How to wipe/erase data stored inside a used HDD

videopho

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2005
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Is there an easy way to do this before I can sell it?
In case you wondered it is a Raptor 37gb in which I no longer use.
 

DyslexicHobo

Senior member
Jul 20, 2004
706
1
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It's easy.

1) Go to www.forcefieldmagnets.com and order a bunch of super-high powered Neodymium magnets.

2) Hover your new magnets about 1mm above your hard drive.

3) It's erased!

But if you want to sell it afterwards, it'd be better if you could borrow an external drive bay and mount it up in that. Then you don't have to install it (which shouldn't be that hard anyway).
 

jkresh

Platinum Member
Jun 18, 2001
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You have to reinstall it to properly wipe it, the magnet trick might work, but I saw a demonstration a few years ago (on a very small old drive (10 megs I think)), where a few neodymium magnets were swiped over it several times and the drive didnt loose any data, it will be a lot easier to just plug the drive in and run some kind of wiping software.
 

Roguestar

Diamond Member
Aug 29, 2006
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Hell I might buy a few of those super-magnets just because they're cool.

OP: Install it in a USB enclosure and full-format it.
 

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
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Originally posted by: jkresh
You have to reinstall it to properly wipe it, the magnet trick might work, but I saw a demonstration a few years ago (on a very small old drive (10 megs I think)), where a few neodymium magnets were swiped over it several times and the drive didnt loose any data, it will be a lot easier to just plug the drive in and run some kind of wiping software.

I've heard anecdotally of people putting speaker driver magnets and neodymium magnets directly on the casing of hard drives with no ill effect. They're pretty well-shielded. They make industrial degaussers that can wipe a drive right through the casing (destroying the low-level format in the process and making it unrecoverable), but that is not something an average person will have access to, and it's irreversible.

If you open up the casing they're a lot more vulnerable to ANY kind of damage; just dust and dirt in the air will likely ruin it, and putting a strong magnet right on the platter surface WILL damage it considerably.

OP -- unless you want to destroy the drive, there is no good way to erase it without using a PC (or a standalone device that will wipe it, but I'm pretty sure you don't have one of those.) As noted above, you can attach it via USB if you for some reason don't want to hook it back up to the motherboard.
 

elcamino74ss

Senior member
Jun 6, 2005
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Those degaussers are pretty cool. I just bought one here for my work. Granted I work for a security company in the risk management team so we needed to make sure data isnt going to be recovered.
 

mechBgon

Super Moderator<br>Elite Member
Oct 31, 1999
30,699
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I believe degaussing the drive also permanently ruins it. No servo bits left on the platters for the drive to navigate by. If it were me, I'd pop my case, plug an SATA cable into the drive and run DBAN on it.
 

bigboxes

Lifer
Apr 6, 2002
38,485
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Install hdd into external enclosure.
Plug in power adapter. Connect USB cable between external enclosure and pc.
Format drive.
Sell drive.

Doesn't get much easier than that. :)
 

elcamino74ss

Senior member
Jun 6, 2005
215
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formatting is a joke. you need to use that dban tool mentioned and at least do a DoD 3 pass wipe.

and yes the degauss is a perm destruction. I just had to nuke about 150-200 9-18gb old scsi server drives.
 

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
8,808
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Originally posted by: elcamino74ss
formatting is a joke. you need to use that dban tool mentioned and at least do a DoD 3 pass wipe.

A simple zero fill (which, AFAIK, Windows does during a "full" format) will keep anyone from using data recovery software. Unless you think the FBI/CIA/NSA is after the data, or someone has reason to think there is VERY valuable data on there, that's all anyone would bother with. A "quick format" does essentially nothing, however.

Scrubbing the drive multiple times (a la DoD specs) will make it harder to recover data by scanning the platters, but it's still not foolproof. If you truly never want anyone to be able to read what was on there, you need to destroy the drive (either physically crushing/shredding/melting it, or degaussing the platters so they are unusable).

If you think the degaussers are fun, you should see the industrial drive shredders... :evil:
 

AlucardX

Senior member
May 20, 2000
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pretty sure a Windows full-format just does a sector scan of the entire drive to mark bad sectors so they never get written to.

to do a 'low-level' zero fill you need a 3rd party app or a manufacturers disk utility.
 

Matthias99

Diamond Member
Oct 7, 2003
8,808
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Originally posted by: AlucardX
pretty sure a Windows full-format just does a sector scan of the entire drive to mark bad sectors so they never get written to.

to do a 'low-level' zero fill you need a 3rd party app or a manufacturers disk utility.

I thought that while it was doing its sector-by-sector check it also did a zero fill. However, Microsoft's documentation is vague and searching is not turning up anything definitive.

If you want to be sure, use something like DBAN, or a manufacturer's utility. You can also do a zero fill off a Linux live CD, by writing to the raw disk device.
 

Cr0nJ0b

Golden Member
Apr 13, 2004
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meettomy.site
If you aren't planning to use it again or sell it you could just open up the plug the on the bottom and let the data drain out. It's like an oil change....takes a couple of hours for it to drain completely.

there's a metal foil cover on the drain plug on top of the drive. rip that off and unscrew the drain plug. Turn the drive upside down and leave it for a while. I'd do this outside, depending on the information you have on the disk it can be quite smelly. If you want to make sure that absolutely all of the data is gone, put it in an over for about 10minutes (200 degrees) after you drained it. The heat will evaporate any remaining data residue.

JUST REMEMBER THE DRIVE WILL NOT BE USABLE AFTER YOU DO THIS!

I've heard of some people that re-injected data into drives after they were emptied, but that's really hard to do and you need to find a good source of clean data...in fact, I think the EPA has banned the use of canned data in the US, so that's out.

If these seems to risky, then just do what everyone said, reinstall and wipe.
 

videopho

Diamond Member
Apr 8, 2005
4,185
29
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Originally posted by: Oyeve
Sell it to me.

You probably would not want Win x64 OS in your rig, would you?
Otherwise nothing important.

I may place it in the USS Nimitz nuclear reactor and nuke it until all the bytes evaporate.
Now that's a safest way lol.
Ok guys or gals thanks for all the inputs, though some were unhelpful.

 

Jeff7181

Lifer
Aug 21, 2002
18,368
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Microsoft recommends SDelete. If reinstalling really isn't an option and isn't just due to laziness, open up the hard drive and smash the platters with a hammer.
 

elcamino74ss

Senior member
Jun 6, 2005
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MS recommends that cause its a sysinternal tool they picked up in their acquisition this summer. It is nice but if its a large drive will take some time.
 

Jeff7181

Lifer
Aug 21, 2002
18,368
11
81
Originally posted by: elcamino74ss
MS recommends that cause its a sysinternal tool they picked up in their acquisition this summer. It is nice but if its a large drive will take some time.

It's a 1st gen Raptor it looks like. I don't think the program that does the cleaning makes much of a difference in terms of speed. Data has to be written and overwritten multiple times... so it's the write speed of the drive that would determine how long it takes.

But again... there's always the option of opening up the drive case and smashing the platters. Much faster and arguably as effective. ;)
 

Oyeve

Lifer
Oct 18, 1999
21,899
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You know how the govt get rid of HDs and data? They leave the laptops in a bar. :) Seriously tho, govt wiping of data is litterally grinding the platters into dust.