Question Is simply deleting a partition good enough to prevent data recovery ?

[accesscpu_]

I have a few old internal hard drives I'd like to sell or give to others. I want to ensure they are 100% wiped (including any previously deleted files still sitting in the file table waiting to be overwritten).

Is just deleting the partitions in Disk Managment enough to accomplish this?

I know I can use third part apps that will "bleach" the drives, but is that really necessary if I delete the partitions and leave them as raw, unpartitioned data?

 

[hotaru.hino]

Reformatting the drive is enough. As far as the file system is concerned, nothing is on the drive. And the chances of someone wanting to recover the data in hopes of doing something nefarious with it is really low.

EDIT: I should clarify the last part. It's not that someone can't recover the data, but the chances of finding someone who buys random used hard drives, recovers the data, and does something malicious with it is really low.

I don't expect a reasonable person to want to snoop around in someone else's old drive if it was reformatted.

 

[stonecarver]

If it's a mechanical hard drive getting un shredded files off a hard drive that has had a quick format or left raw is as fast at plugging it in and scanning it with recovery program and instantly someone with the right skills in less than an hour has a pretty good idea of what is really on the drive.

I don't trust everyone who would get a used mechanical hard drive to be a boy scout and not look.

 

[TerryLaze]

Yup, what stonecarver said.
You need to wipe the whole surface, at least once, for all the files to be gone, a simple partition delete or quick format will leave all the files untouched and will only delete the references to them, the simplest recovery tool will find them all.

 

[hotaru.hino]

Well, at the end of the day, the question of whether or not you need to do any sanitizing is up to you and the amount of risk you're willing to take.

 

[SkyNetRising]

Is just deleting the partitions in Disk Managment enough to accomplish this?
I know I can use third part apps that will "bleach" the drives, but is that really necessary if I delete the partitions and leave them as raw, unpartitioned data?

Deleted partitions on mechanical drive are quite easy to recover.

Use DBAN to overwrite entire drive.

Darik’s Boot and Nuke – DBAN

Erase hard drives, desktops, laptops or servers free with a Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) download. Try it now.

dban.org

 

[MWink64]

No, deleting the partitions is insufficient. Recovering files that were not overwritten would be trivial. The best option is to use a utility that will have the drive perform a Secure Erase. Depending on the drive's speed and size, this could take up to a day. If the drive is a Self-Encrypting Drive or supports Instant Secure Erase, the Crypto Scramble command could instead be used to instantly render all data effectively irrecoverable.

 

[Bob.B]

I have a few old internal hard drives I'd like to sell or give to others. I want to ensure they are 100% wiped (including any previously deleted files still sitting in the file table waiting to be overwritten).

Is just deleting the partitions in Disk Managment enough to accomplish this?

I know I can use third part apps that will "bleach" the drives, but is that really necessary if I delete the partitions and leave them as raw, unpartitioned data?

Think of a book.
Deleting partitions is like deleting the index or table of contents all the pages of data are still there.

You need to erase the pages.

If the stuff on these disks is really important the only way it would leave my hands is in pieces.

 

[USAFRet]

A few months ago, I tried this on a spare 3TB HDD.

Fill it with about 2TB mixed data. Images, text, video.
Full format in File Explorer. Took quite a while.
Then, using various recovery tools, tried to get something out of it.

36 hour deep scan with Autopsy
Recuva
TestDisk

Nothing. Nada. Zero recoverable data with tools available in the consumer realm.

Key words above - Full Format.

 

[hotaru.hino]

To add to @USAFRet , Microsoft changed what "Full Format" does in Vista to include zero-filling the drive. From https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/t...torage/format-command-not-write-zeros-to-disk

By default in Windows Vista and later versions, the format command writes zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed.

 

[stonecarver]

I want to ensure they are 100% wiped (including any previously deleted files still sitting in the file table waiting to be overwritten).

Is just deleting the partitions in Disk Managment enough to accomplish this?

So just deleting partitions without a full wipe/ full format will not accomplish and ensure 100% data is not still there.

 

[accesscpu_]

UPDATE:

So, slight change of plans. So I've decided that (because of some upcoming backup needs I have), I'm going to keep my three internal HDDs. However, I still want them to be completely clean of old data.

I see DBAN is highly recommend, but I already have miniTool Partition Wizard installed (and it has passes to write 0, write 1 or write both). Two questions...

1. Will that do an equally good job in ensuring the drives are completely clean of any old data?
2. Also, if I delete the partitions first, will I still be able to use the wipe disk function on the raw data? Or should I wipe first, then delete it?

 

[USAFRet]

UPDATE:

So, slight change of plans. So I've decided that (because of some upcoming backup needs I have), I'm going to keep my three internal HDDs. However, I still want them to be completely clean of old data.

I see DBAN is highly recommend, but I already have miniTool Partition Wizard installed (and it has passes to write 0, write 1 or write both). Will that do an equaly good job in ensuring the drives are completely clean of any old data?

Or, as mentioned above, a simple Full Format in File Explorer.
That writes 0's to the entire drive.

This only works on partitions that appear in File Explorer. Things without a drive letter won't.

Or just DBAN.

 

[SkyNetRising]

So, slight change of plans. So I've decided that (because of some upcoming backup needs I have), I'm going to keep my three internal HDDs. However, I still want them to be completely clean of old data.

If you're keeping the drive, then there's no need to overwrite with zeroes.
Simple clean, re-partitioning, reformatting is perfectly enough.