Drive Wipe

[Jarryd]

Hi,

I am getting more and more concerned about chucking away old machine that
might have sensitive data on them. Currently, when I am going to chuck away
a PC that has a HDD in it I beat the hell out of it with a hammer, after
performing a low-level format on it. But I know that this doesn't really
guarentee that all the data is wiped. To be honest, I am probably stressing
over nothing. I mean, who the hell is going to go to great lengths to
recover data belonging to my company from a banged up HDD all set to zeros.
But then I thought I might as well CMA (as opposed to CYA) and check if it
has gotten easier for techno-crooks to get at data since I last checked, and
if so what new methods / tools have been developed to safeguard against it.
There are loads of tools out there and I can't work out if I need to pay for
something or if I can use a freebie, and if I do have to pay for something
then what do I need to look out for?

CIA,

Jarryd

 

[Adam Joseph Cook]

Hi,

I am getting more and more concerned about chucking away old machine that
might have sensitive data on them. Currently, when I am going to chuck away
a PC that has a HDD in it I beat the hell out of it with a hammer, after
performing a low-level format on it. But I know that this doesn't really
guarentee that all the data is wiped. To be honest, I am probably stressing
over nothing. I mean, who the hell is going to go to great lengths to
recover data belonging to my company from a banged up HDD all set to zeros.
But then I thought I might as well CMA (as opposed to CYA) and check if it
has gotten easier for techno-crooks to get at data since I last checked, and
if so what new methods / tools have been developed to safeguard against it.
There are loads of tools out there and I can't work out if I need to pay for
something or if I can use a freebie, and if I do have to pay for something
then what do I need to look out for?

CIA,

Jarryd

Hey Jarryd,

I pulled this off a thread in microsoft.public.win2000.secuirty:

"Darik's Boot and Nuke http://dban.sourceforge.net/
DBAN is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard
disks
of most computers. DBAN is open source and will work on DOS, Windows
3.1, Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, or Linux,
and also meets the DoD cleaning and sanitizing standard."

Check out this thread for more information:

http://groups.google.com/group/micr...2K+System+for+Resale"&rnum=1#23abf1c30cc3ba76

Hope this helps.

--Adam Joseph Cook, Mechanical Engineer

 

[Glen]

Take the cover off the drive, and fill it up with CLR (the cleaning
stuff) or another metal corrosive liquid. Leave it for a few hours
or overnight -- OUTDOORS, because it will give off some nasty
fumes. Next morning your disk platters will be corroded beyond
all hopes of recovery. Rinse out the drive with water and toss it
in the trash.

Hammers work pretty well too, but they're more work.

 

[Jarryd]

Thanks all.

Jarryd