DoD Hard Drive Wipe│Ultimate Guide

Key Takeaways:

• This article will provide detailed information about DoD Wipe, including an explanation of the DOD 5220.22-M Hard Disk Wipe standard, and describe the best DoD Wipe Utility.
• DoD wipe hard drive/SSD will make data unrecoverable. This article will detail how to perform a DOD disk wipe using the best DOD wipe software - AOMEI Partition Assistant.

What is DoD 5220.22-M hard drive wipe?

DoD5220.22-M, also known as “DoD standard”, is a software-based data sanitization method to wipe a hard drive and other storage devices by overwriting existing data. This hard drive wiping method is capable of preventing nearly all software-based recovery tools from listing data and information.

DoD 5220. 22-M wiping method was used in shredding confidential papers of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) in 1995. The U.S. Department of Denfense published this method in the National Industrial Security Program Operating Manual, which described a process of overwriting a hard drive with a set of zeros, ones, and data through 3 passes.

● Pass 1: Overwrite hard drive with zeros
● Pass 2: Overwrite hard drive with ones
● Pass 3: Overwrite hard drive with random data

These DOD 3 pass wipe will make the DoD level wiping method much more secure than any previous method before. Nowadays, the DoD 5220.22-M is one of the most common data destruction ways to dispose of erasing a hard drive before people give away or dump it.

How to Perform DoD Wipe Hard Drive on Windows 11, 10, 8, and 7

Then, how can we clean a hard drive with DoD 5220.22-M standard? There is a powerful DoD hard drive wipe utility I highly recommend Partition Assistant Professional:

• It allows you to wipe your hard drive up to 7 times with DoD standard. 
• 3 wiping methods: fill sectors with zeros, fill sectors with random data, and Gutmann. 
• Designed for Windows operating systems, such as Windows 11/10/8/7, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.
• Its intuitive interface makes all the operations very easy.

Just connect the hard drive you want to wipe with your computer, and you can download the demo version of this DoD hard drive wipe utility to see the detailed steps of wiping a hard disk.

✍ Note: If there is some of the data on the hard drive you don’t want to lose, you can back up the hard drive before wiping it.

Step 1. Open AOMEI Partition Assistant, and right-click the hard drive you want to wipe by DoD. 5220.22-M. Then click “Wipe Hard Drive”. 

Step 2. Then choose the “DoD 5220.22-M” as the wiping method, and decide the times you want to rewrite to the hard drive.

Step 3. Back to the main interface, and click “Apply” to perform a DoD hard drive wipe.

Just wait for a while, the data on the hard drive will be completely erased. 

Additionally, you can use DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke), a powerful open-source program, to thoroughly clean your data. This tool is known for its reliability. However, this method is not very friendly to newbies, for which AOMEI Partition Assistant is more recommended.

How to Make a Bootable DoD Level Hard Drive Wipe Tool

AOMEI Partition Assistant allows you to install the wiping program on a USB flash drive or CD/DVD, and make it bootable. You can insert it to boot up any other Windows PC and wipe a disk with dod level erasion.  It helps a lot if you want to wipe data on an old PC that can't boot up.

First of all, you need to prepare a blank USB or CD/DVD. Or back up the USB drive, CD if it stores some data, because it will be formatted.

Step 1. Connect the USB flash drive, or CD/DVD to your computer. Install and launch AOMEI Partition Assistant. Click "Tools" and "Make Bootable Media" in order. 

Step 2. Choose either "Burn to CD/DVD" or "USB boot Device" according to your device, and click "Proceed".

Step 3. Then confirm the operation, when it notes you the drive will be formatted.

✎✎✎ Boot a PC from the bootable wiping device

When the bootable wiping disk is created, insert it into another PC, and follow the steps below to boot up the computer.

Step 1. Power on the computer, and tap the BIOS immediately key when the logo appears on the screen.

Step 2. Enter the BIOS setup and choose the "boot" tab. Then choose "Change boot order".

Step 3. Move the bootable wiping drive to the first order from the listed bootable devices. Save the change and restart the computer.

After the computer starts up, the AOMEI Partition Assistant will be launched. Then follow the above part to DoD wipe hard drive.

FAQs about DoD wiping standard

1. Is DoD 5220.22-M secure?

Actually, there is still a very low possibility of recovering data from DoD hard drive wipe, but for individuals and most enterprises, the DoD 5220.22-M wipe method is secure enough. You may notice that AOMEI Partition Assistant Professional also provides other hard drive wipe methods. You may want to know what the difference between them is, below is a brief comparison.

● DoD 5220.22-M Vs Zero Fill or random data fill

To erase data on hard drive effectively, many users also try to zero-fill the hard drive or random data fill. They overwrite a hard drive with zeros or random data to prevent most software-based recovery tools. While the DoD hard drive wipe standard adopts further steps to overwrite a drive, it overwrites a hard drive up to 7 times. So DoD wipe is definitely safer than zero filling and random data filling.

● DoD 5220.22-M Vs Gutmann

Gutmann is another effective way to wipe a hard drive, it erases data more thoroughly in contrast with DoD 5220.22-M. Guttmann performs 35 passes to overwrite a hard drive with higher security than DoD, but it also takes much longer to implement, particularly, since today’s hard drives are produced with much larger capacity. Moreover, Gutmann overwrites the hard drive so frequently that it gives the drive bigger wear than other ways.

On the whole, the DoD is relatively safe in the consideration of data security and hard drive itself maintenance.

2. How long does a DoD level wipe take?

It is hard to say how long will it take, the capacity of your hard drive influences a lot. But generally, if you format a drive with 60GB, it will take 15 to 20 minutes, and a 250GB hard drive may take about 80 minutes to finish.

3. Can an SSD be wiped via the DoD wiping method securely?

No, I'm afraid not. The way to write data on an SSD differs from that on an HDD, so they adopt different ways to overwrite stored data. Fortunately, AOMEI Partition Assistant also supports performing SSD secure erase to help you wipe an SSD safely.

Conclusion

To conclude, the DoD hard drive wipe method is a good way to clear a hard drive entirely. Also, other methods, like zero filling, and Gutmann, can be good ways, they have their pros and cons, but you can implement them with AOMEI Partition Assistant according to your demands.

AOMEI Partition Assistant Server Edition is featured for Server users, if your computer is running with Windows Server system, please use the Server Edition. For enterprise users, there are more advanced Unlimited Edition and Tech Edition for you to.