Is there any software that will destroy every single data on a hard drive?

[Strider879]

I need a utility like Acronis Drivecleanser that will destroy all the data on the hard drive. The problem is that the software is currently giving me some problems and I'm wondering are there other utilities like that? Thx

 

[TheWart]

most big drive companies distibute software that writes zeros to every sector of the disc, erasing all data. that might be a free, safe, and easy way to do what you want.

 

[Trevelyan]

You should be able to download one from WD or IBM's website... if you run it like 7 times I heard there's no way to recover anything at all, even with advanced methods.

But only do that if you're a secret agent.

 

[Nothinman]

The only thing that can truly remove all data is a hammer. Clean room data recovery services can recover data even after it's been written over several times, but they tend to cost quite a lot of money. If you're just selling the drive you can probably just get a way with deleting the partitions on the drive.

 

[kt]

I was looking for a similar program a while back. Here's a link to download the trial version. It's not crippled in functionality wise. Download the Government Edition, it supposedly conforms with DoD standard in data destruction. Link

 

[Strider879]

dude I don't think the government edition is available for download...I only see the regular version and yea its lacking some of those good options that the government edition have.

 

[Strider879]

bump

 

[McMadman]

I'm guessing that you want to destroy ALL data on the drive.
Eraser
That should accomplish your goal (free)
take a look at the FAQ for the dos deleting.

 

[Armitage]

I have some hardware that will do it.
Seriously ... for high security stuff, the government does not trust disk overwriting software of any flavor. I spent two day helping to "decommision" an office woth of hard drives once. We physically removed the platters from the drives, put em in a canvas bag, and couriered it to an incinerator.

So, if the government doesn't trust overwriting programs, should you?
But then, ask yourself if you really have anything on that drive that anybody would be willing to spend any significant resources to recover.

 

[calpha]

All i know is my uncle who worked with the FBI said they had some next-level sh!t for data recovery. He's a bit of a computer head, and he implied that writing zero's to a disk from sector 0 to end is simply not enough to avert their software from seeing what was there before. Too bad I don't understand HD's more

Send a note to Steve @ the grc.com. I bet he knows a way to do it

 

[tcsenter]

Originally posted by: calpha
All i know is my uncle who worked with the FBI said they had some next-level sh!t for data recovery. He's a bit of a computer head, and he implied that writing zero's to a disk from sector 0 to end is simply not enough to avert their software from seeing what was there before. Too bad I don't understand HD's more

Send a note to Steve @ the grc.com. I bet he knows a way to do it

The DOD standard disk wipe is adequate to erase and then overwrite all data with a random bit pattern beyond the ability of all current methods to extact any sort of useful data from the disk.

The government does not physically destroy the hard disk platters 'in case' the software is not adequate to do the job, but rather 'in case' the drive somehow slips through without having the software wipe procedure performed, or performed properly, in the first place. The government physically destroys the disks to eliminate the potential for human inadequacies, not software inadequacies.

Norton's Wipe Info has a DOD spec wipe.

 

[Nothinman]

Send a note to Steve @ the grc.com. I bet he knows a way to do it

Please ignore him, he's an idiot.

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: calpha
All i know is my uncle who worked with the FBI said they had some next-level sh!t for data recovery. He's a bit of a computer head, and he implied that writing zero's to a disk from sector 0 to end is simply not enough to avert their software from seeing what was there before. Too bad I don't understand HD's more

Send a note to Steve @ the grc.com. I bet he knows a way to do it

The DOD standard disk wipe is adequate to erase and then overwrite all data with a random bit pattern beyond the ability of all current methods to extact any sort of useful data from the disk.

The government does not physically destroy the hard disk platters 'in case' the software is not adequate to do the job, but rather 'in case' the drive somehow slips through without having the software wipe procedure performed, or performed properly, in the first place. The government physically destroys the disks to eliminate the potential for human inadequacies, not software inadequacies.

Norton's Wipe Info has a DOD spec wipe.

To some degree it's irrelevant whether the "wipe" methods are technically inadequate or practically inadequate. For some programs at least, the policy is that disk wiping by any method is never an accepted way to destroy the data. My previous example isn't really a good one ... those drives were obsolete anyway and weren't worth the time and effort to wipe. But I've seen some other cases that would really piss you off (0.8TB 15K SCSI RAID array trashed due to a < 10Kb judgement error ... and the cost of the disks is trivial WRT the data and work lost)

 

[Armitage]

Originally posted by: ergeorge

Originally posted by: tcsenter

Originally posted by: calpha
All i know is my uncle who worked with the FBI said they had some next-level sh!t for data recovery. He's a bit of a computer head, and he implied that writing zero's to a disk from sector 0 to end is simply not enough to avert their software from seeing what was there before. Too bad I don't understand HD's more

Send a note to Steve @ the grc.com. I bet he knows a way to do it

The DOD standard disk wipe is adequate to erase and then overwrite all data with a random bit pattern beyond the ability of all current methods to extact any sort of useful data from the disk.

The government does not physically destroy the hard disk platters 'in case' the software is not adequate to do the job, but rather 'in case' the drive somehow slips through without having the software wipe procedure performed, or performed properly, in the first place. The government physically destroys the disks to eliminate the potential for human inadequacies, not software inadequacies.

Norton's Wipe Info has a DOD spec wipe.

To some degree it's irrelevant whether the "wipe" methods are technically inadequate or practically inadequate. For some programs at least, the policy is that disk wiping by any method is never an accepted way to destroy the data. My previous example isn't really a good one ... those drives were obsolete anyway and weren't worth the time and effort to wipe. But I've seen some other cases that would really piss you off (0.8TB 15K SCSI RAID array trashed due to a < 10Kb judgement error ... and the cost of the disks is trivial WRT the data and work lost)

Actually that's somewhat of a bad example also as wiping even small bits of data off a RAID array is very difficult. So at best, we could have hoped to wipe the whole disk, but would still lose the data. But it's the excample that's been pissing me off the most lately.