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Any better way to wipe data from a HDD?



 
 
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  #1  
Old November 11th 03, 08:51 PM
Danny Jenkins
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Default Any better way to wipe data from a HDD?

I was advised that in addition to fdisking and formating a hard disk
drive I should do the following, then fdisk and format again. Are the
following instructions a sure-fire way of erasing data?
Many thanks.

-----
Enter the following lines at the debug prompt (-) followed by the
enter key.
Note: this completely erases the MBR and your whole drive.

F 200 L200 0
a 100
mov ax,301 [note from here on you may see a number like fff:1234
[type all commands next to this number
[do _not_ press enter when this number appears.
mov bx,200
mov cx,1
mov dx,0080 [note: use 0081 for second fixed disk
int 13
int 3
(enter a blank line here)
G=100
q
  #2  
Old November 11th 03, 09:07 PM
Jason Mather
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Default

Danny Jenkins wrote:
I was advised that in addition to fdisking and formating a hard disk
drive I should do the following, then fdisk and format again. Are the
following instructions a sure-fire way of erasing data?
Many thanks.

-----


US Gov. uses sledgehammer + incineration. Seems to work pretty well
and doesn't require skilled labor.

-- Jason





  #3  
Old November 11th 03, 10:26 PM
Robert Klute
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Default

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 15:07:34 -0500, Jason Mather
wrote:

Danny Jenkins wrote:
I was advised that in addition to fdisking and formating a hard disk
drive I should do the following, then fdisk and format again. Are the
following instructions a sure-fire way of erasing data?
Many thanks.

-----


US Gov. uses sledgehammer + incineration. Seems to work pretty well
and doesn't require skilled labor.


But not all of us can engage in deficit spending to replace the drives.

Depending on how sensitive the data is will depend on what level of
'destruction' you need to go through. For most data, format / fdisk /
format is sufficient.

If you need to ensure that the data is not recoverable by standard low
level utilities, then there are programs around that will overwrite all
the data sectors on the disk.

If you are paranoid about the disk being examined by a data recovery
firm, there are standard pattern sequences for wiping disks completely.
Programs such as Norton's WipeInfo, Cybercide, and other freeware
programs are capable of doing this. Look for references to Schneier's
Algorithm.

Ultimately, if you think that there are people with electron microscopes
waiting to look at your disks the industrial degausser, followed by the
sledgehammer and incinerator is the way to go.
  #4  
Old November 11th 03, 10:33 PM
Zak
external usenet poster
 
Posts: n/a
Default

Robert Klute wrote:

If you are paranoid about the disk being examined by a data recovery
firm, there are standard pattern sequences for wiping disks completely.
Programs such as Norton's WipeInfo, Cybercide, and other freeware
programs are capable of doing this. Look for references to Schneier's
Algorithm.


dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/hda can work fine as well if you boot Linux.

Ultimately, if you think that there are people with electron microscopes
waiting to look at your disks the industrial degausser, followed by the
sledgehammer and incinerator is the way to go.


It indeed depends on the value of the data. Someone brought a used PC
here - with barely working drive - but working enough to boot and read.
It was a lawyer's, and I think they should have been more careful.


Thomas

  #5  
Old November 12th 03, 06:29 AM
Barry Drodge
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Default

We had a systme that was scrapped start emailing me daily status reports
from the company that bought it. I now personally wipe every drive on every
system I get rid of at work with a minimum of triple pass data overwrite.

I have tried various utilites and have bought Killdisk
http://www.killdisk.com/ and DataEraser http://www.ontrack.com/dataeraser/

I prefer DataEraser for the speed and ease of use. Killdisk does the job
but DataEraser seems to do it faster.

Barry


(Danny Jenkins) wrote in
om:

I was advised that in addition to fdisking and formating a hard disk
drive I should do the following, then fdisk and format again. Are the
following instructions a sure-fire way of erasing data?
Many thanks.

-----
Enter the following lines at the debug prompt (-) followed by the
enter key.
Note: this completely erases the MBR and your whole drive.

F 200 L200 0
a 100
mov ax,301 [note from here on you may see a number like fff:1234
[type all commands next to this number
[do _not_ press enter when this number appears.
mov bx,200
mov cx,1
mov dx,0080 [note: use 0081 for second fixed disk
int 13
int 3
(enter a blank line here)
G=100
q


  #7  
Old December 3rd 03, 03:44 PM
Maxim S. Shatskih
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Posts: n/a
Default

The original sectors become invisible and might be recoverable by low
level programming (electron microscopes not needed).


You will need to patch the drive's firmware and download the new one, usually
using vendor specific ATA commands.

There are people capable of this. Usually in data recovery companies.

--
Maxim Shatskih, Windows DDK MVP
StorageCraft Corporation

http://www.storagecraft.com


 




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