From 9b24e49e9eeac4fb04e5672c4a24713e4470131b Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: PartialVolume Date: Tue, 29 Jun 2021 20:48:45 +0100 Subject: [PATCH] Update READEME.md Update for users that are not familiar with wiping discs. --- README.md | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/README.md b/README.md index f5da2ab873..9bf8f6dd35 100644 --- a/README.md +++ b/README.md @@ -60,8 +60,8 @@ Shredos includes the latest Nwipe master, Smartmontools, a hexeditor [hexedit](h ShredOS boots very quickly and depending upon the host system can boot in as little as 2 seconds (typically 4 to 6 seconds) on modern hardware, while on an old Pentium4 may take 40+ seconds. Nwipe automatically starts in GUI mode and will list the disks present on the host system. In fact, Nwipe can launch so fast that the USB devices have not yet initialised so the first time nwipe appears it may not show any USB drives. If you then use Control-C to exit and restart nwipe, you should now see any attached USB devices. You can then select the methods by which you want to securely erase the disk/s. Nwipe is able to simultanuosly wipe multiple disks using a threaded software architecture. I have simultaneously wiped 28 loop devices in tests and know of instances where it's been used to wipe upwards of 10 drives on a system. -## What do I do after I've erased everything on my disk? A warning to users that don't really understand what disk erasure is! -First my apologies to everybody that knows exactly what they are doing when wiping disks. This paragraph is not for you. Now I've seen comments on forums, yes DBAN amongst others, where users are puzzled that their forensically erased disk seems to not be seen by their OS or even worse, won't boot after they have just erased it!... Well that's because DBAN/DWIPE and SHREDOS/NWIPE has removed everything, absolutely everything, the operating system is gone, all your data is gone, the partition table is gone, the file system gone, the MBR and all the files have vanished without a trace and will never ever be recovered from the disk. The only thing left is a whole load of zeros which are good for nothing. If you use software like this you are expected to know how to format a disk with a partition table & filesystem or install a new operating system such as Linux or Windows, unless of course you are just disposing of, or reselling the disk. This is very destructive software in terms of anything that resides on the hard disk that you are about to wipe. This is a message to just let you know how dangerous this software can be when used incorrectly or without an understanding of what needs to be done after you have used it. If you are reasonably happy that you know what you are doing then I hope this software does it's job and is useful to you. Before you press that 'S' key to start the wipe, pause and double check you have selected the correct drive/s, something I always do and never ever wipe discs while under the influence, unless you like living dangerously :') Been there! +## What do I do after I've erased everything on my disk? What is actually erased? +This paragraph is for those that are not familiar with wiping discs. if you know what you are doing skip to the next section. So you have erased your disc with ShredOS/nwipe and nwipe reported zero errors and the disc was erased. In it's erased state and depending upon the method you used every block on the drive contains either zero's or meaningless random data. In this state the disc won't be recognised by your operating system except at a very low level or specialised programs. You won't be able to write files to the disc because nwipe has removed everything, absolutely everything, the operating system is gone, all your data is gone, the partition table is gone, the file system gone, the MBR and all the files have been erased without a trace and will never ever be recovered from the disk. The only thing left is a whole load of zeros or random data. To make the disc usable again you will either need to format the disk, which creates a partition table and directory structure or install a new operating system such as Linux or Windows. Of course, if you are just disposing of or reselling the disk then you don't need to do anything else. So if you are reasonably happy that you know what you are doing and you understand that you will need to format the disc then I hope this software does it's job and is useful to you. Before you press that 'S' key to start the wipe, pause and double check you have selected the correct drive/s, something I always do ! ## Nwipe's erasure methods For an upto date list of supported wipe methods see the [nwipe](https://github.com/martijnvanbrummelen/nwipe) page.