and data will not be touched, however, data that has been wiped from unoccupied sectors is not recoverable.
8. There is nothing more to do until the end of the disk erasing process. The application operates on its own.
   
   If there are any errors, for example due to bad clusters, they will be reported on the Interactive screen. If such a message appears, you may cancel the operation (by pressing ESC), or you may continue wiping data.
9. After the wiping process is completed, to inspect the work that has been done, select the wiped partition and press ENTER. KillDisk scans the MFT records or the root records of the partition. The Folders and Files tab appears.
   
   Existing file names and folder names appear with a multi-coloured icon and deleted file names and folder names appear with a gray-coloured icon. If the wiping process completed correctly, the data residue in these deleted file clusters and the place these files hold in the root records or MFT records has been removed and you should not see any gray-coloured file names or folder names in the wiped partition.