Erase disk without inserting media

Question

I have remote access to a Windows 7 machine. I would like to erase the hard disk of that machine. I do not have the ability to insert boot media (CD, DVD, USB sticks, ...).

How can I overwrite all sectors of the disk of that machine?

I think using a hex editor to directly write to the disk is not reliable because Windows might crash in the process leaving the machine unbootable and only partially wiped.

The disk hardware does not have any kind of secure erase feature.

Answer 1

This is possible by running a "Live CD" version of Linux.

@FrankThomas theoretically it should be possible by using a driver that suspends all operations except erasing writes to the disk. I'm not aware of any such software, though.

Unfortunately drivers are loaded by the Windows kernel. Windows will prevent you from deleting system files. To wipe the disk clean you will need to boot the system with an operating system that runs fully from RAM.

This means you will have to install a Live CD version of Linux to a partition on your computer and make that bootable. When it boots in, you'll be able to mount the hard drive and do anything you want to the data using your Linux OS given that your computer has enough RAM to run it.

Ubuntu is an example Linux distribution with a Live CD.

Unfortunately your requirements of having only remote access makes this more difficult, you would have to find a way to pre-configure the Live CD to allow remote access when it boots.