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Erasing a harddrive

I

IamDonSharp

Member
I have a few older harddrives that I am probably going to be giving away(perhaps posting in freebie section or to trade) but a few of them contain some accounting info that was used during tax time for a few years. The drives have been formatted, but I need to know how to get any kind of file that can be recovered off of it so I'm not putting anybodies personal info out there to exploit. Would I be able to clean everything out permanantly so it can't be recovered, or should I just hold on to the drives so I'm not wrecklessly giving out peoples identities(to those who know how to recover deleted files).

Don Sharp
 
DBAN (Davis Boot and Nuke). Google it. It's a DOS-based Linux utility for nuking hard drives.

I work in the technology department of a bank and this is what we use to wipe drives on legacy machines.
 
Originally posted by: Boztech
DBAN (Davis Boot and Nuke). Google it. It's a DOS-based Linux utility for nuking hard drives.

I work in the technology department of a bank and this is what we use to wipe drives on legacy machines.
Click to expand...


Not really good enough though, if people wanted the data off those drives, they could most likely get it. Only way to be sure is to destroy the drives. I work in the technology department of a company that makes parts for military aircraft, that's what we do.
 
But I'll qualify this in stating, if no one would be willing to pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for your data, then DBAN is good enough 🙂
 
Originally posted by: Ipno
Originally posted by: Boztech
DBAN (Davis Boot and Nuke). Google it. It's a DOS-based Linux utility for nuking hard drives.

I work in the technology department of a bank and this is what we use to wipe drives on legacy machines.
Click to expand...


Not really good enough though, if people wanted the data off those drives, they could most likely get it. Only way to be sure is to destroy the drives. I work in the technology department of a company that makes parts for military aircraft, that's what we do.
Click to expand...

I learned the hard way that the only way to retrieve data from a drive that is wiped with DBAN is to ship the drive off to a recovery center, where the recovery in our case ran $1500 (this was for a 36.4GB drive!)

Obviously it depends on the application but I think in this case DBAN is enough.

 
  1. Download the Ultimate Boot CD, run one the Hard Drive erase tools. Then Run a differant one.
    http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/
  2. Get the biggest drill bit you can find and then drill holes in the Platter (not the spindle). Do not drill the center of the disk where the motor is, but drill the outer edges. It is best to leave the cover on while doing this.
  3. Then get a power saw that can cut through concrete or metal and cut the drive into four pieces.
  4. Drive 150 miles away from civilization in to the desert, take a shovel with you and bury each of the four pieces six feet underground in four differant locations.
  5. Your Data should be safe.


Periodicly check you shoulder or rearview mirror to make sure no one is following or watching you.
 
the US and UK millitary use a 3 stage process...

Wipe it
Grind it
Burn it


1) Wipe to MOD standard ( complies to DOD directive 5220.22-M)
its a 3 stage wipe, first write hex value of 0x00
second write over that with hex value of 0xFF
3rd writes a random hex value overthat.

2) the drives are then ground down to dust and shards which are collected up

3) the dust and shards are melted down in a furnace.


now, personally, i think youl only need the first stage 😛 which can be doon with small utils that come with norton system works such as Wipe Info, or there are other free programs out there than can do the same. but at the end of the day the only way to be certain is to destroy the drive or run it paste one hell of a magnet...
 
Hi, Recovery is not near a easy as TV makes it out to be. There are many free programs to be downloaded to do just what you want. They are sometimes called LOW LEVEL FORMATTERS. Actually they just write ZEROs or patterns over the entire drive. They can be set to repeat as many times as you think necessary. One comes on a boot disk called MAD BOOT. Search an you should find several. Good Luck, Jim
 
Originally posted by: JimPhelpsMI
They are sometimes called LOW LEVEL FORMATTERS. Actually they just write ZEROs or patterns over the entire drive.
Click to expand...

Most hard drive companies make Low Level Formating programs, available on their website. Do this three times to each drive if recovery worries you that much and dump them on someone. Low level formating does write every bit of the drive to zeros and makes information hard if not impossible to recover. However if you are real worried about it I would just find a campfire or furnace and throw the drives in and keep it burning for 8 hours.

 
Originally posted by: GrammatonJP
1. Degauss

2. Destroy

The easy way is just degaussing it. The good units uses stronger magnetic fields making the hdd useless. And if you want, just get the destroyer to crush the thing to bits
Click to expand...



If you read the OP he said he had a few older hard drives he wanted to purge the information on so he could geve them away. I doubt he'll spend $10K or even $14K just to do this once. Way out there.
 
What if we do this.

1 Format HDD
2 Fill completely with absolute Junk data
3 Reformat

I cnat imagine how someone can go back to the previous data once a HDD is filled to teh brim with junk.

Any thoughts?
 
lol How about just using Dban with a guttman wipe

That's what I did , 32 times, good luck getting that without a 6 figure payment
 
As mentioned, unless someone has the cash and you have something they really REALLY REALLY want, one swift run of DBAN should do it. If your paranoid, run it again. I'm sure other utilities will work just as well. Drilling a hole in the platter works too, but unecessary unless you have the tools and the time to waste.
 
Originally posted by: Googer
  1. Download the Ultimate Boot CD, run one the Hard Drive erase tools. Then Run a differant one.
    http://ubcd.sourceforge.net/
  2. Get the biggest drill bit you can find and then drill holes in the Platter (not the spindle). Do not drill the center of the disk where the motor is, but drill the outer edges. It is best to leave the cover on while doing this.
  3. Then get a power saw that can cut through concrete or metal and cut the drive into four pieces.
  4. Drive 150 miles away from civilization in to the desert, take a shovel with you and bury each of the four pieces six feet underground in four differant locations.
  5. Your Data should be safe.


Periodicly check you shoulder or rearview mirror to make sure no one is following or watching you.
Click to expand...

I prefer to load it in a rocket and fire it into the sun for step 4 myself. 🙂

 
Seriously, format it. The time and money it would take to recover any data afterwards would not be worth anything you have on there. Trust me on this one.
 
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