Can the government tell you wiped your hd?

[Bird222]

Is it best to wipe files with random data or does it matter?

 

[MagnusTheBrewer]

Short answer yes, the government can tell if you wiped your HDD and over writing with random data merely confirms it.

 

[lxskllr]

What's the threat here? There's nothing wrong with wiping your hd. They can think anything they want, but you're in the clear. Under subpeona, or they were recently poking around for $reasons? You'll be in for a world of hurt if they think you're destroying evidence.

 

[solidstar]

My, my, my. This is a quick YES. If you're into some shady stuff then there's reason you're worried about this degree of "nosiness". If you're conscience is clear, then you can wipe date off your hd all you want

 

[Bird222]

Is there a wipe pattern that is least likely to draw suspicion?

 

[lxskllr]

I don't know what you're up to, but hds are cheap. I'd open it up, take out the magnets(cause magnets are fun!), beat the hell out of the platters, then throw it out. Buy a new drive.

Otherwise, I'd create an encrypted container on the drive, and play around with it. "I was just learning drive encryption".

 

[Bird222]

I'm not up to anything. I see things in the news or wherever and I get curious about it. I know you can physically destroy drives but I am curious about wiping them.

 

[KillerBee]

Dear Hillary,
You could try the hidden encrypted partition technique which allows for “plausible deniability”- very useful in case you are brought up to testify before Congress.

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-hidden-partition-truecrypt-7/

* I think Veracrypt might be a better choice than using Truecrypt

 

[John Connor]

Bleachbit or DBAN. Call it a day. If it's a SSD, Parted Magic will do.

Your welcome.

Oh, pattern? Just use the apparent "DOD 5220 7 pass."

If you are ABSOFREAKINGLUTLY needing to make DAMN sure data is gone (and you don't need to do this) buy a hard drive degausser or burn the HDD in a clay flower pot with dirt using thermite. But that can be extremely dangerous.

Looking atb the price of hard drive degaussers, that would be out of reach. Only the NSA would use those. They are around 3 thousand. Just 7 pass that crap.

 

[Bird222]

Again, I'm not wondering about how to wipe HD's. I am asking what pattern looks the least like a wipe? For example, is all 0's best or all 1's, random or what?

 

[Elixer]

Again, I'm not wondering about how to wipe HD's. I am asking what pattern looks the least like a wipe? For example, is all 0's best or all 1's, random or what?

That is a flawed question.
There is no pattern that can cover up that you wiped.
Think about what was there before, and what is there now.

 

[Bird222]

That is a flawed question.
There is no pattern that can cover up that you wiped.
Think about what was there before, and what is there now.

No, this is what I mean.

1. I have files on my hd that no one knows for certain I have but suspect I might have.
2. I decide to wipe said files.
3. Government gets hd and starts looking at it

Is there a pattern that can be used that would just look like normal empty space on a hd instead of being purposely wiped?

 

[KillerBee]

What's good about the hidden 2nd encrypted partition
You give the govt your password to the first visible encrypted partition with it's noticeably deleted "Yoga" emails but they can't see the hidden 2nd partition with all the good stuff it - just looks like random data

 

[John Connor]

Is there a pattern that can be used that would just look like normal empty space on a hd instead of being purposely wiped?

To answer your question in a nutshell, no. A degausser might be able to do what you want, not sure, But they are around $3,000.

 

[Red Squirrel]

If you just zero it out, it looks quite obvious, if you do random data, less so, but the randomness might still have a somewhat pattern. ex: the fact that it's all random with no readable text or empty space is technically a pattern in itself.

One way to be sure is to do a multi pass wipe with random data + write of zeroes. This makes it near impossible to recover data. Then to hide the fact that you tried to hide the data install a regular OS, programs, etc. Does not really matter what. Download lot of data, just normal stuff. Does not matter if you trust it or not, heck allow a bit of spyware to get installed. Basically you make it look like a normal user's machine. Set the clock back before you install stuff and move the clock around as you install stuff. Will leave time stamps that make it look like an old install and stuff was installed at different time intervals over the course of that OS's "life". Then just format it (not a full format). The hard drive will pretty much look like any random hard drive and not really stand out in any way. At least in theory, I can't really confirm if this would actually work or not.

 

[Bird222]

How does a new hd look before any thing is done to it? Is it all 0's? What does it look like after a partition and format?

 

[John Connor]

There may be data on it before it's formatted from testing.

 

[nakedfrog]

No, this is what I mean.

1. I have files on my hd that no one knows for certain I have but suspect I might have.
2. I decide to wipe said files.
3. Government gets hd and starts looking at it

Is there a pattern that can be used that would just look like normal empty space on a hd instead of being purposely wiped?

2.5. Download 1TB of cute cat videos onto HDD.

 

[Ryland]

How does a new hd look before any thing is done to it? Is it all 0's? What does it look like after a partition and format?

This is what I was thinking. Why not buy a new harddisk and clone it over the old harddisk. Im not sure how anybody could tell that it was anything but an unused disk.

 

[Red Squirrel]

A new hard drive is mostly all 0's. But if it's an old hard drive and you zero it out, it's still going to look kinda suspicious if they know it is not new out of the box. You want to at least fill it with regular data with varying time stamps to make it look used.

 

[Elixer]

No, this is what I mean.

1. I have files on my hd that no one knows for certain I have but suspect I might have.
2. I decide to wipe said files.
3. Government gets hd and starts looking at it

Is there a pattern that can be used that would just look like normal empty space on a hd instead of being purposely wiped?

Why do you care about 3?
If it gets to 3, then, whatever you did in 1, there are other ways they can get the data, and well, you are screwed.
I suggest you go to the District Attorney, explain what & why you did it, and hope for the best.

 

[corkyg]

It may also be possible to mask your disk scrubbing by cloning a like size drive filled with nothing sensitive to the scrubbed drive. Cloning will do a bit by bit copy of an "innocent" drive. Example, you could fill the drive with movies or music. That would overwrite all the zeros.

 

[Mike64]

2.5. Download 1TB of cute cat videos onto HDD.

Example, you could fill the drive with movies or music

And/or basically any other "random" files you can get your hands on. /endofthread. Seriously

And if you're really that paranoid, do it several times over. (PS: Just in case this isn't obvious, it would of course be wise not to write illegally downloaded "random data" to the drive.)

I know a lot of people (like to?) think "the government" are a bunch of incompetent nincompoops but they really aren't (some percentage of the "policymakers" might be, but not the people who do the "actual work"). Anything that isn't actually "random" data (and I do mean "data", of the sort someone might actually store on their hard drive in the real world, not just "random bits") is going to look very obvious to anyone working for "the government" who's given the the drive for analysis. I mean, you don't think they're going to give it to the arresting LEO or a rookie FBI agent who majored in poli sci in college and has been on the job for 2 weeks, do you?

And if you clone a new drive to the old one, don't forget you'll have to reset the S.M.A.R.T. data to match... I myself don't know how to do that (never having had a reason to do so), but I believe that is do-able, though not particularly straightforward... Otherwise, it'll look just a wee bit strange that your hard drive's "data" is saying "I'm only two weeks old", but the SMART table says "I've been used heavily for two years..."

And last, but by no means least, don't get hung up on what is and isn't "proof". "Proof" is simply admissible evidence sufficient to convince a judge or a jury, not to counter every, er, imaginative "possible explanation" a bunch of random adolescent-geeks-on-the-Internet come up with, with or without benefit of recreational psychoative substances...

 

[Red Squirrel]

Yep just fill it with random "mainstream" data. NOT movies or music though, if they find that and can't prove that you paid for it and think you pirated it (admit it, you probably did ), it's basically just as bad as if they found child porn or plans for a home made weapon of mass destruction.

You could also fill it with porn and legal but weird stuff, then format it (quick format) and reinstall windows. It will look like you formatted and tried to hide all your porn and did a bad job of it, they probably won't bother to look any further after that. "just porn, move along". OF course you do this after having done a proper multi pass wipe.

If you REALLY want to make sure send it to Hilary Clinton's IT department.

 

[Mike64]

Yep just fill it with random "mainstream" data. NOT movies or music though, if they find that and can't prove that you paid for it and think you pirated it (admit it, you probably did ), it's basically just as bad as if they found child porn

Hardly...