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User Guide Version Number 3.0 Copyright ⌐ 2003, LSOFT TECHNOLOGIES INC. All rights reserved. No part of this documentation may be reproduced in any form or by any means or used to make any derivative work (such as translation, transformation, or adaptation) without written permission from LSOFT TECHNOLOGIES INC. LSOFT TECHNOLOGIES INC. reserves the right to revise this documentation and to make changes in content from time to time without obligation on the part of LSOFT TECHNOLOGIES INC. to provide notification of such revision or change. LSOFT TECHNOLOGIES INC. provides this documentation without warranty of any kind, either implied or expressed, including, but not limited to, the implied warranties of merchantability and fitness for a particular purpose. LSOFT may make improvements or changes in the product(s) and/or the program(s) described in this documentation at any time. All technical data and computer software is commercial in nature and developed solely at private expense. As the User, or Installer/ Administrator of this software, you agree not to remove or deface any portion of any legend provided on any licensed program or documentation contained in, or delivered to you in conjunction with, this User Guide. Active@ Killdisk, the Active@ Killdisk logo, Killdisk and Erasers Software are trademarks of LSOFT TECHNOLOGIES INC. LSOFT.NET logo is a trademark of LSOFT TECHNOLOGIES INC. Other brand and product names may be registered trademarks or trademarks of their respective holders. Contents Standards Used in This Guide ........................................................................................... iv OVERVIEW Deleting Confidential Data ..................................................................................................5 Advanced Data Recovery Systems ...............................................................................5 International Standards in Data Removal ......................................................................6 SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Personal Computer Minimum Requirements ......................................................................7 Drive Storage System ....................................................................................................7 Active@ KillDisk Version.....................................................................................................8 WhatÆs New in Version 3.0 .............................................................................................8 RUNNING ACTIVE@ KILLDISK Preparing a DOS-Bootable Floppy Disk..............................................................................9 System Formatting.........................................................................................................9 Copying Active@ KillDisk to a Floppy..........................................................................10 Labeling the Disk .........................................................................................................10 One-Step Method.........................................................................................................10 Modes of Operation ..........................................................................................................10 DOS Interactive Mode .................................................................................................11 DOS Command Line Mode ...............................................................................................15 Autoexecute Mode ............................................................................................................17 Erasing Data Using Autoexecute .................................................................................17 Erasing Logical Drives (Partitions) ....................................................................................18 Erase Operation Complete ...............................................................................................20 COMMON QUESTIONS I cannot boot the machine from a floppy. What is wrong? ...........................................21 Which operating systems are supported by Active@ KillDisk? ...................................21 How is the data erased? ..............................................................................................21 ERASING PARAMETERS Number of Passes ............................................................................................................23 One Pass Zeros or One Pass Random .......................................................................23 User Defined ................................................................................................................23 US DoD 5220.22-M .....................................................................................................23 German VSITR ............................................................................................................23 Russian GOST p50739-95 ..........................................................................................23 Gutmann ......................................................................................................................23 Verification ........................................................................................................................23 Retry Attempts..................................................................................................................24 Ignore Errors..................................................................................................................... 24 Clear Log File before Start................................................................................................ 24 Skip Confirmation ............................................................................................................. 24 Standards Used The following standards are used to provide more concise documentation: in This Guide Table 0-1 User Input Description Example Action Bold text within square Press [Enter]. Press the key on the keyboard that brackets corresponds to the message within square brackets. Bold text and operand Press [Ctrl + B] Together, press the combination of keys within square brackets within the square brackets. Bold text Click OK. With the mouse pointer, find the icon or button indicated and left-click that icon. Letter "i" in the left i Information worthy of noting. margin Exclamation mark in ! Important information that may cause the the left margin utility to behave incorrectly and may damage data as a result. OVERVIEW 1 This chapter gives an overview of Active@ KillDisk application. Deleting Confidential Data Advanced Data Recovery Systems Modern methods of data encryption are deterring unwanted network attackers from extracting sensitive data from stored database files. Unfortunately, attackers wishing to retrieve confidential data are becoming more resourceful by looking into places where data might be stored temporarily. A hard drive on a local network node, for example, can be a prime target for such a search. One avenue of attack is the recovery of supposedly-erased data from a discarded hard disk drive. When deleting confidential data from hard drives or removable floppies, it is important to extract all traces of the data so that recovery is not possible. Most official guidelines around disposing of confidential magnetic data do not take into account the depth of todayÆs recording densities. The Microsoft DOS del command merely changes the file name so that the operating system will not look for the file. The situation with NTFS is similar. Removal of confidential personal information or company trade secrets in the past might have used the format command or the DOS fdisk command. Ordinarily, using these procedures gives users a sense of confidence that the data has been completely removed. The format utility actually creates new FAT and ROOT tables, leaving all previous data on the disk untouched. fdisk merely cleans the Partition Table (located in the drive's first sector) and does not touch anything else. When you use Active@ KillDisk, you can scan drives and view all files on them -including files that have been deleted using the Microsoft DOS del command. Advances in data recovery have been made such that data can be reclaimed in many cases from hard drives that have been wiped and disassembled. Security agencies use advanced applications to find cybercrime-related evidence. Also there are established industrial spy agencies adopting sophisticated channel coding techniques such as Partial Response Maximum Likelihood (PRML), a technique used to reconstruct the data on magnetic disks. Other methods include the use of magnetic force microscopy and recovery of data based on patterns in erase bands. Although there are very sophisticated data recovery systems available at a high price, data can easily be restored with the help of an off-the-shelf data recovery utility like Active@ File Recovery (www.file-recovery.net) or Active@ UNERASER (www.uneraser.com), making your erased confidential data quite accessible. CHAPTER 1: OVERVIEW International Standards in Data Removal Using Active@ KillDisk, our powerful and compact utility, all data on your hard drive or removable floppy drive can be destroyed without the possibility of future recovery. After using Active@ KillDisk, disposal, recycling, selling or donating your storage device can be done with peace of mind. Active@ KillDisk conforms to four international standards for clearing and sanitizing data. You can be sure that once you wipe a disk with Active@ KillDisk, sensitive information is destroyed forever. Active@ KillDisk is a quality security application that destroys data permanently from any computer that can be started using a DOS floppy disk. Access to the drive's data is made on the physical level via the Basic Input-Output Subsystem (BIOS), bypassing the operating systemÆs logical drive structure organization. Regardless of the operating system, file systems or type of machine, this utility can destroy all data on all storage devices. It does not matter which operating systems or file systems are located on the machine, it can be DOS, Windows 95/98/ME, Windows NT/2000/XP, Linux or Unix for PC. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS 2 This chapter outlines the minimum requirements for PCs using Active@ KillDisk. Personal ò IBM PC/AT compatible CPU Computer ò Operates with processors as old as Intel 486 Minimum Requirements ò 4 Mb of RAM ò Video must be EGA or better resolution Drive Storage ò 1.44 Mb floppy diskette drive System ò Hard Disk Drive type IDE, ATA or SCSI with controllers Other ò One blank 3.5-inch or 5.25-inch floppy disk suitable for formatting ò Alternately use a Windows 95/98/ME Startup Disk CHAPTER 2: SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS Active@ KillDisk The performance of Active@ KillDisk depends on the version of the Version application, as displayed in the table below: Table 2-1 Active@ KillDisk FREE DEMO Professional Feature Version Version Securely overwrites and destroys all data on physical ..ò drive or logical partition Supports IDE / ATA / SCSI drives ..ò Supports Fixed Disks, Floppies, Zip Drives, FlashMedia ..ò drives Supports large format drives (more than 8GB) ..ò Supports Command Line mode (can be run with no user ..ò interaction) Operates from a floppy disk ..ò Erases with one-pass zeros ..ò Erases with one-pass random characters ò Erases with user-defined number of passes (up to 99) ò US Department of Defense 5220.22-M compliant ò German VISTR compliant ò Russian GOST p50739-95 compliant ò Gutmann method compliant ò Customized Security Levels ..ò Supports all detected hard disk drives ..ò Erasing report is created and can be saved as a file ..ò Displays detected drive and partition information ..ò Data verification performed after erasing is completed ..ò Lightweight installation (only about 1MB) ..ò Disk Viewer allows previewing of any sectors on a drive ..ò Scans drives and previews files before erasing on FAT, ..ò FAT32 and NTFS file systems WhatÆs New in Version 3.0 ò When the cursor is positioned on the logical drive, pressing [Enter] scans the drive, allowing you to preview all files and folders. In this way, you can check one last time - to be certain you have selected the correct drive before erasing data permanently. ò Scans and previews files in all major file systems (FAT, FAT32, NTFS, NTFS5) RUNNING ACTIVE@ 3 KILLDISK This chapter describes how to use the applicat ò Preparing a DOS-bootable Floppy Disk ò Modes of Operation: ò DOS Interactive Mode ò DOS Command Line Mode ò DOS Autoexecute Mode ion. The chapterÆs sections are: Preparing a Active@ KillDisk is a powerful utility with a small footprint. It is small enough to DOS-Bootable operate from a single floppy drive in a Microsoft DOS environment. This can be Floppy Disk useful in a number of situations. For example, a computer technician who is assigned to erase the data on PCs with hard drives containing Windows operating systems or operating systems other than DOS or Windows, can use a single DOS-bootable floppy to erase all data. This chapter describes the steps to create a DOS-bootable floppy (a startup disk) and run the utility. If you have a bootable floppy, skip to the Copying Active@ KillDisk to a Floppy section, below. System Formatting To prepare a bootable floppy from MS-DOS, Windows 95/98/ME/XP, put a blank 3.5-inch floppy in the floppy drive (drive a:) and follow the appropriate instructions below: Windows 95/98 MS-DOS or Command Prompt Mode 1 On the screen, type the format command as follows: FORMAT A: /S 2 Follow on-screen messages until process is complete. Windows 95/98/ME Operating System 1 Click the Start button and click Settings > Control Panel. 2 From the Control Panel screen, click Add/Remove Programs. 3 In the Add/Remove Programs screen, click the Startup Disk tab. 4 Click Startup Disk... and follow the screen instructions until the process is complete. 10 CHAPTER 3: RUNNING ACTIVE@ KILLDISK Windows XP Operating System 1 Click Start. Click My Computer. 2 Right-click A: drive. 3 From the drop-down menu, click Format... 4 Enable the checkbox beside Create an MS-DOS startup disk. 5 Click the Start button and follow the screen instructions until the process is complete. Copying Active@ Copy the Active@ KillDisk file (KILLDISK.EXE) to the bootable floppy disk or KillDisk to a Floppy startup disk in drive a:. If you donÆt have the Active@ KillDisk file, download it from http://www.killdisk.com. After copying the file onto the floppy disk, remove it from the floppy drive. Labeling the Disk If you plan to use Active@ KillDisk in Command Line mode, please skip the next section and read Boot to DOS (Command Line Mode). Once preparation of the bootable 3.5-inch floppy disk is complete, you are ready to begin removing data. One-Step Method Combine all the above steps into one by navigating to our Web site. Download and run Bootable Floppy Disk Creator for Active@ KillDisk. Once you have installed Active@ KillDisk on the floppy, you are ready to boot from the floppy and use the software for disk erasing. Modes of Operation Active@ KillDisk can be used three ways: ò DOS Interactive Mode ò Command Line Mode ò Autoexecute Mode It is wise to label the floppy disk to identify the way you plan to use Active@ KillDisk. DOS Interactive Mode and Command Line Mode are similar in that you can control what happens after the utility has started. In Autoexecute Mode, however, Active@ KillDisk starts immediately upon completion of the bootstrap startup (depending on the automatic settings). Modes of Operation 11 DOS Interactive Mode 1 2 3 4 5 This section describes using the DOS Interactive screens. For ôhands-offö operation, please see the next section, below. Here are the steps for interactive operation: With the PC power off, insert the Active@ KillDisk floppy disk into drive A:. Start the PC by turning on the power. The screen displays the Microsoft DOS prompt. At the DOS prompt, run Active@ KillDisk by typing: KILLDISK.EXE The Detected Physical Devices screen appears as below: Figure 3-1 Detected Physical Devices All system hard drives and floppy drives are displayed in the left pane along with their system information in the right pane. Change the position cursor using the keyboard [Down] and [Up] arrow keys. Information in the right pane changes according to the structure of the detected devices. Hard drive devices are numbered by the system BIOS. A system with a single hard drive displays it as number 80h. Subsequent hard drive devices are numbered consecutively. For example the second device is shown as 81h. Be certain that the drive you are pointing to is the one that you want to erase. All data is permanently erased with no chance for recovery. 12 CHAPTER 3: RUNNING ACTIVE@ KILLDISK If there is any doubt about which drive to select, preview the sectors in the device by pressing [Ctrl + s]. The screen appears, as below: Figure 3-2 Preview Sector Scroll up and down using the keyboard arrow keys, [Page Up], [Page Down], [Home] and [End] navigation keys. Jump to a specific sector using [Ctrl + g]. When you are satisfied with the identification of the device, press [Esc] to exit this screen. 6 When you have selected the device to erase, move the cursor to that device and press [F10] on the keyboard. The Configuration screen appears. Figure 3-3 Configuration Screen Using the keyboard arrow keys, select the feature that you want to configure. Press [Enter] to make a change. To assist with options presented in this screen, please refer to the table on the following page. Modes of Operation 13 Table 3-1 Erase Parameters Configuration Feature Default Options Erase Method US DoD 5220.22M One pass zeros One pass random US DoD 5220.22M German VSITR Russian GOST p-50739-95 Gutmann User Defined Number of Passes (For descriptions of these options see ANOTHER PLACE, below.) Passes 3 If User Defined Number of Passes is selected in the line above, this number may be changed. Otherwise this line displays the standard number of passes for the selected erase method. Verification Enabled / 40% Enabled: Utility inspects the work done by KILLDISK to verify that the attempt was successful. The percentage shown indicates how much of the drive is verified. Disabled: Verification is not performed Retry Attempts 5 If the process encounters an IO error, the number of times the operation repeats before displaying an error message. Repeating the operation sometimes helps to overcome IO problems. Ignore Errors Disabled Enabled: Each time the read heads encounter a read-write error, a message appears that requires confirmation by the user. Disabled: Error messages are not displayed. Clear Log File before Start Enabled Skip Confirmation Disabled Next step confirmation screen does not appear. The Confirm Action screen appears. Figure 3-4 Confirm Action 7 This is the final step before removing data from the selected drive for ever. Once the process has started, you may stop it by pressing the [Esc] key. 14 CHAPTER 3: RUNNING ACTIVE@ KILLDISK Type ERASE-ALL-DATA and press [Enter]. Progress of the erasing procedure is monitored in the Disk Erasing screen, similar to the one below: Figure 3-5 Disk Erasing in Progress 8 If you wish to stop the process for any reason after it has begun, press the [Esc] key. Please note, however that erased data is not recoverable. There is nothing more to do until the end of the disk erasing process. The application operates on its own without user intervention. If there are any errors, for example due to bad clusters, they are reported on the Interactive screen. If such a message appears, it is possible to cancel the operation (by pressing [Esc]), or continue erasing data. DOS Command Line Mode 15 DOS Command Line Mode This section describes running Active@ KillDisk in Command Line mode. Follow these steps: 1 With the PC power off, insert the Active@ KillDisk floppy disk into drive A: 2 Start the PC by turning on the power. The screen displays the Microsoft DOS prompt. 3 At the DOS prompt, display Active@ KillDisk parameters by typing: A:\>killdisk -? A list of parameters is displayed. Explanations of the parameters can be found in the table on the following page. 4 Key the command and parameters into the DOS screen at the prompt. Here is an example: A:\killdisk -eraseallhdds -erasemethod=6 -passes=7 -noconfirmation In the example above, data on all hard drives is erased in seven passes without user confirmation. 5 Press [Enter] to complete the command and start the process. After operation has completed successfully information on how drives have been erased is displayed on the screen. 16 CHAPTER 3: RUNNING ACTIVE@ KILLDISK Table 3-2 Command Line Parameters Parameter Defaul t Options no parameter With no parameter, the DOS Interactive screens appear. -erasemethod=[0-6] 0 0 - One pass zeros (quick, low security) 1 - One pass random (quick, low security) 2 - US DoD 5220.22-M (slow, high security) 3 - German VSITR (slow, high security) 4 - Russian GOST p50739-95 (slow, high security) 5 - Gutmann (very slow, highest security) 6 - User Defined Number of Passes (random) -passes=[1 - 99] 1 Number of times the write heads pass over a disk area to overwrite data. Valid only if erasemethod = 6. -verification=[1 - 100] 40 After the data erasing process is complete, the utility reads the disk space to verify that the actions performed by the write head comply with the chosen erasemethod (reading 40% of the area by default). It is a long process. Set the verification to the level that works for you. -retryattempts=[1 - 99] 5 When the drive write head encounters an error in the sector, the utility tries to write in the sector 5 times by default. -erasehdd=[80h - 83h] By default, the utility erases the first logical drive encountered. Use this parameter to direct the erasing procedure to the correct target. -ignoreerrors ON By default, the erasing process stops each time a disk error is encountered. You have the option to continue erasing or to stop the process and deal with the error. When this parameter is used, all errors are ignored. -clearlog ON When a drive is erased, a log file is kept. By default, this log is cleared at the start of the erasing process. The log file is stored in the same folder where the software is located. -noconfirmation ON Skip confirmation steps before erasing starts. By default, confirmation steps appear in command line mode for each hard drive or floppy as follows: Are you sure? -test If you are having difficulty with Active@ KillDisk, use this parameter to create a hardware info file to be sent to our technical support specialists. -eraseallhdds Erase all detected hard disk drives -help or -? Display this list of parameters. Autoexecute Mode 17 Autoexecute Mode You can start Active@ KillDisk with a DOS auto-executable batch file. Include the command line containing call of the program and parameters. Follow these steps: 1 In the Microsoft DOS screen, open a new autoexec.bat file or edit an existing one with the following command: A:\>edit autoexec.bat The Microsoft DOS file edit screen appears. 2 Enter the command line and parameters as needed. Here is an example: killdisk -erasehdd=80h -erasemethod=6 -passes=1 -ignoreerrors In the example above, the first detected hard disk is erased in one pass. Confirmations are encountered and errors are ignored. 3 Save the autoexec.bat file in the root directory of the system floppy disk and exit the edit utility. 4 Remove the floppy from this floppy drive. 5 The floppy is now ready for automatic data erasing. Erasing Data Using To erase data using Autoexecute Mode, follow these steps: Autoexecute 1 Go to the machine that requires data erasing 2 With the PC power off, insert the Active@ KillDisk Automatic Mode floppy disk into drive A: 3 Start the PC by turning on the power. 4 The PC indicates booting into DOS. The data erase process begins. 18 CHAPTER 3: RUNNING ACTIVE@ KILLDISK Erasing Logical Drives (Partitions) In all previous examples in this chapter, the process has removed data from a physical drive. Using a similar method, you can erase logical disks and partitions, and even ôUnallocatedö areas where partitions existed and the area was damaged, or the area is not visible by the current operating system. Open the DOS Interactive Mode screen and follow the steps below. 1 The Detected Physical Devices screen appears as below: Figure 3-6 Detected Physical Devices All system hard drives and floppy drives are displayed in the left pane along with their system information in the right pane. 2 Position the cursor over a logical disk or an Unallocated area. A set of options appears in the lower pane of this window. 3 Press [Ctrl + S] to open Disk Viewer and preview all sectors of this drive 4 When positioned on a logical drive, press [Enter] to scan the drive and preview files and folders on the drive. This option allows you to thoroughly check the driveÆs folders, hidden and visible files and previously deleted files before erasing data. Erasing Logical Drives (Partitions) 19 When you press [Enter], an activity bar appears while the drive contents are scanned. After the scan has completed, the contents of the drive are displayed similar to the figure below: lisplFigure 3-7 Scan Resuts Day Navigate up and down the displayed list using up and down arrows or Page Up and Page Down keys. Press [Enter] to open a folder and view the contents. Similarly, press [Enter] to open Disk Viewer and view the contents of a file. Press [Esc] when finished viewing to return to the Detected Physical Devices window. 5 In the Detected Physical Devices window, press [F10] to securely remove data. 20 CHAPTER 3: RUNNING ACTIVE@ KILLDISK Erase Operation Complete After operation is completed successfully, information on how drives have been erased is displayed similar to the data below: ------------- Erase Session ----------------------- Active@ KillDisk started at: Thu Feb 20 11:56:51 2003 Target: Floppy (00h) 1.40MB Erase method: US DoD 5220.22-M Passes:3 Verification:40% (completed successfully) Time taken: 00:01:26 Total number of erased device(s), partition(s): 1 If the process encountered errors, for example from bad clusters, a summary of errors would be presented in this report. Use the keyboard arrow keys to scroll through the report. Details of this report are saved to a log file located in the same order from which you started Active@ KillDisk. COMMON QUESTIONS I cannot boot the There are many possible reasons that you cannot boot from a floppy. Please machine from a consult this troubleshooting chart: floppy. What is wrong? Table 4-1 Troubleshooting Floppy Disk Problems Problem Solution Active@ KillDisk runs in the Microsoft DOS environment. As it can be installed easily onto a bootable floppy disk, it does not matter which operating system is installed on the machine hard drive. If you can boot in DOS mode from the boot diskette, you can detect and erase any drives independent of the installed Operating System. Active@ KillDisk communicates with the system board Basic Input-Output Subsystem (BIOS) functions to access hardware directly. It uses Logical Block Addressing (LBA) access if necessary to clean FAT32 drives more than 8 Gb in size. To erase data it overwrites all addressable locations on the drive with a character or character set defined for a particular method. Floppy disk is not bootable or damaged. With the floppy in drive A:, verify whether or not system files (COMMAND.COM, etc.) are located on floppy. If the disk directory can be read and system files appear by name, the disk or some files on the disk may be damaged. On a DOS or Windows PC, run SCANDISK.EXE to check for damaged areas on the disk surface. Alternately, prepare and test another bootable floppy disk. Machine has boot priority for Hard Disk Drives, or another device set higher than for Floppy Drives. Open the low-level setup screen, usually by pressing [F1] or [Delete] on the keyboard during PC startup. These setup parameters build structure in the BIOS. Locate the section about Boot Device Priority, or similar. This section allows you to set the search order for types of boot devices. When the screen opens, a list of boot devices appears. Typical devices on this list are Hard Drives, CD ROM drives, Floppy Drives and Network Boot option. If the floppy device has been disabled, enable it (provided you have a floppy disk installed). The priority should indicate that the floppy device is the number one device the BIOS consults when searching for boot instructions. If Floppy Drives is at the top of the list, that is usually the indicator. Which operating systems are supported by Active@ KillDisk? How is the data erased? 22 CHAPTER 4: COMMON QUESTIONS For example, to conform to US DoD 5220.22-M security standard, it overwrites locations on the drive three times using the following: ò First time with zeros (0x00) ò Second time with 0xFF ò Third time with random characters When using User Defined Number of Passes, it overwrites each time with random characters. 5 ERASING PARAMETERS This chapter describes the parameters used with various erasing methods. Number of Passes One Pass Zeros or One Pass Random User Defined US DoD 5220.22-M German VSITR Russian GOST p50739-95 Gutmann When using One Pass Zeros or One Pass Random, the number of passes is fixed and cannot be changed. When the write head passes through a sector, it writes only zeros or a series of random characters. For User Defined method, the user can indicate the number of times the write head passes over each sector. Each overwriting pass is performed with a buffer containing random characters. The write head passes over each sector three times. The first time with zeros (0x00), second time with 0xFF and the third time with random characters. Final pass is to verify random characters by reading. The write head passes over each sector seven times. The write head passes over each sector five times. The write head passes over each sector 35 times. For details about this, the most secure data clearing standard, you can read the original article at the link below: <http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgutool/pubs/secure_del.html> Verification After erasing is complete you can direct software to perform verification of the surface on the drive to be sure that the last overwriting pass was performed properly and data residing on drive matches data written by the erasing process. Because verification is a long process, you can specify a percentage of the surface to be verified. You can also turn the verification off completely. 24 CHAPTER 5: ERASING PARAMETERS Retry Attempts If an error is encountered while writing data onto the drive (for example, due to physical damage on the drive's surface), Active@ KillDisk tries to perform the operation again. You can specify number of retries to be performed. Sometimes a damaged sector can be overwritten if the drive is not completely damaged, after several retries. Ignore Errors If this option is turned on, error messages will not be displayed while data erasing or verification is in progress. While displaying error messages have been ignored, all information about these errors are written to the KILLDISK.LOG file. They are displayed after the process is complete in the final Erasing Report. Clear Log File If this option is turned on, KILLDISK.LOG log file truncates before erasing before Start starts. After erasing is completed, the log file contains information only about the last session. If this option is turned off, KILLDISK.LOG log file will not be truncated and information about the last erasing session appends to the end of the file. Skip Confirmation The confirmation step happens when the user types ERASE-ALL-DATA as the final step before the erasing process starts. If Skip Confirmation is turned on, the request for confirmation is skipped. This option is typically to be used by advanced users in order to speed up the process. Turning off this option (default state) is safer because you have one last chance to ensure that data from the correct drive location is going to be erased completely with no possibility of future data recovery.