Safe Erasing Disk

[b4u]

Hi,

Quick question regarding disk erasing.

I'm googling and lot's of software and info comes around, so I'll start by your opinions first

What software do you recommend to erase data from disk, disabling any chance of recovering ... some program that re-writes the entire disk with random info, then formats clean, right?

What software have you tested/suggest?

I have a disk with personal data which I need to send to warranty, so I would need to clean it up safely.

(at this time I'm looking into Active@ Kill Disk - Hard Drive Eraser)

Thanks

 

[MrChad]

http://www.dban.org/

 

[ChAoTiCpInOy]

Run at least 7 passes of the dod option.

 

[mc866]

Originally posted by: MrChad
http://www.dban.org/

+1

 

[Topweasel]

I use Acronis Disk Manager. When I delete a partition it asks me how many rewrites. I usually select 7ish.

 

[JeffreyLebowski]

dban is going to be the easiest cheapest way to do it. If you have Ghost, you can use Gdisk to do it.

I made a gdisk for use at work and it's quicker than dban.

 

[Chiefcrowe]

another vote for dban!

 

[Modelworks]

Anything will work that overwrites the data.
You only need to overwrite it 1 time, anything more is overkill.

 

[Topweasel]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Anything will work that overwrites the data.
You only need to overwrite it 1 time, anything more is overkill.

Its not about kill or overkill its about the ability to sleep at night. Some people like myself could care less if I send someone a hard drive unformatted and some people Burn their mail, refuse all online transactions, and fear having even their name on a hard drive might be cause for alarm. The government sets its rules on 7 overwrites. Why shouldn't a regular user do the same.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Topweasel

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Anything will work that overwrites the data.
You only need to overwrite it 1 time, anything more is overkill.

Its not about kill or overkill its about the ability to sleep at night. Some people like myself could care less if I send someone a hard drive unformatted and some people Burn their mail, refuse all online transactions, and fear having even their name on a hard drive might be cause for alarm. The government sets its rules on 7 overwrites. Why shouldn't a regular user do the same.

Because its not necessary. Think about it.
A hard drive writes a 0 or 1 to a sector, then you read that back to get the data. If you overwrite that sector one time that data has changed. The next time you access that sector it has to be what you last put there or the drive is useless as a storage medium. There is NO software that can recover data that has been physically changed on the platter.

The government uses higher standards because 'in theory' you could remove the platters and read them in an electron scanning microscope to recover the data. That isn't something 99% of the population needs to worry about someone doing to get at their emails. The government doesn't even use programs like this anymore since hardware cost have dropped. They just shred the entire drive and melt down the bits.

 

[Topweasel]

I guess I don't see why you wouldn't want to cover yourself from both the reasonable attacks and the unreasonable ones. Its not like he has to watch the screen while its going through its passes.

 

[Modelworks]

Originally posted by: Topweasel
I guess I don't see why you wouldn't want to cover yourself from both the reasonable attacks and the unreasonable ones. Its not like he has to watch the screen while its going through its passes.

Because I know that nothing I have on the drive is worth millions of dollars that it would take to recover the data. It can take a very long time to zero out a large drive. Doing it 2+ times is pointless.

If you are that paranoid then I would pay to have the drive shredded. Cost about $10

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: Topweasel

Originally posted by: Modelworks
Anything will work that overwrites the data.
You only need to overwrite it 1 time, anything more is overkill.

Its not about kill or overkill its about the ability to sleep at night. Some people like myself could care less if I send someone a hard drive unformatted and some people Burn their mail, refuse all online transactions, and fear having even their name on a hard drive might be cause for alarm. The government sets its rules on 7 overwrites. Why shouldn't a regular user do the same.

even the government gets it wrong sometimes. the idea is based on old info anyways.
http://sansforensics.wordpress...iting-hard-drive-data/
http://www.nber.org/sys-admin/...tten-data-guttman.html
http://vocaro.com/trevor/blog/...of-the-gutmann-method/

a. its bunk

b. its ridiculous to pretend anyone would go through the effort of trying to retrieve your data even after one random rewrite. it involves scanning electron microscopes among other things. its just not going to happen.

shop around, see how many data recovery place will recover overwritten data at any price. its not offered at all.

 

[Red Squirrel]

28 passes using shred, which seems to be built into any linux system. Set the drive up on a linux box and forget it.

This can take a week or so. I like to just pop the drive in a USB enclosure and leave it hooked to my server with a fan blowing on it. (hdd active non stop = should get good cooling).

1 pass is 99.99% sure that nobody is going to retrieve anything off it, the rest is just to be extra extra sure. The only people who can recover from that are very sophisticated data recovery places and probably the FBI, CIA, etc. If you have no MP3s or other software on it then you'd be safe from those agencies anyway.

And to top it all off what are the odds of it getting into the wrong hands? Fairly slim.

Also, don't do a write of 0's at the end, instead, install Linux, then format it. A clean drive will look suspicious.

 

[waggy]

Is there a windows based aplication?

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: waggy
Is there a windows based aplication?

Yes. What TopWeasel said.

 

[imported_wired247]

way too much CSI in this thread. the appropriate suggestions have been posted. whether someone chooses to do it 7 times is their business.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Originally posted by: wired247
way too much CSI in this thread. the appropriate suggestions have been posted. whether someone chooses to do it 7 times is their business.

Have to remember, what the FBI, CIA etc has right now, is technology we probably wont even hear about in the next 100 years.

Though, I highly doubt they'd waste their time with some random drive that's been through multiple hands and is not in connection with any open legal case.

 

[coolVariable]

Originally posted by: corkyg

Originally posted by: waggy
Is there a windows based aplication?

Yes. What TopWeasel said.

Acronis costs $$?!?!?!

http://www.heidi.ie/node/6

 

[Snapster]

Originally posted by: MrChad
http://www.dban.org/

++

Dban is perfectly fine for this task.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: ChAoTiCpInOy
Run at least 7 passes of the dod option.

myth.

fact is no company will recover data from a drive with a single overwrite...even if u paid them mad money.