CRUSH YOUR HARD DRIVE! ARE THEY NUTS?

[mrd31486]

Originally posted by: 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.

True! but, unless you DO have info like that on your 280 GB hard drive to cover up, you might as well sell the thing for what it's worth. Just because it's possible doesn't mean everyone is going to do it. & if you're that damn paranoid, get Allstate's identity theft coverage! How can you go wrong wtih allstate? LOL

Besides, who the heck would actually trust their computer with important info?

 

[Chadder007]

Originally posted by: MercenaryForHire
DBan

- M4H

Schweet.

 

[drum]

Originally posted by: ericlala
i dont mind sharing the porn

the world needs more generosity like this. :thumbsup:

 

[MrX8503]

the only way to get rid of the information is to save a new file over the old file. This is the only way.

 

[bobsmith1492]

Tell me, WHY, exactly, are 103 posters here so worried about protecting the data on their hard drive? I really don't care; I've got nothing to hide.

 

[wwswimming]

the only time i've had to take care of this professionally, it was for a customer who'd bought a 286-25 (yes, back in those old days.)

i bought it from a "clone shop" in Fremont, a place i had found to be uber-reliable on previous purchases, plus willing to let me in the back to talk with the techs.

so i got that 286-25 back to the customer's office, they were subletting from an advertising agency in San Fran. the guy i worked for was wrote training manuals & stuff for companies like, well, automotive repair chains.

when the 286-25 crashed, i opened it up, and found that a disk was hanging by one loose screw.

as it turned out, the person that assembled it was fresh out of Heald or some other tech. school. and, they were a woman. just hadn't learned to tighten screws down yet when assembling a PC.

the guy i was working for went ballistic, threatened to sue the PC clone shop for $50K, and smashed fancy art glass stuff in his office while i sat in his secretary's chair and wondered if the whole mess was worth the $1000 they were paying me.

anyway, for that $1000 i ought not to have trusted the clone shop, i should have taken the cover off and checked stuff.

the guy i was working for demanded a free upgrade to a 386-33. in the process of returning the 286-25, i knew i needed to wipe the drives. so i used 81,000 copies of some image or WordPerfect file, i forget.

Like writing, "I will double-check my OEM provider's work even if I trust them completely", 81,000 times.

anyway, it sure was educational.

- - -

i have a kiln that melts silver and gold quite effectively, so it'll do aluminum no problem.

so this is my nomination for data-protection - melt the drive down in a graphite crucible, then pour it into a bucket of water and see if it makes a cool-looking shape.

 

[thescreensavers]

cant you just sink it in paint thinner and then drop a match in the container good by HD it will burn inside and probly melt the HD

 

[cessation]

Originally posted by: 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.

I used a program that can find keys on hard drives and decrypt the data.

http://www.elcomsoft.com/aefsdr.html
Advanced EFS Data Recovery (or AEFSDR) is a program to recover (decrypt) files encrypted on NTFS (EFS) partitions created in Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Files are being decrypted even in a case when the system is not bootable and so you cannot log on, and/or some encryption keys have been tampered. Besides, decryption is possible even when Windows is protected using SYSKEY. AEFSDR effectively (and instantly) decrypts the files protected under all versions Windows Server 2003 (Standard and Enterprise), Windows XP (including Service Packs 1 and 2) and Windows 2000 (including Service Packs 1, 2, 3 and 4).