Is it safe to sell a hard drive after I format it?

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nx02nx02

Senior member
Dec 26, 2001
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I have a hard drive that I am considering selling but is it 100% safe to sell it after I format it?
I used to have a lot of personal information etc. on it. I had like credit card numbers and alot of important info.

So after I format it all of that stuff is completely erased and safe? Is that correct?
This info cannot be recovered correct?
I am new to this what is the general safe way to sell used hard drives?

Thanks.
 
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Monoman

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2001
2,163
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76
what you need is to wipe the drive. do a google search for "wipedrv" it's a dos tool and it's great!
 
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maluckey

Platinum Member
Jan 31, 2003
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If you delete the partition, then re-partition it, the MFT is also deleted. This way everything is lost. Formatting and overwriting less than three times is not enough to keep a determined person from recovering whatever they really want.
 
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Monoman

Platinum Member
Mar 4, 2001
2,163
0
76
Originally posted by: maluckey
If you delete the partition, then re-partition it, the MFT is also deleted. This way everything is lost. Formatting and overwriting less than three times is not enough to keep a determined person from recovering whatever they really want.
Click to expand...

at the cost of thousands and thousands of dollars might you add
 
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nx02nx02

Senior member
Dec 26, 2001
539
0
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It costs thousands of dollars to recover stuff after it has been formatted?
Is this true?

If so then I guess I dont have much to worry about :)

I dont know if that's true though.????
 
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TechnoPro

Golden Member
Jul 10, 2003
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Originally posted by: mx1mx1
It costs thousands of dollars to recover stuff after it has been formatted?
Is this true?

If so then I guess I dont have much to worry about :)

I dont know if that's true though.????
Click to expand...

Professional data recovery from damaged and/or malfunctioning hard drives can easily cost in the thousands.

Data recovery off a functioning HDD that's been formatted can be done with cheap commercial software. At the low end, I've worked with software packages costing $50 that are very effective.
 
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WackyDan

Diamond Member
Jan 26, 2004
4,794
68
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Originally posted by: TechnoPro
Originally posted by: mx1mx1
It costs thousands of dollars to recover stuff after it has been formatted?
Is this true?

If so then I guess I dont have much to worry about :)

I dont know if that's true though.????
Click to expand...

Professional data recovery from damaged and/or malfunctioning hard drives can easily cost in the thousands.

Data recovery off a functioning HDD that's been formatted can be done with cheap commercial software. At the low end, I've worked with software packages costing $50 that are very effective.
Click to expand...

.
 
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sharq

Senior member
Mar 11, 2003
507
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You can run all of the erasing tools, but it won't help you much. The kind of scrubbing actually required will basically render the hard drive useless. I did some work on computer forensics and their tools for a senior level class, and the only 100% way, is to break the platters in the harddrive, but then you can't sell it. :)
Yes the tools to recover the data are not cheap, and you can't buy them from your local Compusa or Bestbuy, but if someone wanted your data (I emphasize the word "IF") then it's not out of their reach.
 
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Hyperfocal

Senior member
Oct 8, 2003
801
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Very few people are going to use forensic techniques on a hard drive they buy from some guy on FS/T.

Unless the drive is bought by the FBI in some bizarre attempt to find incriminating information or by some deranged ex-gf/bf, running a program like Eraser is more than sufficient.

The low-level formatting utilities from the drive makers should be sufficient under normal circumstances.
 
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sharq

Senior member
Mar 11, 2003
507
0
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I agree, the average computer user/geek has no interest in recovering the data from a hd. And like I said in the above post, its a huge "IF" as to whether someone is either out to get the OP or following/tracking them. My point mainly was there is no 100%.
 
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Perplx

Member
Jun 22, 2001
101
0
0
I think a single wipe all 0s or 1s is sufficient. If people could reliably find what data was on a wiped hardrive then hardrive capacity would double.
 
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Imdmn04

Platinum Member
Jan 28, 2002
2,566
6
81
So, how is it possible to recover data that has been lets say, overwritten with porn?
If they can still recover the data, wouldn't that mean theoretically the harddrive is capable of storing twice amount of data than the original size?
If they can recover data even though you overwrote it 7 times, wouldnt that mean the HD can store 7 times the data of the original amount?
 
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Conky

Lifer
May 9, 2001
10,709
0
0
Yes, the best way to totally wipe a drive of any information is to delete the partition, install a new partition. Copy any obscure file that has no meaning like lets say britney.jpg and fill the drive to capacity with this file. Then delete the partition and ship. :D

Even the FBI would give up on this. LOL
 
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sharq

Senior member
Mar 11, 2003
507
0
0
It is possible to recover almost every piece of data that was ever written to a hard drive, despite however many rewrites/formats. To clarify, in theory it is possible to recover the data even if the data was written over and formatted. The tools we used (though expensive) are very thorough and do a very good job. They can recover images, text, dates that an item was created/deleted/edited (just a few of the options).
As for 7 times the data, if you want to try it, you could, we didn't try that in our tests, plus the samples that we used, we don't know how old the data was on them or how many times it had been rewritten. If you want to invest thousands of dollars on a software to help you recover every piece of data on your hd, just so you can have 7 times the storage space, I wish you luck :)
 
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Conky

Lifer
May 9, 2001
10,709
0
0
Originally posted by: sharq
It is possible to recover almost every piece of data that was ever written to a hard drive, despite however many rewrites/formats. To clarify, in theory it is possible to recover the data even if the data was written over and formatted. The tools we used (though expensive) are very thorough and do a very good job. They can recover images, text, dates that an item was created/deleted/edited (just a few of the options).
As for 7 times the data, if you want to try it, you could, we didn't try that in our tests, plus the samples that we used, we don't know how old the data was on them or how many times it had been rewritten. If you want to invest thousands of dollars on a software to help you recover every piece of data on your hd, just so you can have 7 times the storage space, I wish you luck :)
Click to expand...


This is nonsense. With this logic current HD's could be hacked to hold unlimited information. There is only so much room for the 0's and 1's.
:p
 
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sharq

Senior member
Mar 11, 2003
507
0
0
hehe the cost that would be involved to do such a "hack" would probably not be worth it. You could buy a new hd (from the hot deals forum) and destroy it at the end of it's warranty period. That would be cheaper than bothering with said "hack".
For example: Encase is for ~$2500. (This is just one of the tools we tried)
 
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NightCrawler

Diamond Member
Oct 15, 2003
3,179
0
0
Could use Safe Boot Solo to encrypt the entire disc and then do a low level format. Even if they could recover the data it would be encrypted. I doubt they could break through the encryption but who knows maybe there is a back door.
 
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n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Jun 10, 2001
42,936
1
0
Originally posted by: Crazyfool
Originally posted by: sharq
It is possible to recover almost every piece of data that was ever written to a hard drive, despite however many rewrites/formats. To clarify, in theory it is possible to recover the data even if the data was written over and formatted. The tools we used (though expensive) are very thorough and do a very good job. They can recover images, text, dates that an item was created/deleted/edited (just a few of the options).
As for 7 times the data, if you want to try it, you could, we didn't try that in our tests, plus the samples that we used, we don't know how old the data was on them or how many times it had been rewritten. If you want to invest thousands of dollars on a software to help you recover every piece of data on your hd, just so you can have 7 times the storage space, I wish you luck :)
Click to expand...


This is nonsense. With this logic current HD's could be hacked to hold unlimited information. There is only so much room for the 0's and 1's.
:p
Click to expand...

It may be exagerated, but it isn't nonsense. One of the problems with hard drives is that they are mechanical. And because they're mechanical they aren't exactly precise. I am going to make the terms up for a minute because I don't know the terminology and even if I did I probably wouldn't be able to remember it. Ok, so the head writes to section 243.99997 with a 0 (part of Britney's left elbow). That file gets deleted and over written, but this time the head writes to section 243.99998. There are ways to see what was at 243.99997, even though that section has supposedly been written over. mechanics aren't exact, especially at the speeds hard drives are moving at now. If you have all of the time in the world and several millions dollars worth of equipment and software you can be much more exact ;)

If someone wants the information, they'll get it.
 
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n0cmonkey

Elite Member
Jun 10, 2001
42,936
1
0
Originally posted by: NightCrawler
Could use Safe Boot Solo to encrypt the entire disc and then do a low level format. Even if they could recover the data it would be encrypted. I doubt they could break through the encryption but who knows maybe there is a back door.
Click to expand...

How much will encrypting after the fact help? That data needed to be encrypted when it hit the disk.
 
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