Hard drive wipe utility

[Exterous]

The company I just started working for recently went though a desktop change over. Right now those desktops are sitting in our hardware room taking up space. We can't get rid of them until we wipe their drives of the sensative data. I was wondering if any of you guys have a good recommendation of something that completely wipes the drive that we could use.

Thanks!

 

[Raincity]

DBAN

 

[mooseracing]

A drill bit works nice, or burning the platters.

If you just want software wiping there are few free programs. The one's I have use are: HD Tune has it built in, Acronis has about 10-15 different options in their one software package.

If it is really that sensitive, destroy the platters.

 

[Exterous]

Originally posted by: Raincity
DBAN

Yeah, I ran across them and I might forward it to my boss

Originally posted by: mooseracing
A drill bit works nice, or burning the platters.

If you just want software wiping there are few free programs. The one's I have use are: HD Tune has it built in, Acronis has about 10-15 different options in their one software package.

If it is really that sensitive, destroy the platters.

Apparently they are really big on recylcing and they want to donate them. They aren't bad computers: P4, 512mb-1gb ram XP, 160GB HDDs.

I will take a look at those programs as well

 

[techmanc]

Just curious how effective would opening the hard drive and using an electromagnet on it. Would it completely destroy the data? I used use that method to wipe magnetic tapes and floppies.

 

[techmanc]

darn double post

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: techmanc
Just curious how effective would opening the hard drive and using an electromagnet on it. Would it completely destroy the data? I used use that method to wipe magnetic tapes and floppies.

It would work with just a normal magnet but you could contaminate the inside of the drive with dust that would eventually destroy the platters or heads. So its best to use software.

You only need to wipe a drive 1 time too, so doesn't take too long, all that 5+ times stuff is paranoia.

 

[techmanc]

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: techmanc
Just curious how effective would opening the hard drive and using an electromagnet on it. Would it completely destroy the data? I used use that method to wipe magnetic tapes and floppies.

It would work with just a normal magnet but you could contaminate the inside of the drive with dust that would eventually destroy the platters or heads. So its best to use software.

You only need to wipe a drive 1 time too, so doesn't take too long, all that 5+ times stuff is paranoia.

My question was more about using the magnet on drives that were being discarded as far a safe and relatively quick method for disposal.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: techmanc

Originally posted by: Modelworks

Originally posted by: techmanc
Just curious how effective would opening the hard drive and using an electromagnet on it. Would it completely destroy the data? I used use that method to wipe magnetic tapes and floppies.

It would work with just a normal magnet but you could contaminate the inside of the drive with dust that would eventually destroy the platters or heads. So its best to use software.

You only need to wipe a drive 1 time too, so doesn't take too long, all that 5+ times stuff is paranoia.

My question was more about using the magnet on drives that were being discarded as far a safe and relatively quick method for disposal.

They make a machine that does that without having to open the drive, so if you wanted to do one drive a magnet would work, but you would have to make sure you went over every sector.
http://www.garner-products.com/deg-hdtd-8200.htm

This one is kind of funny
http://www.garner-products.com/PD-8500.htm

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

You could always shred the drive.

 

[Red Squirrel]

There's also a shred command in Linux. I like this one as it does not require to boot off anything. Just plug the drive in a USB/sata enclosure and run shred from a live server. (just be sure you specify the right drive! lol)

HDD degausers look interesting too. Good for emergencies or very large amount of drives. "zomg FBI!" *presses rewired easy button*

 

[Chiefcrowe]

DBAN!

i've also used degaussers, they are very cool but you need to run them for a while.

 

[Exterous]

thanks for the info guys!

 

[Saga]

Killdisk.