[SOLVED] can one really ressucitate a wiped hdd?

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anaturelover

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Hi
i plan to sell a old laptop that has hdd.

i read long ago that when a hdd is old , the 1 and 0 have been there for so long that even when you format the hdd, it is possible to bring the hdd back to what it was before the formating since the magnetic imprint is so clear.

is that true?
what to consider when choosing to see a hdd to a buyer unknown?

and if i installe a version of my win 10 wich means my mycrosoft account, could that back fire on me if the buyer does bad things

tx
 
Solution
If the NSA really wants your data then yes, it could be (mostly) restored. Anyone less hasn't got a prayer. Just securely wipe the drive with something like DBAN and call it a day. Sell the laptop with a blank drive and let the buyer take care of installing an OS.

4745454b

Titan
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Even if this were true, most people wouldn't have access to the tech needed to read the data. Any secure wipe program should be able to provide a wipe good enough for home users. No offense, but you don't have anything on there that is worth the cost of trying to recover after using a secure erase program. I would just wipe it and move on.
 

USAFRet

Titan
Moderator
Hi
i plan to sell a old laptop that has hdd.

i read long ago that when a hdd is old , the 1 and 0 have been there for so long that even when you format the hdd, it is possible to bring the hdd back to what it was before the formating since the magnetic imprint is so clear.

is that true?
what to consider when choosing to see a hdd to a buyer unknown?

and if i installe a version of my win 10 wich means my mycrosoft account, could that back fire on me if the buyer does bad things

tx
Bring it 100% back to what it was?
Not a chance.

NSA/FBI/GHCQ/FSB....maybe but unlikely. And you are not a target for those entities.
Depends on how you "wiped it".

If you install a Win 10, do it with WiFi off and no ethernet cable.
Delete all partitions in the process.
Don't enter any password.
Remove that device from your MS account.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...nt-selling-gifting-windows-10-device-xbox-one
 
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USAFRet

Titan
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A lot of these things you read are vastly overblown.

Someone will take a drive that has been "wiped".
Trying to read it, all gibberish.
After dozens of hours of analysis, they come up with a single character - "a".
"See! It is still readable!!!"


Like taking a whole dictionary and putting it through a shredder that results in 1mm x 1mm squares.
Sifting through that 2kg of confetti, you find a single piece with a readable "a".
"See! Your shredder is useless!!"
 

anaturelover

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Bring it 100% back to what it was?
Not a chance.

NSA/FBI/GHCQ/FSB....maybe but unlikely. And you are not a target for those entities.
Depends on how you "wiped it".

If you install a Win 10, do it with WiFi off and no ethernet cable.
Delete all partitions in the process.
Don't enter any password.
Remove that device from your MS account.
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us...nt-selling-gifting-windows-10-device-xbox-one
hi i looked at your link.
is this reset option available on win 7? if not how difficult would it be for a buyer to try to recover my info if i just delete my personal files ?
 

USAFRet

Titan
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hi i looked at your link.
is this reset option available on win 7? if not how difficult would it be for a buyer to try to recover my info if i just delete my personal files ?
What OS is on this currently?

That link refers to the license and account, for a Win 10 system.
Not the data on the drive.

If you are selling the device, do NOT just delete your personal files.
Full wipe and reinstall.

Win 7, Win 10, Linux, whatever.
Leave off any license or sign in for a Windows install.
Unless you are including the license with the sale/gift of the system.
 
hi i looked at your link.
is this reset option available on win 7? if not how difficult would it be for a buyer to try to recover my info if i just delete my personal files ?

Depends if it's a hdd or a ssd as the manner of erasure and operation is different.

That said a 3 pass on a hdd is sufficient for 99.9% of users. Random 0 1

For ssd fill empty space then trim drive.
 

punkncat

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Ambassador
By way of recovery...

If you do nothing more than a simple reformat it is possible to recover info from a HDD. There are services that professionally perform such action.

Using one of the "better" cleaning programs, it is highly unlikely and not worth the effort to/for any average individual.
Keep in mind that anything on your computer which went across the internet is already in database somewhere. Many people turn on other type backups and such for photo, such as loading to various apps. To get to the point, it's probably already out there by a plethora of other methods than actually having to try to recover data from a drive.

Generally speaking, if you are going to sell a computer pulling a format and reinstall is likely as good as you need be concerned with as an "average Joe". If you aren't there is likely someone in a department for the entity you work for which would take care of such things as your computer was phased out. We can gather the latter is not the case...
 

anaturelover

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Jun 24, 2012
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Depends if it's a hdd or a ssd as the manner of erasure and operation is different.

That said a 3 pass on a hdd is sufficient for 99.9% of users. Random 0 1

For ssd fill empty space then trim drive.
hi yes win7 is on hdd. is there a reset option like in the article usafret linked would reset be sufficent for average joe buyer?
and if there is no reset is just selecting personal files pressing delete enough?
 

ARICH5

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ive been reading this thread a bit.

the ONLY way i wipe a drive is through dos. i dont use a os,s gui. i can boot into a pure dos environment (not on a win10 machine, at least i havent tried) with a old win7 rig with no internet. i know how to use command prompts so there is NOTHING left, not even able to boot. its just a door stop after that.
 
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