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MisterBigDude t1_j9r7dqp wrote

Reply to comment by veritanuda in Got a tech question or want to discuss tech? Bi-Weekly /r/Technology Tech Support / General Discussion Thread by veritanuda

Thanks, but wouldn’t I need to be able to log into the laptops to use that method? Or are you implying that I would remove each drive and connect it to another computer to run that software?

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veritanuda OP t1_j9r8c5b wrote

No.. you can boot the ISO off a USB and it should erase it. Assuming it is not SSD if it is then you need a live recovery/rescue image you can use to wipe the disks with secure erase.

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MisterBigDude t1_j9ra4bu wrote

> you can boot the ISO off a USB

I am not familiar with ISO, will need to figure out what you are suggesting. (Sorry, I have decades of PC experience but not that type of technical expertise.)

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veritanuda OP t1_j9uhuiq wrote

ISO is short for ISO 9660 which is the CD image spec. It just means burning a CD image to a USB device to boot off.

Essentially, you can boot PCs off removable media, and typically that is some sort of USB device with an alternative OS on it. You might have in your time booted off a physical CD as a recovery option. Because physical media has ceases to become popular, USB sticks have replaced them, but the mechanism is the same,

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