HDDerase is a
freeware utility that securely
erases data on
hard drives using the security erase unit command built into the firmware of
ATA and
SATA drives manufactured after 2001. HDDerase was developed by the Center for Magnetic Recording Research at the
University of California San Diego. It differs from other file deletion programs such as
Darik's Boot and Nuke which attempt to erase data using block writes, and therefore cannot access certain portions of the hard drive. The internal firmware secure erase command can access data that is no longer accessible through software, such as bad blocks.
[1]
HDDerase is recommended as a disk drive purging method in
NIST Special Publication 800-88