source: https://sourceforge.net/p/dban/discussion/208932/thread/cb591b59/
Question:
Trouble in running DBAN on Dell notebook (Vista Home Premium, 64-bit).
Booted from the CD, but got the "PCI sysfs" error and the program just hung.
Based on research in this forum, tried seeing if there was a media card reader needed to disable - but not find one.
Came across another good suggestion - using the "nwipe" ISO (forked from DBAN's dwipe) included in Parted Magic.
This method seems to be working (DoD Short wiping is ongoing), but want to make sure DoD Short on nwipe is just as effective as DoD short on DBAN.
Parted Magic has a GUI and I was instructed to remove the boot media after Parted Magic booted completely.
Just wondering how nwipe successfully erases hard drive without destroying itself in the process.
I don't believe I created a partition of any kind - when Parted Magic booted, I just started nwipe.
Answer:
I'm the author of nwipe, and can tell you that the wiping code for DBAN and nwipe is exactly the same (nwipe is a fork of the DBAN software).
Therefore, the effectiveness of the wipe is identical.
Parted Magic loads itself into memory, which means the CD can be removed.
It doesn't rely on a hard disk to store anything, which allows it to completely wipe the disk without affecting itself.