Virtual DBAN to clean usb storage like

Question

Is it possible to install DBAN virtually, and try to clean not the HD it is running on but external hard drives? My situation is really unique. My Linux desktop died and I am now trying to clean its hard drives by connecting them to a Windows 10 laptop via SATA/IDE to USB 2.0 Adapter. Windows does not even recognize the drives until I go into Disk Manager. My other issue is that DBAN's virtual machine only sees the disk I allocated to it during the install, while I hoped it would see the external hard disk as a USB device. I tried sharing folders to give visibility to my target, but no go. My goal is just to clean the drives, and if I can use some other software or whatever, I am open to any suggestions. What is the best way to do this please?

Answer 1

DBAN is mainly designed to be ran all on its own to ensure that there's no interference from anything else from my experience.

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Here, there be dragons! The following is very destructive if you don't know what you're doing. Proceed at your own risk.

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If you don't have another computer to run DBAN on, then what you probably want is Eraser to wipe your hard drive. Eraser is a Windows program that can do several forms of wiping for you, (quick and fast to DOD clearance grade and more). You'll need to format the drive as something Windows can understand, like you've done with the shared drive. Then have Eraser wipe the disk. Be careful though, shredding is a one-way trip that is not usually recoverable in a cheap or easy manner. You can find Eraser here.

Answer 2

Dban feels like the 'wrong' tool for the job - dban's kind of meant for 'mass' drive wiping. You're better off and deleting existing partitions, creating a new windows compatible partition and Using a native tool for data sterilization - I've used something like eraser on windows or shred on linux in the past.

Otherwise, you might have to explicitly tell the VM to access the USB device - this depends on your software. virtualbox calls it filters IIRC