CRUSH YOUR HARD DRIVE! ARE THEY NUTS?

[JimPhelpsMI]

Hi, One comment: Don't beleive everything you see on Television!

 

[imported_rod]

I just bought a 2nd-hand HDD, and the guy didn't even format it. He just deleted all his files and emptied the recycle bin.

I wonder if he used net banking?...

RoD

 

[deadseasquirrel]

I kinda feel sorry for the poor guy that steals my identity. 2 ex-wives, 4 kids, debt up to my ears, dead-end job, criminal record, no-fly list, and warrants in several states.... let's see how long he makes it as me.

just kiddin, just kiddin... i actually only have 3 kids. ;-)

 

[AndrewZorn]

you dont even need to write zeros really, just copy the same thing 10000000000000000 times to fill up the HDD, then format it, the most they willb e able to recover would be that one image

 

[aLeoN]

Ah I can't believe no one suggested this before:

Reformat, and install Windows ME.

 

[gsellis]

BTW, I still laugh at the title. It is named like a thread that would have been locked in ATOT in about 15 minutes

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: JEDIYoda
pardon me if I seem amused by this thread.....
But it really is kind of a rediculous thread if you stop and think about it.
There are no programs available that can wipe your hard drive totally clean.
But with that said.....how many of us would know how to recover information from a hard drive we bought from say joe schmoo who told us the harddrive was clean...or at the very least reformatted???
Sure you could pay $$$ for a private company to TRY to extract information for you....
How many of us are doing things that would require the FBI or some other government agency to snag our computer and take information off the harddrive?

See my points??

Also....mind you I am assumming that I am not talking to a bunch of fools when I say this....
But there are certain things you never ever store on your harddrive....
credit card numbers...important telephone numbers....addresses......etc...

all my clients are doctors. their offices keep ALL that info about their patients on their HardDrives. do you honestly think i would be able to sell them computers systems etc only to tell them, now don't keep ANY patient personal information on the computers. that would just be stupid.

besides, who says the paper (alternative to keeping info on computers) is any more secure than the computer.

that said, this issue is very important for my clients. patient database of 5000 or more patients. name, address, SS#, DOB, Phone number all in there and many times names of emergency contacts (very often a parent). wow, do you have any idea what identity thieves can do with that information.

so, yes, for my clients, these extremes are necessary.

 

[athlonxp2200]

Wow, honestly I must say that I am amazed at just how many views and posts this thread got. I didn't think their would be so many.

 

[JackBurton]

I GDISK my drives with a DoD switch (7 pass random character wipe) and then take apart the hard drive and sand both sides of the platters down. After that I bend the platters to make sure they won't spin right and then I dispose of them (platters) in different trash bins. I never sell old hard drives. If you can get data off those things, you've earned it.

 

[Hulk]

When I sell a drive I delete all my info. Then I record via my tv tuner until the drive is full. Then delete all files and do it one more time.

Finally I format and pull the drive.

I figure if anyone can pull my files out from two layers of written data AND then decrypt my important files they're coming for me one way or another!

 

[3chordcharlie]

By the time you go to the effort of wiping an old hard drive, it would seem more cost-effective to just smash it and buy a new one.

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
By the time you go to the effort of wiping an old hard drive, it would seem more cost-effective to just smash it and buy a new one.

Cost effective? How much more cost effective could FREE be?

 

[athlonxp2200]

That's for sure.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
By the time you go to the effort of wiping an old hard drive, it would seem more cost-effective to just smash it and buy a new one.

Cost effective? How much more cost effective could FREE be?

What's your time and absolute security worth?

How much is a 3-5 year old hdd worth?

 

[ManBearPig]

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger
Intelligence agencies have a high sucess rate of reading data from a drive that has been formatted, written with patterns multiple times, cut into pieces and melted.

how do you know?

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: potato28
The only way to completely destroy the data is to destroy the drive itself. Unless you would take the risk of having idenity theft, BURN THE DRIVE WITH THERMITE!!!

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie

Originally posted by: JackBurton

Originally posted by: 3chordcharlie
By the time you go to the effort of wiping an old hard drive, it would seem more cost-effective to just smash it and buy a new one.

Cost effective? How much more cost effective could FREE be?

What's your time and absolute security worth?

How much is a 3-5 year old hdd worth?

I don't know what you are getting at. My process is more secure than just smashing a drive. You are going to have a TOUGH time just smashing a drive and destroying all the data without taking it apart. My method would be faster, and safer. Well, unless you have an active volcano around you and you just chunk it in. Now THAT is pretty damn safe. I'll give you that.

The wipe process I'll leaving running overnight so it takes none of my time. Taking the drive apart and sanding it takes about 15-20mins. I'd say that is a pretty damn safe and efficient process.

 

[JackBurton]

Originally posted by: Heen05

Originally posted by: cKGunslinger
Intelligence agencies have a high sucess rate of reading data from a drive that has been formatted, written with patterns multiple times, cut into pieces and melted.

how do you know?

Exactly. I call complete bullsh!t. I like the part about melted. :roll:

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

all my clients are doctors. their offices keep ALL that info about their patients on their HardDrives. do you honestly think i would be able to sell them computers systems etc only to tell them, now don't keep ANY patient personal information on the computers. that would just be stupid.

besides, who says the paper (alternative to keeping info on computers) is any more secure than the computer.

that said, this issue is very important for my clients. patient database of 5000 or more patients. name, address, SS#, DOB, Phone number all in there and many times names of emergency contacts (very often a parent). wow, do you have any idea what identity thieves can do with that information.

so, yes, for my clients, these extremes are necessary.

A thought - NTFS file encryption if they're using an OS capable of it. Password protect the OS, and encrypt the important files. Someone gets the hard drive, can't boot up Windows, can't get the encryption key, and can't decrypt the files. Would that be a viable solution? Or is there an easy way to bypass Win2k/XP's password requirement?

 

[zcwilkins]

Originally posted by: potato28
The only way to completely destroy the data is to destroy the drive itself. Unless you would take the risk of having idenity theft, BURN THE DRIVE WITH THERMITE!!!

That's the best idea I've ever heard, think I might try that out...

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: PlatinumGold

all my clients are doctors. their offices keep ALL that info about their patients on their HardDrives. do you honestly think i would be able to sell them computers systems etc only to tell them, now don't keep ANY patient personal information on the computers. that would just be stupid.

besides, who says the paper (alternative to keeping info on computers) is any more secure than the computer.

that said, this issue is very important for my clients. patient database of 5000 or more patients. name, address, SS#, DOB, Phone number all in there and many times names of emergency contacts (very often a parent). wow, do you have any idea what identity thieves can do with that information.

so, yes, for my clients, these extremes are necessary.

A thought - NTFS file encryption if they're using an OS capable of it. Password protect the OS, and encrypt the important files. Someone gets the hard drive, can't boot up Windows, can't get the encryption key, and can't decrypt the files. Would that be a viable solution? Or is there an easy way to bypass Win2k/XP's password requirement?

AFAIK windows encryption is one of the few things MS did that really works, once it's encrypted, it's not easy to get access without encryption key.

 

[AndrewZorn]

ive been able to get my stuff like that. i had an XP install with private folders, and i didnt know the password. at all. im not even l337 and i got my stuff back after googling for a while.

 

[PlatinumGold]

Originally posted by: AndrewZorn
ive been able to get my stuff like that. i had an XP install with private folders, and i didnt know the password. at all. im not even l337 and i got my stuff back after googling for a while.

private or ENCRYPTED?? just because you forgot the password to the account that had ownership of the file does not mean that file was ENCRYPTED. not the same thing.

AFAIK, MS encryption is pretty secure.

 

[craig0ry]

Okay honestly, if you have 280 gb of evidence that would incriminate you and the rest of your child porn ring on your HD, you aren't going to sit around wiping the drive for 18 hours. Just rip it out of the machine and PHYSICALLY damage it as best as possible. I don't care what people are saying in this thread - when you have shredded, mangled, and/or melted your platters no one is going to even try to recover the data unless you had the plans for a white house bombing on that drive.

 

[goobernoodles]

mmm.... theerrrmmiiiiteeee