Disk Wiping

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Guest

I am looking for information regarding complete Hard Disk
erasing. I have looked at about 8 programs that are out
there to do the job, but I also heard from someone that
installing Windows and reformatting 3 times will do the
job.

Can anyone confirm or expand on this?

Thanks.
 
I am looking for information regarding complete Hard Disk
erasing. I have looked at about 8 programs that are out
there to do the job, but I also heard from someone that
installing Windows and reformatting 3 times will do the
job.

Can anyone confirm or expand on this?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

format and installing windows does nothing to guarantee the disk is wiped.
there are security products that claim to do this by writing various
patterns over the whole disk surface, but then there are questions about
blocks that are bad and if they contain anything... if you are paranoid
enough try checking out
http://www.techtv.com/screensavers/answerstips/story/0,24330,3547954,00.html
where there are several solutions.... i prefer the thermite one.
 
To what degree of wiping ?

The most diligent is based upon the June 2001 DoD standard.

Just because a manufacturer says they are DoD compliant does NOT mean they are. Only DISA
can provide a list for DoD compliant wiping utilities. Two that come to mind that ARE
approved by DoD for wiping DoD hard disks would be: Purge Effects and UniShred Pro.

Programs such as GDisk by Syamantec which state they are DoD compliant are NOT DoD
approved. However, for standard operations, in non DoD realms, the Symantec GDisk utility
is suggested.

Whomever told you that reformatting a hard disk three times will wipe a hard disk is dead
WRONG !


Dave


| I am looking for information regarding complete Hard Disk
| erasing. I have looked at about 8 programs that are out
| there to do the job, but I also heard from someone that
| installing Windows and reformatting 3 times will do the
| job.
|
| Can anyone confirm or expand on this?
|
| Thanks.
 
For "disk wiping" you need to find out who the
manufacturer of your hard drive is. Most have tools to
perform such a task and is written specific to your hard
drive model. If you have a western digital HD, they have a
utilities program you can download for free and it has
a "write zeros" program. It completely erases your hard
drive so you can start from scratch.
 
For "disk wiping" you need to find out who the
manufacturer of your hard drive is.
Click to expand...

No you don't, who made the drive doesn't matter. All that disk wiping
is writing a pile of zeros and ones or other characters over the drive
to prevent recovery software from retrieving the files. Depending on
the level of security that you want the drive is simply written over
more than once. That's call "Pass". High level security calls for
something like 246 passes (or something like that). 3 to 7 passes is
usually sufficient for most people. Retrieving anything from a drive
that has been overwritten more than 3 times is extremely difficult and
expensive, unless you have state secrets on your drive no one would
bother spending that kind of money trying to retrieve anything that
might turn out to be nothing more than emails to Grandma and a list of
your favorite recipes.

John
 
John:

"High level security" would be based upon UK or US DoD specifications. US DoD
specifications were updated June 2001 and is based upon the following...

Write a pattern such as - 01010101
Then write its complement - 10101010
Then write a third pattern such as - 11001100.
This is repeated 7 seven times.

Dave


| (e-mail address removed) wrote:
|
| > For "disk wiping" you need to find out who the
| > manufacturer of your hard drive is.
|
| No you don't, who made the drive doesn't matter. All that disk wiping
| is writing a pile of zeros and ones or other characters over the drive
| to prevent recovery software from retrieving the files. Depending on
| the level of security that you want the drive is simply written over
| more than once. That's call "Pass". High level security calls for
| something like 246 passes (or something like that). 3 to 7 passes is
| usually sufficient for most people. Retrieving anything from a drive
| that has been overwritten more than 3 times is extremely difficult and
| expensive, unless you have state secrets on your drive no one would
| bother spending that kind of money trying to retrieve anything that
| might turn out to be nothing more than emails to Grandma and a list of
| your favorite recipes.
|
| John
|
|
 
John:

That list is old and leaves out much. For example; Symantec GDisk

Dave


| Eraser by Sami Tolvanen is one of the best of these programs... and it's
| free. http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/
|
| Look here for a comparison chart.
| Disk and File Shredders: A Comparison
| http://www.fortunecity.com/skyscraper/true/882/Comparison_Shredders.htm
|
| John
|
| (e-mail address removed) wrote:
|
| > I am looking for information regarding complete Hard Disk
| > erasing. I have looked at about 8 programs that are out
| > there to do the job, but I also heard from someone that
| > installing Windows and reformatting 3 times will do the
| > job.
| >
| > Can anyone confirm or expand on this?
| >
| > Thanks.
|
 
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