Is a Secure Erase Possible With ESET Smart Security Premium

[Scott VS 0]

Greetings to all,

                             I will be upgrading one of my PC's internal back-up hard drives.

Before I remove the existing hard drive I would like to conduct a secure erase.

Can anyone please advise if this is possible with my ESET Smart Security Premium?

I did try to download and install ESET Endpoint Encryption unfortunately it is not compatible with Smart Security.

Many thanks for your time,

Scott.

[Marcos 5,105]

Unfortunately ESET does not have such product for home users.

[itman 1,676]

This should be adequate for your needs;

Quote

Beginning in Windows Vista, the format command performs a basic write zero hard drive sanitization by assuming the /p:1 option.

https://www.lifewire.com/format-command-2618091

Otherwise, search on the web for disk utilities that include DoD 5220.22-M standard: https://www.jetico.com/blog/dod-522022-m-explained-data-erasure-standards .

[Nightowl 206]

I have a different idea but I don't like Bitlocker encryption methods because as written before it can be unlocked by Microsoft if requested by some high level people.

But you can try to Bitlock your hard disks , format them , that way you will format them while being encrypted state , if you try to recover files after you format and reinstall windows , you will see everything broken not good because they were encrypted and formatted then

If you are worried about specific files or photos and stuff like this that can be removed easily and not need a whole format of the drive , there is this program : https://eraser.heidi.ie/

It can use the same erasing method that the US government uses or the Airforce etc... which is a format on top of a format on top of a format on top of a format , which will make it harder to recover files.

That way it's hard/impossible to recover the data because the software overwrites the data with the methods above , if one of them selected

Or can be used as I said , Bitlocker encyrption , you turn off , hard disks become encrypted , boot from USB , remove partitions / format , re-install , try to recover using a recovery software , you won't be able to see the files properly because the recoveries would be damaged/encrypted state which the current Windows won't be able to open them, and bitlocker can be secured with a password also but that needs some GPO editing if I am not mistaken.

Edited May 1 by Nightowl