Disk Wipe

When you select a physical device the Wipe command processes all logical drives consecutively erasing data in unoccupied areas (free clusters and system areas) and leaving existing data intact. Unallocated space, where no partitions exists has been erased as well.

Note:

If you want to erase ALL data (both existing and deleted files) from the device permanently, use Disk Erase.

If KillDisk detects that a partition has been damaged, it does not wipe data in that area, because partition might contain an important data. There are some cases where partitions on a device cannot be wiped. Examples: an unknown or unsupported file system, a system volume or an application start up disk. In these cases Wipe command is disabled. If you select a device and Wipe button is disabled, select individual partitions (volumes) and wipe them separately.

Disk Wipe complete process is described below.

Select disks

Use mouse in Disk Explorer to select one or more physical disks. Selected disks displayed with orange borders.

For multiple selection use Ctrl+Left Mouse click.

To select all attached disks, press Ctrl+A.

To select a particular partition or volume, click the object in the Local Devices view.
Start wipe

Open Disk Wipe dialog using one of the following methods:
- Click Actions > Wipe Disk command from main menu
- Click Wipe Disk command from the context menu for disk or volume
Confirm wipe options
Use tabbed views to adjust Wipe options if necessary.
Available options are:
Figure 1: Wipe Options

If single disk is selected from Local Devices view, then exact area for the wipe can be optionally specified:

Select all partitions

Select for wipe the only disk space where partitions located

Select all volumes

Select for wipe the only disk space where live volumes located

Select all unallocated space

Select for wipe the only disk unallocated area (the space where no live volumes exist).
Start wipe

Click Start button to reach the final step before wiping out deleted data. Click Yes to confirm Wipe action and process starts.
Monitor progress

The progress of the wiping procedure will be displayed on the disk or volume. To stop the process at any time click the Stop button for the particular disk or volume. Click the Stop All button to cancel wipe for all disks.

Figure 2: Disk Wipe Progress
Verify results

This is an optional step. Select the wiped volume and click Open in File Browser toolbar button to inspect the work that has been done. KillDisk scans system records of the partition. The Browser tab appears. Existing file/folder names appear with a multicolor icon and deleted file/folder names appear with a gray-colored icon. If the wiping process completed correctly the data residue in these deleted file clusters and the place these files hold in the directory/system records has been removed. You should not see any gray-colored file names or folder names within the volume being wiped out.

You will see a confirmation dialog when the process is complete. Here you can check the Processing Summary, print Labels and Certificates.

All deleted files and system records on wiped volumes became unrecoverable.

Note:

If there are any errors, for example due to bad sectors, these errors will be reported and placed to the log file. If such a message appears you may cancel the operation or continue wiping out disks.