Windows utility to wipe hard drive?

[Jumpem]

I've already reformatted them. Anything better that I should do?

 

[RebateMonger]

Formatting doesn't do much if your purpose it to permanently erase data on the disk. Try DBAN.

 

[Jumpem]

Originally posted by: RebateMonger
Formatting doesn't do much if your purpose it to permanently erase data on the disk. Try DBAN.

DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect.

Is there anything more user friendly, where I can specify a particular drive connected via eSATA?

 

[Emulex]

format them and run sdelete on the partitions

 

[ChaiBabbaChai]

HDTune is useful program which also writes zeros for free, I think. no?

What is your goal here? If you are giving away or recycling the drive, you will want to make sure. Formatting will not do this. If you are using the drive, then reformatting will be fine.

 

[Yellowbeard]

Whoever made the drive probably provides a tool to write zero's to the drive. You should be able to download it from their site. If you are paranoid, run that several times.

 

[JeffCos]

Killdisk

Conforms to US DoD cleaning and sanitizing standard DoD 5220.22-M. There's a free version for the somewhat paranoid and a pay version for the truly paranoid.

 

[hanspeter]

If you made a full format in vista then the content of that partition cannot be recovered.

 

[Zensal]

Originally posted by: hanspeter
If you made a full format in vista then the content of that partition cannot be recovered.

False. Data has been read off of a drive that has had random 1's and 0's written to it twice.

Now, that takes significant investment in technology and technical skill, so I guess it just depends on how paranoid the OP is.

 

[hanspeter]

Nobody has yet proven to be able to recover anything from a single overwrite.

Recovering of a few bits out of a billion billion is pretty worthless.

 

[RebateMonger]

Originally posted by: hanspeter
If you made a full format in vista then the content of that partition cannot be recovered.

Microsoft: Change in the behavior of the FORMAT command in Vista

"The format command behavior has changed in Windows Vista. By default in Windows Vista, the format command writes zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed. In Windows XP and in earlier versions of the Windows operating system, the format command does not write zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed."


Regarding data recovery from an overwritten hard disk:

National Bureau of Economic Research paper: Can Intelligence Agencies Read Overwritten Data?
"Surveying all the references, I conclude that Gutmann's claim belongs in the category of urban legend."

Original Gutmann paper (often quoted about recovery from overwritten disks).
Note that the Gutmann paper is from 1996, when data densities werre MUCH lower and head positioning was less precise.

 

[taltamir]

Originally posted by: hanspeter
Nobody has yet proven to be able to recover anything from a single overwrite.

Recovering of a few bits out of a billion billion is pretty worthless.

Originally posted by: RebateMongerRegarding data recovery from an overwritten hard disk:

National Bureau of Economic Research paper: Can Intelligence Agencies Read Overwritten Data?
"Surveying all the references, I conclude that Gutmann's claim belongs in the category of urban legend."

Original Gutmann paper (often quoted about recovery from overwritten disks).
Note that the Gutmann paper is from 1996, when data densities werre MUCH lower and head positioning was less precise.

true... I think they are afraid of extra terrestrials with technology made out of magic coming here and recovering their data... Because human technology cannot (and probably never will) be able to recover something after a single overwrite.

But the military does multiple overwrites / degaussing, then shreds the drives, then melts the metal chips into tiny balls of metal, then posts guards to guard those tiny metal balls in case someone steals them and uses magic to recover the data they contained...

Just be aware that "format" does not actually DELETE the data.
Quick format = delete partition data (recoverable)
Full format = delete partition data (recoverable) and test the drive for bad sectors (does not damage the data)

What you need is "secure erase". Every drive has a "secure erase" command where it overwrites all the data with 0 (but you need a special program to actually transmit that command to the drive)... Some programs will manually tell the drive to overwrite sector with 0 or 1, in a random pattern.

Originally posted by: Zensal

Originally posted by: hanspeter
If you made a full format in vista then the content of that partition cannot be recovered.

False. Data has been read off of a drive that has had random 1's and 0's written to it twice.

Now, that takes significant investment in technology and technical skill, so I guess it just depends on how paranoid the OP is.

Actually both of you incorrectly assume that a full format will write 0 to all sectors. that is incorrect. He is right in that writing 0 will make the data irrecoverable; but full format is a quick format + non destructive (to data) testing for bad sectors. what you want is to give the drive the "secure erase" command, which is a standard command in drives. You will need to find a program that does that, since vista does not.

 

[hanspeter]

Originally posted by: taltamirActually both of you incorrectly assume that a full format will write 0 to all sectors. that is incorrect.

Did you miss the quote in the post before yours?

 

[Greg04]

Taltamir

true... I think they are afraid of extra terrestrials with technology made out of magic coming here and recovering their data... Because human technology cannot (and probably never will) be able to recover something after a single overwrite.

But the military does multiple overwrites / degaussing, then shreds the drives, then melts the metal chips into tiny balls of metal, then posts guards to guard those tiny metal balls in case someone steals them and uses magic to recover the data they contained...

That's funny.

And, free Eraser does an adequate job, allowing you to overwrite many times...