dwipe
dwipe is a tool to wipe disks and partitions for Linux to help secure your data. dwipe aims to reduce mistakes by providing ample information about your devices during selection.
Quick Comparison
| Feature | dwipe | nwipe | shred | dd |
|---|
| Firmware wipes (SATA/NVMe secure erase) | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Software wipes (Zero, Pseudo Random) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ |
| Interactive TUI | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Multiple simultaneous wipes | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Persistent wipe state | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Hot-swap detection / release | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Device/partition blocking | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Resume interrupted software wipes | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Wipe operation logging | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Mount detection/prevention | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Fast Statistical sampling verification | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Certified destruction (DoD/Gutmann standards, full verification, certificates) | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
- Firmware wipes (SATA/NVMe) are the most complete and fastest: Hardware-accelerated erase operates at controller level (seconds to minutes), clears all drive mappings, but requires whole-device erase with no progress reporting or visible verification.
- Software wipes with one-pass zeros are sufficient: Modern drives (post-2001) are reliably wiped with a single pass of zeros (NIST SP 800-88). Multi-pass modes are available for additional confidence but provide no additional security guarantee.
- Verification uses intelligent statistical sampling: Even 1% verification samples across the entire disk via 100 sections, providing comprehensive coverage without full sequential read.
Marquee Features
- Interactive TUI with hot-swap detection - Real-time device list updates as storage changes, newly added devices marked with ^
- Hardware-accelerated firmware wipes - Full support for firmware-level secure erase operations (NVMe Sanitize/Format, SATA ATA Security Erase) that complete in seconds to minutes instead of hours
- Multiple simultaneous wipes - Start wipes on multiple devices at once with individual progress tracking and completion states
- Persistent state tracking - Wipe status survives reboots; partially wiped and completed states persist on the device (can resume wipes across power cycles)
- Smart device identification - Uses UUID/PARTUUID/serial numbers for stable device tracking across reconnections
- Safety protections - Prevents wiping mounted devices, detects overlapping wipes, supports device blocking, inline confirmation prompts
- Intelligent verification with statistical sampling - Fast verification that covers entire disk even at low percentages (1% verification samples from all 100 disk sections)
- Direct I/O to disk - Fast and efficient wiping that avoids page cache pollution with automatic slowdown/stall detection and graceful abort
- Multiple color themes - Terminal color themes designed for readability with context-sensitive visual feedback (mounted devices dimmed, active wipes bright)
- Wipe history with logging - Detailed wipe history viewer shows timestamps, filesystems, labels, and completion percentages with persistent records
Requirements
- Linux operating system (uses
/dev/, /sys/, /proc/ interfaces)
- Python 3.10 or higher
- Root/sudo privileges (automatically requested when you run the tool)
- lsblk utility (usually pre-installed on most Linux distributions)
- nvme-cli - For NVMe operations (Sanitize/Format detection)
- hdparm - For SATA operations (ATA Security Erase detection)
Optional (for clipboard copy in history screen):
- xclip or xsel - For X11 clipboard (
apt install xclip or xsel)
- wl-clipboard - For Wayland clipboard (
apt install wl-clipboard)
- SSH sessions use OSC 52 terminal escape (no extra packages needed)
Installation
- Recommended (using pipx):
pipx install dwipe
- Verify installation:
dwipe --help
- Uninstall:
pipx uninstall dwipe
Quick Start (please READ THIS, at least)
- Install
dwipe
- Run
dwipe from a terminal (sudo will be requested automatically)
- Observe the context-sensitive help on the first line
- Navigate with arrow keys or vi-like keys (j/k)
- Press ? for full help screen
- When you press
w to wipe a drive, you must type the abbreviation (e.g., Rand, Zero, Crypto); wipes are presented from least to most recommended, and the last one is marked with *. Normally, pick the last choice, but ...
- Drives and the OS often lie about drive type. Outwit them both:
- For spinning HDDs, always use
Rand or Zero (interruptible, shows progress).
- For SSDs, always use firmware wipes if available (faster, reaches hidden blocks).
- If a drive is 'Frozen', suspend your system briefly and resume;
dwipe auto-detects the resume and rescans. Or press r to rescan manually. The drive should come back unfrozen.
- If a drive is 'Locked', you must unlock it manually (see "Unlock Locked Device" section below). If
dwipe locked it, the password is NULL; otherwise use the password that locked it.
- Hot-swap workflow for SATA drives:
DEL to detach, physically swap drives, then r to rescan (if needed).
Features
dwipe provides comprehensive disk wiping capabilities with safety features:
- Smart device display - Shows disks and partitions with labels, sizes, types, and vendor/model information to help identify devices correctly
- Safety protections - Prevents wiping mounted devices, detects overlapping wipes, supports manual disk blocking
- Hot-swap detection - Updates the device list when storage changes; newly added devices are marked with ^ to make them easy to spot
- Multiple simultaneous wipes - Start wipes on multiple devices at once, with individual progress tracking and completion states
- Flexible wipe modes - Choose between Rand, Zero, Rand+V (with auto-verify), or Zero+V (with auto-verify)
- Device filtering - Filter devices by name/pattern using regex in case of too many for one screen
- Stop capability - Stop individual wipes or all wipes in progress
- Disk blocking - Manually block disks to prevent accidental wiping (blocks hide all partitions)
Note: dwipe shows file system labels, and if not available, the partition label. It is best practice to label partitions and file systems well to make selection easier.
Usage
Simply run dwipe from the command line without arguments: dwipe
Command-Line Options
Note: All preference options use your last saved values as defaults. These defaults are shown in --help and can be changed interactively with keyboard shortcuts. Command-line arguments override saved preferences.
Wipe Configuration
--mode {-V,+V} - Verification mode (default: your last preference)
-V - Wipe without automatic verification+V - Verify device after wipe completes
--passes {1,2,4} - Number of passes for software wipes (default: your last preference)
- Single pass (1) is standard for most use cases
- Multi-pass (2 or 4) alternates between zero and random patterns
--verify-pct {1,3,10,30,100} - Verification percentage (default: your last preference)
- Percentage of disk to verify after wipe (1% = quick spot-check, 100% = full verify)
joedefen/dwipe
