Selling office HDD. Opinions?

[AGiLE KiTTY]

Hi all,

From my office pc, I have accessed a lot of banking sites, Credit card transactions through my web browser. I have also accessed office network's sensitive data files(statistics images, videos, spreadsheets etc.). Just to be clear I did all these online through secure connections. Also had a few sensitive files saved to hdd, but they are not that important.

Now I am selling my magnetic hard drive (150GB). I did the following,
- Filled the drive with junk data until few KBs are left.
- Formatted.
- Used DBAN's every method to wipe the HDD and PRNG stream with 8 rounds.
- Partitioned and formatted again.

So am I good to sell this now? I am not paranoid but these data are some serious crap.

Thanks.

 

[R_1]

if the data is so sensitive destroy the drive. surely your times spent cleaning the drive is worth far more than you can get for a used WD raptor, one with such a low capacity

 

[USAFRet]

And a used 150GB drive sells for....$10?

Yes, the old data is gone, gone, gone.

 

[13thmonkey]

a 150GB drive is worth maybe £10/$10, not worth the time or risk.

 

[AGiLE KiTTY]

This is for friend, why just throw away stuff man? So fellas, This isn't ready to change hands?
edit: lol I am not selling it, It's a mistake...

 

[13thmonkey]

If you were to ask me professionally I wouldn't take the risk of saying yes for such a small value even though it is in all probability clean and unrecoverable, I'd rather just give you the £10.

Also you have to consider that 150GB is not really enough to hold an OS, a few programs and likely updates, and you can get a 120GB SSD for £50, that would perform noticeably better. So not worth the risk, send it to a reputable recycler, by all means, but to an individual nope.

 

[AGiLE KiTTY]

I am scared about, the files I viewed through the interent, videos, images and stuff. The stuff in the hard drive is sorta crap. Do I still need to physically destroy it?

 

[13thmonkey]

I thought this was financial information and not videos and images etc

 

[why_wolf]

Frankly I always destroy my old hard drives both home and work. It's just the only way to be 100% sure.

 

[AGiLE KiTTY]

I thought this was financial information and not videos and images etc

Basically stuff transferred through internet. After all da stuff I did, Is it still insecure?

I guess after all this process I did, My friend cant get this stuff, unless he knows some guys over at NSA or CIA

 

[USAFRet]

"videos and images", from your work PC?


If someone gave me a 150GB drive, for free, I'd say "thanks, I needed some more fridge magnets".
Pretty useless in todays world.

 

[AGiLE KiTTY]

They are not dirty stuff lol. I am bad at explaining stuff. I meant family photos and video I watch from internet for example facebook videos and photos. They go to the same hard drive? What about them?

 

[USAFRet]

They are not dirty stuff lol. I am bad at explaining stuff. I meant family photos and video I watch from internet for example facebook videos and photos. They go to the same hard drive? What about them?

And if you missed something? A hidden partition, maybe?

For me, personal drives get taken apart to recover the magnets. Platters get bent or broken.
Work drives get this:

Spoiler

[video="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sQYPCPB1g3o"][/video]

 

[13thmonkey]

You've done the right things, so it should be ok, BUT were it to be found to be not OK, were your friend to sell it on, and something be recovered, it would come back to you. If you were to pass it to a proper recycler, to my mind you'd have more of a defence as you've carried out the correct action in getting a professional to destroy it (once you'd cleaned it yourself).

I personally I can't believe that a company allows that hardware to be passed onto you.

 

[AGiLE KiTTY]

I am gonna keep the hdd then. One question just to my knowledge. The family photos and videos I watched through facebook and youtube, Are they gone after the process I did? Or is it impossible to recover?

 

[13thmonkey]

Your biggest risk is that when you viewed the images, those may have been stored on the company servers, or the links to them, as they have to assess all external sites for threats. So they might be gone from the hdd, but whomever owned the network that you were sat on could have seen them.

 

[Wayfall]

I'd just have it crushed, not worth it if there is sensitive data on it. I wouldn't be surprise if someone still figures a way to get some data off it no matter how many times you have tried to write over it or format it. If anyone ever wanted to get data off it they'd probably find a way.

Most IT shops have a HDD crushers

FYI formatting literally just tells the HDD that all the data is allowed to be written over when you put new files on the drive, the data is still there, just marked as being a rewritable area on the disk.

 

[AGiLE KiTTY]

Your biggest risk is that when you viewed the images, those may have been stored on the company servers, or the links to them, as they have to assess all external sites for threats. So they might be gone from the hdd, but whomever owned the network that you were sat on could have seen them.

The sensitive data hdd is staying with me. I just asked a general question about the facebook, youtube video, photo thing. Just to my knowledge.

 

[AGiLE KiTTY]

I'd just have it crushed, not worth it if there is sensitive data on it. I wouldn't be surprise if someone still figures a way to get some data off it no matter how many times you have tried to write over it or format it. If anyone ever wanted to get data off it they'd probably find a way.

Most IT shops have a HDD crushers

FYI formatting literally just tells the HDD that all the data is allowed to be written over when you put new files on the drive, the data is still there, just marked as being a rewritable area on the disk.

Yes I know that there's still data there after formatting, That's why I filled the hdd with junk data and wiped it dban