I suppose another way you can do it is to use some sort of magnet like a junkyard crane or a helicopter that is equipped to pick up vehicles. Just turn them on and let the data disappear!
SparkyJJO
Lifer
- May 16, 2002
- 13,357
- 7
- 81
If I upgrade my drive I sell my old one, I just format it first. I figure, who's really gonna bother going through to recover data? Even if they did, there isn't anything personal on it anyway. What I don't like is when I get a used drive (happened to me a couple years ago) and they didn't format but basically pulled it out of their comp and sent it to me, all data intact :roll: hey I don't want your crap
Normal formatting wont do much to "protect" your data, a hard format is better which will overwrite all the data on the drive but that takes a looooooonnnnnggg time even on small hd's, just imagine how long it'll take to overwrite 400gb of data.
In my opinion it would probably be a good idea to get a really strong magnet and leave it on the drive for a day. That should scramble it enough
In my opinion it would probably be a good idea to get a really strong magnet and leave it on the drive for a day. That should scramble it enough
A reformat is VERY easy to retrieve. You can buy off the shelf programs (like Norton System Works) to retrieve that kind of stuff.
Even writing all zeros to the drive is retrievable.
To destroy a drive? Probably not. But i wouldn't sell a drive to somebody if all i did was simply format it. It's VERY easy to retrieve information from a simple format or a format with a single reinstall of OS and programs. I've had to do it quite a few times for my own personal use, and the last time i did was like 5-6 years ago... so i'm sure things have only gotten better/easier now.
RebateMonger
Elite Member
- Dec 24, 2005
- 11,586
- 0
- 0
Funny. When you WANT to LOSE your data it's near-impossible. But when you want to KEEP it, it disappears forever with the slightest mistake.
HybridSquirrel
Diamond Member
- Nov 20, 2005
- 6,161
- 2
- 81
Eraser 5.3 and use the Gutmann erasing method 35 passes This should be good enough for all but the most ... questionable of hard-drive contents. Does take awhile if you have a lot space. You can create a nuke boot disk as well and use Gutmann as you go, :laugh:
Jack Bauer doesn't need data recovery programs - he just stares the computer down until it gives him the information he needs.
- M4H
DoD 5220.22m spec for hard drives is writing a pattern, then its complement, and then a random pattern, totaling 3 passes.
So a pass of 0's then 1's and then a randomized pattern is good enough.
Illinois law requires 10 passes of randomized data. Just a little tidbit of info.
So, if later this year I either sell or donate my PC, do you think this would be safe?
1. Wipe all of my personal folders/documents 35 times using Peter Gutmann method.
2. Wipe entire 80 GB HD 12 times using Wipe Drive (takes 11 hours to wipe it just one time, so it would take almost 6 days to wipe it 12 times)!
1. Wipe all of my personal folders/documents 35 times using Peter Gutmann method.
2. Wipe entire 80 GB HD 12 times using Wipe Drive (takes 11 hours to wipe it just one time, so it would take almost 6 days to wipe it 12 times)!
Exactly.
Most of you people are being totally unreasonable.
The bottom line is that there are a number of packages that can write zeroes (or random data, which is better) to a drive, and you can use multiple writes if you want. If you overwrite the entire drive more than once, there is simply no reasonable way to recovery the data.
Even if you're doing something horribly illegal, it's not going to be worth the effort to try and recover the data unless it's a matter of national security. To be safe, though, I suppose if you're a total freak with porn of questionable legality, you'd want to do seven passes like the Department of Defense mandates.
If you're just worried about someone digging your credit card number off the hard drive, as long as you zero it out once that's not an issue. Nobody's going to go through the expense of recovering a zeroed-out drive just for some low-level fraud.
Magnetic data can be recovered that's been overwritten several times. The black box on an airliner records on a single wire, which loops over and over. They can recover data off those about as far back as eight iterations, which is not something they bother with most of the time. If you think your data is as important as investigating a plane crash, by all means you should make sure the drive is melted into a solid pile of metal to dispose of it.
We use a huge degausser and degauss our harddrives. This is for HIPPA (healthcare) compliance. Kinda fun pulling that drive across the degausser, gives you a nice workout. Just don't get to close with your wallet and credit cards...
People seem confused about the government standards. I think the original one was from 1985. It was Department of Defense standard DoD.5220.22-M. It overwrites the drive 3 times with random data, that data's complement, more random data, then verifies the final set of random data. So everything that was a 1 for the first pass becomes a 0, and everything that was a 0 becomes a 1. It's only three passes and one verification pass. The newer DoD.5200.28-STD is the seven-pass one which I think was adopted in 1995. The passes are:
1) random characters
2) random characters
3) complement of pass 2
4) random characters
5) random characters
6) complement of pass 5
7) random characters
I think it's still just the last pass which is verified.
The Gutmann method is utterly absurd overkill and probably takes more time than it would take to melt the drive using a magnifying glass on a sunny day. Besides, the method of having 35 passes of random data and walking 1001's isn't nearly clever enough to go and make up a name for it like "The Gutmann Method."
Originally posted by: AsianriceX
DoD 5220.22m spec for hard drives is writing a pattern, then its complement, and then a random pattern, totaling 3 passes.
So a pass of 0's then 1's and then a randomized pattern is good enough.
Illinois law requires 10 passes of randomized data. Just a little tidbit of info.
Kinda sad that everybody agrees that 7-passes is more than enough for national security, but some idiot bureaucrat has decided that Illinois just can't be sure until they get to 10.
Summary of DOD standards
As you can see, for top secret information, you must degauss or destroy the drive.
"d. Overwrite all addressable locations with a character, its complement, then a random character and verify. THIS METHOD IS NOT APPROVED FOR SANITIZING MEDIA THAT CONTAINS TOP SECRET INFORMATION."
As you can see, for top secret information, you must degauss or destroy the drive.
"d. Overwrite all addressable locations with a character, its complement, then a random character and verify. THIS METHOD IS NOT APPROVED FOR SANITIZING MEDIA THAT CONTAINS TOP SECRET INFORMATION."
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