Delete hard drive contents

[Martin ©¿©¬]

Hi
I remember reading in a news group about a program/utility that could
format/clean a hard drive & leave it just as if it had never been used
Does anyone know where I can find this utility?
Martin
©¿©¬

 

[Ben]

Hi
I remember reading in a news group about a program/utility that could
format/clean a hard drive & leave it just as if it had never been used
Does anyone know where I can find this utility?

Depending on how much you believe in tinfoil hats and black helicopters,
it is debatable whether anything will ever be able to "leave it just as
if it had never been used" - but in terms of day to day use, defeating
normal attempts to recover data etc, you'll be wanting Darik's Boot and
Nuke

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

HTH

 

[Martin ©¿©¬]

Depending on how much you believe in tinfoil hats and black helicopters,
it is debatable whether anything will ever be able to "leave it just as
if it had never been used" - but in terms of day to day use, defeating
normal attempts to recover data etc, you'll be wanting Darik's Boot and
Nuke
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

I have 2 hard drives
Will I be able to choose which drive to Danik or will it nuke both
drives by default?


Martin
©¿©¬

 

[Ben]

On Mon, 27 Mar 2006 12:04:05 +0100, Ben
I have 2 hard drives
Will I be able to choose which drive to Danik or will it nuke both
drives by default?

It's been a while since I actually used it. I believe it will nuke
anything connected and powered up - either way, in any major wiping
operation I'd suggest unplugging all drives you do not intend to wipe
just to save you from any misbehaving programs (or moment of clumsy
fingers!)

Make the boot disk, shutdown, unplug the drive you don't want to wipe
and power up with the boot floppy in. Wander off and read a book for
several hours (or more!) - such is the price of paranoia

Ben

 

[Anonymous]

Martin,

I used DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke from http://dban.sourceforge.net/)
to clean my hard drives in the past.

Just follow the instructions at DBAN's website to make and use the
boot-floppy.

One thing to remember though: DBAN will erase ALL the disks installed
in a computer simultaneously. If you have a disk installed in your
machine that you do NOT want to be erased, disconnect the data cable,
power cord, or the USB connection BEFORE booting the machine with the
DBAN floppy. DBAN does not immediately start erasing at bootup. You
have the option to look at the different erasure methods and read about
each one before you make a decision. (You can also access those same
..txt files from the floppy before you ever use it to boot the
computer.)

I don't know if the drives are as clean as if they had never been used,
but DBAN's "gutmann" setting overwrote the disks 35 times and erased
them to the point that they had to be repartitioned and reformatted.

The "time required for erasure" varies with the size of the drive and
the method used. I wiped an 80 Gig HD with the "autonuke" setting and
then with the "gutmann" setting. Autonuke required about 5 hours. The
Gutmann 35-pass method took more than three days. (YIPES!)

I read about the Gutmann method during that three day wait. I
discovered some .gov webpages from the Department of Defense that
recommended a 3-pass overwrite or a 7-pass overwrite of data to prevent
enemy soldiers from accessing sensitive files on captured computers.
The Gutmann Method is 35 passes, which should plow the surface of the
hard drive like a farmer's cornfield at planting time...

That same webpage also said that NO method of disk-surface-erasure is
totally secure. The webpage recommended that drives should be erased
using at least one of the recommended methods (3, 7, or Gutmann) and
then to destroy the physical platters using explosives (if you're in
the military) or by opening the case and hammering the individual
platters into pieces.

 

[meow2222]

The "time required for erasure" varies with the size of the drive and
the method used. I wiped an 80 Gig HD with the "autonuke" setting and
then with the "gutmann" setting. Autonuke required about 5 hours. The
Gutmann 35-pass method took more than three days. (YIPES!)

I guess this isnt software for en masse secure delete then! Is there
anything that is? I dont need mil spec security, just not recoverable
using any freeware tools.

thanks,
NT

 

[Franklin]

It's been a while since I actually used it. I believe it will
nuke anything connected and powered up - either way, in any
major wiping operation I'd suggest unplugging all drives you do
not intend to wipe just to save you from any misbehaving
programs (or moment of clumsy fingers!)

Very good advice.

 

[Bob]

I guess this isnt software for en masse secure delete then! Is there
anything that is? I dont need mil spec security, just not recoverable
using any freeware tools.

thanks,
NT

NT,

En masse and secure delete are oxymorons.

In a nutshell, the only way to reasonably securely wipe a hard drive
involves making multiple write passes over every sector of the drive
with different varying patterns.

It takes time to write data to every sector of a hard drive. It takes
even longer if you vary the pattern written to each sector as the same
cached buffer can't be written to the sector over and over by the drive
electronics.

You want different patterns because it is possible to reconstruct the
deleted data if you know what the pattern is.

You want multiple passes to make it even more difficult to pick out the
data from the noise.

I usually only throw away drives that are no longer functioning
properly, so I slam the drive down on concrete, pick it up, shake, and
listen for the sounds of broken parts moving around inside. I repeat
the process until I hear what sounds like shattered glass moving around
inside. I suspect the sound I'm hearing is the shattered drive
electronics. The smaller pieces have probably done a pretty good job of
scratching the platter(s). If someone digs the drive out of the trash,
they'll likely see the beat up case and toss it back in the trash. If
they open it up and see the destroyed drive electronics and scratched
platters, I suspect they will give up rather quickly.

Of course, this method doesn't work very well if you wish to sell or
give the drive to someone to use

HTH,

Bob

 

[meow2222]

En masse and secure delete are oxymorons.

I guess you meant speed and secure delete? I dont think I need multiple
pass writing, as I've never seen any freeware util that can recover
data after one write over - but I dont know the recovery scene well, so
would welcome any corrections. If this is so, then I presume a single
random noise write would work. Would a simple fdisk also work? I dont
need mil spec, just to make the kit not recoverable using freeware
tools.


cheers, NT

 

[Ardent]

X-No-Archive: yes

I remember reading in a news group about a program/utility that could
format/clean a hard drive & leave it just as if it had never been used
Does anyone know where I can find this utility?

Maybe it was Slate, a proggy that will remove all the partitioning
information stored at the beginning of the disk so it will "appear" as
if it is just as when it was purchased. Mind you, the data is all
still there and only the partition information is removed. This is ok
for any one who wants to start with a clean slate - that is how the
utility got its name.

Since it removes only the partition information it needs only a few
seconds to do the job.

Okay, it is available here:

ftp://garbo.uwasa.fi/pc/diskutil/slate10.zip

HTH
--
Sandy Archer
Reply to newsgroup only

For links to Harddisk management freeware
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[Al Klein]

random noise write would work. Would a simple fdisk also work? I dont
need mil spec, just to make the kit not recoverable using freeware
tools.

Fdisk, if you leave the partitions the same, does nothing - it just
rewrites the existing data on the drive without changing anything.

For normal, "can't read it with freeware" wiping, format the entire
drive. Then, if you're a confirmed paranoid lunatic, fdisk, but with
the start track one track higher than the default. All the sectors
are now skewed by one track, so the drive would have to be re-fdisked
to be able to even begin to make any sense out of the date that's
left.

Or get a low-level format program from the drive manufacturer (they
all have something for download on their sites). Use the "up one
track" fdisk trick, then low-level format the drive.

Or run linux (you can do that from a runnable CD) and format the
entire drive as a linux filesystem. Windows data doesn't make much
sense after you do that.

 

[Al Klein]

Maybe it was Slate, a proggy that will remove all the partitioning
information stored at the beginning of the disk so it will "appear" as
if it is just as when it was purchased. Mind you, the data is all
still there and only the partition information is removed. This is ok
for any one who wants to start with a clean slate - that is how the
utility got its name.

Since it removes only the partition information it needs only a few
seconds to do the job.

Since almost all drives are partitioned from the beginning,
repartitioning the drive to use the entire drive as one partition will
usually bring it all back.

 

[KM]

I guess this isnt software for en masse secure delete then! Is there
anything that is? I dont need mil spec security, just not recoverable
using any freeware tools.

Sounds like you want Eraser.

http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/

It will act as a shell extension and let you erase specific files or
folders, erase unused space, or let you create a boot-nuke disk. Read
the instructions carefully: I haven't used the boot disk option, only
the on-demand eraser.

You can specify the passes and the pattern, or create your own. If
speed is your primary concern, I would recommend using one pass of
random data, and then zero out the drive. (It depends on your level of
paranoia, and your reason for erasing it in the first place.)