How to use DBAN on a USB drive

Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) is a software utility used to wipe hard drives clean. If you would like to use your DBAN program through a USB flash drive, you can do it using a few different pieces of software. Once the DBAN software is loaded onto the flash drive, you will be able to wipe hard drives through the USB port on your computer systems. You don't have to be a computer technician to load the DBAN software on your USB flash drive. You can easily do it yourself.

Open your web browser and go to the DBAN website (see Resources). Once the website loads, choose the most recent version of the DBAN software and download it.

Click on your desktop as the download destination in the menu and then click "OK." Wait for the DBAN.ISO file to start downloading. This will take a few minutes to complete.

Insert your USB flash drive into one of your USB ports on your computer.

Go to the Universal USB Installer website (see Resources). Click on the "Download UUI" button on the page. Choose your desktop as the download destination and click "OK" to download the file. This will take a few minutes to complete.

Load the Universal USB Installer by double-clicking on the icon. Select the DBAN.iso icon from the menu on the installer and click the "OK" button to install the ISO file on your USB flash drive.

Restart your computer and follow the on-screen instructions to boot the BIOS. You should see a message that reads "Press F10 to Load BIOS" or something similar.

Use the arrow keys to scroll over to the "Boot" menu. Select the USB port as the boot option. Click the "Save and Exit" option to boot your computer from the USB port. The DBAN menu will load.