Hard Drive Wiping Software?

  • Thread starter Thread starter tokyoracer
  • Start date Start date
  • Replies Replies 19
  • Views Views 3531
tokyoracer

tokyoracer

(Not actually from Tokyo).
Joined
Jun 5, 2008
Posts
4,907
Country
United Kingdom
Region
Norfolk
Ok this isn't something I've had to do before but I would love to know how I can go about doing this.

Basically I got a laptop from my mother however since she has used it for some NHS work (much of which is confidential) so it can't be put in the wrong hands. However it had an issue with it but it had got repaird later on. Over the period my Mum got herself another machine (dedicated to the job) so this is redundant, though the hard drive is a good usable size and condition but needs to be totally wiped. Now usually i'd just re-install an OS on it but I would rather be safe then sorry incase it is stolen. So I'm wondering, is there any good (preferably free) software that I can be sure will do a good job?

Thanks in advance.
 
At a dos prompt, type in the following command then hit enter

Format c: /u

And if that fails to impress, remove the hd frm the machine and hit it with a large lump hammer several times :thumbsup:
 
If you're really, really concerned about it, buy a new hard drive and give the old one to the recycle center to scrap.
 
@ blankstare, Do modern PC's still have a DOS prompt? Mine just seems to auto boot all the time regardless what keys I press to try and stop it. How do I go about getting into DOS? Obviously Command Prompt in Windows won't be any good if i'm already in XP.
 
I'm genuinely surprised that they'd let you keep the disk at all. I take a big hammer to all the disks we scrap at work. (I tell you something, it's really therapeutic!)
 
I can get my Windows 7 pc to boot straight into dos from a startup disc, but thats cheating ...

I see no reason why a command prompt format via XP won't stop you achieving your aim
 
blankstare said:
I can get my Windows 7 pc to boot straight into dos from a startup disc, but thats cheating ...

I see no reason why a command prompt via XP won't stop you achieving your aim
Click to expand...
Because how can you wipe a HD that your currently using in an operating system environment?
 
do a gutman pass on it. its the best you can do really...
not actualy flawless data removal but it basically writes over the disk with 0's and then does it again however many times stated.

now as a really basic explanation here we go.
the things are magnetic and some fies have a stronger magnetic signature, or have been there longer so have left a stronger imprint.

Ok onwards with my post
You can gutman them and destroy all the data to an unrecoverable state but some long lived files may have left theire magnetic signature deep in the drive, Sophistacated equipment can still recover it, although most people cant, people like the fbi could..

you can get gutman wipe software at a lot of places, they also come with some programs such as windows cleaner. or clean my pc registry cleaner.
The better ones will allow you to burn a bootable disk which is entierly designed to wipe the hard disk..

personaly i do a 6x gutman pass. 3x should be plenty really but i like 6x and some may even go for a 35x gutman
"the #x is simply how many times it rewrites 0's to the disk"

A simple format from dos or windows would not prevent me recovering the data from the disk.
A gutman would prevent me.
neither will stop the fbi if the file has been on the hard disk for a long time due to its magnetic signature "bleeding for want of a better word" deeper in to the platter.

So i guess what im saying is its impossible to delete files so they are 100% unrecoverable if they have been on the disk for a long time. but unless your a specialist data recovery expert a gutman wipe will be enough to stop you recovering it. although you may still be able to see what the file's name was even if your an amature data recovery person like my self.
 
Any suggestions for a Mac OS X system? I have a ibook that could do with a good wipe & clean install. (10.4 PPC) :) Thanks

I know the solutions for PC but have not read much on Mac wiping.
 
How I do it for clients pcs before resail...

Download the systemrescuecd

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Burn it to a cd and boot the machine in question off of the cd.
You will be encountered by a prompt "Boot:", just hit enter.
You will be asked for keylayout, I type 40 here and hit enter (UK)
after a while you will be dropped at a command prompt.


For sanity type the following:
fdisk -l
That is the lowercase letter L
You should see the first drive listed as /dev/sda with partitions sda1, sda2 etc.

To wipe.
type the following command to write random data to the drive
I assume your drive will be /dev/sda, I havent encountered a machine with one drive that was otherwise, yet.
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda &

the & means run as a seperate thread, the number that is spat out is the process id.
you can query the progress of the wipe by typing
kill -usr1 <process id>

when an error is presented "out of space" the random wipe is done.

repeat with a slight variation:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda &

And when done reboot, install, enjoy, dont worry about it :)
 
ShambleS1980 said:
do a gutman pass on it. its the best you can do really...
not actualy flawless data removal but it basically writes over the disk with 0's and then does it again however many times stated.

now as a really basic explanation here we go.
the things are magnetic and some fies have a stronger magnetic signature, or have been there longer so have left a stronger imprint.

Ok onwards with my post
You can gutman them and destroy all the data to an unrecoverable state but some long lived files may have left theire magnetic signature deep in the drive, Sophistacated equipment can still recover it, although most people cant, people like the fbi could..

you can get gutman wipe software at a lot of places, they also come with some programs such as windows cleaner. or clean my pc registry cleaner.
The better ones will allow you to burn a bootable disk which is entierly designed to wipe the hard disk..

personaly i do a 6x gutman pass. 3x should be plenty really but i like 6x and some may even go for a 35x gutman
"the #x is simply how many times it rewrites 0's to the disk"

A simple format from dos or windows would not prevent me recovering the data from the disk.
A gutman would prevent me.
neither will stop the fbi if the file has been on the hard disk for a long time due to its magnetic signature "bleeding for want of a better word" deeper in to the platter.

So i guess what im saying is its impossible to delete files so they are 100% unrecoverable if they have been on the disk for a long time. but unless your a specialist data recovery expert a gutman wipe will be enough to stop you recovering it. although you may still be able to see what the file's name was even if your an amature data recovery person like my self.
Click to expand...
That sounds good enough for me. It's only if it gets stolen and I cant see the FBI stealing it. :-P How do I go about making a boot disk for this?

AndyLandy said:
OK, so a more useful answer from me. Download Boot'n'nuke and burn it to a CD, boot from it and well... nuke!

http://www.dban.org/
Click to expand...
Ah this is pretty straight forward, does this use the same 'gutman' method? Does it have any options to change the number of times it re-wites over the drive?

Wolfy said:
How I do it for clients pcs before resail...

Download the systemrescuecd

http://www.sysresccd.org/Main_Page

Burn it to a cd and boot the machine in question off of the cd.
You will be encountered by a prompt "Boot:", just hit enter.
You will be asked for keylayout, I type 40 here and hit enter (UK)
after a while you will be dropped at a command prompt.


For sanity type the following:
fdisk -l
That is the lowercase letter L
You should see the first drive listed as /dev/sda with partitions sda1, sda2 etc.

To wipe.
type the following command to write random data to the drive
I assume your drive will be /dev/sda, I havent encountered a machine with one drive that was otherwise, yet.
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda &

the & means run as a seperate thread, the number that is spat out is the process id.
you can query the progress of the wipe by typing
kill -usr1 <process id>

when an error is presented "out of space" the random wipe is done.

repeat with a slight variation:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda &

And when done reboot, install, enjoy, dont worry about it :smile:
Click to expand...
Is this as secure as the method ShambleS1980 described though?
 
Andys method bootn`nuke or my method would be fine for your purposes as they will wipe the drive at a sector level, to be honest unless you really have something to hide you are fine with either.
To be honest even just zeroing the drive is safe enough for your purposes, no-one wihout some serious hardware will get those files back, and for an ex NHS lappy I really wouldnt sweat it.
 
Wolfy said:
Andys method bootn`nuke or my method would be fine for your purposes as they will wipe the drive at a sector level, to be honest unless you really have something to hide you are fine with either.
To be honest even just zeroing the drive is safe enough for your purposes, no-one wihout some serious hardware will get those files back, and for an ex NHS lappy I really wouldnt sweat it.
Click to expand...
It probably is overkill but it is really interesting to hear about how it works. :) I don't think there's anything seriously worrying on there it's just a precautionary measure more then anything.

Thanks for all the replies I didn't expect this feedback. :thumbsup:
 
tokyoracer said:
Might also try that one Andy described too.

I think that's about as good as i'm going to get. :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

+1 for DBAN - it's what i use.

It can do Gutmann, among several other options, but to be honest that's overkill on modern drives - and Gutmann himself has said so! His paper was written in the days before hard drives even had integrated controllers, and the vastly increased data density on modern drives makes recovering data using the methods he described much more difficult.

A single pass of zeros renders the data unreadable to anyone without specialist equipment and it's debatable whether even that would allow much to be recovered now.

Where people get caught out is when they assume that a "full" format completely overwrites the drive - that's not necessarily the case.
 
blankstare said:
At a dos prompt, type in the following command then hit enter

Format c: /u

And if that fails to impress, remove the hd frm the machine and hit it with a large lump hammer several times :thumbsup:
Click to expand...

And for sure, if I got my hands on that disk, I could still get most data back, if not all.
You need a program that really writes 0's to every sector and the MBR.
Then it will get hard to recover any data, but still not impossible.

Hammering won't do it either, you may have dented case, but it could still be readable if someone had it repaired in a cleanroom.

Best thing, write the 0's, then open the hard drive and make deep scratches on every side of the plates.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

uniquefreak
For Sale AMIGA 600 - Tested / Working - Recapped, 2D Rev. Furia 020, 3.2 OS, 3.2 Kickstart, SD Hard Drive, PCMCIA CF Card etc.
Replies
4
Views
743
majmoon
M
trippy86
  • Locked
Closed Tccmebius USB 2.0 Hard Drive Docking Station, TCC-S862-UK
Replies
1
Views
293
trippy86
trippy86
C
Offered Conner CP2048 (STH04) 48 MB IDE Hard Drive – Non‑Working
Replies
1
Views
118
chapas
C
P
GVP G-Force hard drive bracket installation (shorting issue?)
Replies
3
Views
272
PacificState
P
woodycool
  • Locked
Found A500/A500+ Hard Drive add-on side expansion (either IDE or SCSI)
Replies
5
Views
3K
RetroPassion
RetroPassion
Back
Top Bottom