How can I fully wipe a HD?

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Vinny

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Jul 3, 2004
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I just picked up a 400GB HD for $105 (or maybe $85 depending on a rebate) so I'm thinking about getting rid of one of my HDs, a Seagate 7200.8 300GB. I see no reason for 1.1TB of total HD space.

A guy down the hall is interested in buying the HD and he said he'd pay me $75 for it, which is $5 more than what I paid for it, so I'm happy to sell it.

Besides some porn, program files and games, I've had some personal info stored on that drive- passwords and such. It's been deleted but I heard that people can still recover that info somehow.

So is there a way to completely wipe a HD clean.. without destroying it?
 
there is no complete way to wipe data from a hd, if someone is expert enough then they can get access to your deleted data (somehow). The only way to protect your data from a hd that is no longer required is to take a hammer to it. However you could take your chances and just format it. These days I find it safer to just write passwords down on paper and keep it safe.
 
Active KillDisk

The freeware version overwrites with one pass. This is secure enough for all software programs to be unable to recover any data, but theoretically, a well-funded adversary could take the drive apart in a lab and resurrect the data.

The pay version implements DOD 5220.22-M secure deletion (3 overwrites total - constant data on the first pass, the bitwise complement on the second pass, and random data on the third pass, then verification that every sector was overwritten with the random data). This renders the data unrecoverable even with the lab techniques.

Don't run it on the wrong drive. 8O
 
Other than the suggestion of the hammer, which would really wipe it out, there are a number of programs which will work, one of which SomeJoe suggested. On the cheaper end, do a full format, fill it with a bunch of games, then format it again, fill it with some games, and format it again. You might run through the cycle four or five times. That should sufficiently scramble everything so that there is little left to read. Yes, it is a bit time consuming, but you want the money, right? Otherwise, just keep it and have a terabyte or so of hard drive space.

Sure, someone who is an extreme expert might be able to find something, but probably not. Besides, the "guy down the hall" probably is not an extreme expert, nor does he likely have the money to hire one. He will just fill it with whatever stuff he has to put on it.
 
There are MANY programs out there used to wipe a hard drive to DOD standards. DOD standards require 3 passes to verify data is gone.

I use a BartPE boot disk (www.nu2.nu) and install the Vopt plugin. Vopt (http://www.goldenbow.com/VoptXP.htm) is a disk defragmentation tool that will also wipe a drive. I believe they have a functional demo.

My personal favorite is from Hard Disk Manager Professional from Paragon (http://www.paragon-software.com/hdm/) but I don't think they offer a functional trial version.

Or you can just search Google for other products. (http://www.google.com/search?num=100&hl=en&lr=&q=erase+data+dod)

Good Luck... :)
 
Ok, thanks for all the suggestions guys... it sounds like putting a bunch of data on it and then formatting it is what helps the most. But with 300GB, that'll take a while.

Maybe I'll just have 1.1TB of space. Not many people can claim that... :lol:
 
Why won't you try the Eraser?

Format the drive once then let the program erase unused space, select the Gutmann setting. Then leave for a day.

Either way you still be formatting the drive to use for you TB setup. Or not.
 
from what i understand, Data can only be recovered if it has not yet been overwrittern. So you could always try hte steps above but ive done something rahter unusal that seems to work. I open up notepad and save the file. Then i keep on making copies of it until hte notepad covered the whole harddrive. Because, hte file is so small, it pratically rewrites every sector so even recovery programs wont see the original data (just your billions of copies of Notepad). WARNING!! (this takes a while though..)
 
As far as I know, there is no fool-proof method to totally erase your hdd. However if you do a few overwrites using the utilities that came with your hdd or one of the other methods mentioned by others so far, it'd cost way more to recover any usable data off your disk than the data could possibly be worth. That being said, I personally just burn any drives I get rid of, as by the time I dispose of them they're not worth much anyhow (plus it's fun to watch!). Or, if you're that concerned about disposal just do what the US military does and sandblast your drive to shreads and then burn the remnants.
 
Pfft more people than you think have that these days 😛

My HDD setup:

C: 240GB (2* 7200.8 120GB SATA drives, RAID 0)

F: 1100GB (1* 7200.9 400GB PATA, 1* Maxtor 250GB SATA, 1* Maxtor 250GB PATA, 1* Maxtor 200GB PATA, JBOD array)

And I've just ordered two 7200.10 750GB drives to replace my F: drive, the components of which will go into other computers 😀

Hard disks are soooo cheap these days its insane!


Back to the subject, unless the guy has reason to I highly doubt he is going to ah heck arround trying to recover the drive, just format and repartition, run any one of the utilites suggested, preferably a free one, and you are as safe as when you cross the street on your way to work 😛
 
if you just copy the same files over and over again....lets say ure pron collection....fill the drive with it......format and repeat for good measure.....then thats should do it for free.....write a batch file to do it for you....then leave it....and when you come back with the no space error.....well you know....also some software for drives that will write 0's to the drive....well that should do it too....i mean thats like no data in every cluster/sector/whatever....

but as said above drives are cheap.....maybe you should just keep it....makes a good backup drive...
 
Look into Ontrack's dataeraser utility. The personal version is usd 30, but buy it once and use it forever.... I personally use it when RMA'ing a drive. One pass is pretty safe, do three passes and Ontrack says even they would have a hard time recovering it. Not quite as good as professional, but that's usd 500...

They are also on NIST's list of certified cleaning utilities...

OK, cheaper options... Just build a DOS boot disk (6.22 recommended), remove all existing partitions, make some partitions, format the lot etc. for a few times. Companies like Ontrack will then gladly charge your buddy in the neighbourhood of USD 5k to recover that. (And they are GOOD! Recovered a drive that had some very valuable data on it after it had been through a fire hot enough to warp the case and the platters...)

Just bear in mind that its all time consuming, but just kick off a format session before you have to be somewhere else for a few hours, do this several days in a row and you are pretty safe.

I use the Ontrack, one pass, and then feel safe enough to return a drive back to the manufacturer...

A bit long winded, but hope it helps. better safe than find out later the whole world knows your banking details....
 
Couldn't you just do a low level format/zero fill? Just about any HDD utility will allow you to do a low level format. From what I understand a zero fill and a low level format will fill the all available space with zeros. In essence all data would be erased and replaced with zero's. Just a thought.... let me know what you guys think.

wes

edit: most of these are free as well.
 
dude ... its very simple

seagate itself have utility that helps u zero fill the drive
http://www.seagate.com/support/seatools/
get the seatool desktop

its free for yr hdd.
or get yrself ultimate bootdisc or similar..they have related tools as well
 
Ok, thanks for all the suggestions guys... it sounds like putting a bunch of data on it and then formatting it is what helps the most. But with 300GB, that'll take a while.

Maybe I'll just have 1.1TB of space. Not many people can claim that... :lol:
Click to expand...

i dont understand why you wouldnt want the space i have over 1.5TB(from all the computers i own) and need more lol, im currently using friends server to store non critical stuff. his server has about 1.3TB. and thats almost full too.

as the others have said the only way to make sure a drive cant be recovered using software is to do a pass of atleast 3. for it to be unreadable to those with advanced hardware a 5 passes might not even do it.

the way it works is to flatten the data on the disk, as you kno data is stored in 0s and 1s, lets say 1s are bumps of 0.6 and 0s are 0.4, when a pass goes over this data it isnt erased, its just under what the harddrive can read so lets say your drive can only read 1s and 0s of upto 0.3, once youve run your software the 1s are now 0.2 and the 0s are now 0.1. which your drive cant read but someone with a hi-tech laser scanner like the ones used in CSI can pick up the very small 1s and 0s and reconstruct the data.
 
Hey Vinny,
Here's what you do....go to MS website and / or google this file type delpart.exe this is an old Win 98 .exe utility that totally removes any trace of partitions. I ALWAYS do this with my drives THEN I REFORMAT when "cleaning" them just in case any trojans or other crap is lying around that I don't want to contaminate my new install. It's a very effective tool an I still use it. The user interface is very rudimentary but easy to follow.

I got it from a tech guy friend of mine at the company I used to work for. It fits on a floppy disk so it's very small file but it packs an awsome punch in terms of wiping data in cases such as yours.

If ya can't find it, PM me and I can email you the file ...........cheers :wink:

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