Untraceably wipe HDD or SSD content

[George Lazu]

Hello, i know that experts in data recovery can recover files from wiped out or even severly damaged HDDs, and i was wondering what would it take to truly destroy the data on a HDD. What about an SSD?

Also, is there any process that would not render the storage unusable?

 

[ss202sl]

dban - it can do what they call a DoD wipe - writes 1's or 0's to the entire disk several times.

 

[boosted1g]

To remove all data on a drive you do a multiple run format. This means you write the data to a 1, then write it to a zero, and doing this multiple times ensures the data can not be reread. 1 pass is sufficient for 95% (anyone not in a data recovery lab), 3 pass is 99% and 7 passes would be 99.999% (7 pass is what is done by government.


Now for an SSD, doing this will shorten its lifespan. Most SSDs have a utility that will have it scramble all data and make it unreadable without reducing your ssd performance/lifespan.

ADDED:
Any partition program like Easus or Paragon Partition Master will have the ability to do a multiple pass format. If you just want a single pass format then you can use windows built in utility and just uncheck "quick format".

Now in regards to reading a damaged drive, top end labs can recover data off of fragments of hard drives. Doing the format is a completely sufficient means of destroying the data on the disk, but if say the drive is an old format that you have no ability to read then damaging the platters to the point the drive will no longer spin will make data recovery way to much cost/effort to be worth it to anyone wanting to do identity theft or hack online passwords.

 

[George Lazu]

To remove all data on a drive you do a multiple run format. This means you write the data to a 1, then write it to a zero, and doing this multiple times ensures the data can not be reread. 1 pass is sufficient for 95% (anyone not in a data recovery lab), 3 pass is 99% and 7 passes would be 99.999% (7 pass is what is done by government.


Now for an SSD, doing this will shorten its lifespan. Most SSDs have a utility that will have it scramble all data and make it unreadable without reducing your ssd performance/lifespan.

Are there tools that do that better, or the windows format is enough?

 

[RazberyBandit]

Zero-Write the drive. It's an old function that's been around for decades. It will overwrite all data on the drive with binary zeroes.

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=Zero-write+a+drive

 

[boosted1g]

At O.P. check out ADDED portion of my first post, I was typing out more information when you asked.

 

[boosted1g]

It all comes down to what you are trying to prevent. For your average person a single pass format will prevent them from being able to find any old data. If you are very concerned about high skilled individuals obtaining your drive then a 3 pass format would be sufficient to thwart anyone not wanting to spend thousands of dollars on data recovery.

 

[jsmithepa]

Put it into a car crusher. 😀

But the write 0 and 1 should work. Is gonna take a while like hours or days.

All FORMAT does is to erase the DIRECTORY but leaves the data alone.

 

[Snipergod87]

If wiping a SSD use the secure erase function, do NOT overwrite with random data. SSD's move data around so it may not overwrite your data.

 

[popatim]

To truly destroy the data so that its impossible for anyone to recover the data is to shred the drive. I am not talking about a files shredder as found in many utilities but rather a physical shredder, like a paper shredder on steroids, that will literally rip your drive into many tiny pieces. This is what is done at upper levels of data security; anything else (software wise) leaves 'some' chance of recovery

 

[Chazzmann]

A hand held drill motor with a 3/8" bit will do the job just fine in under a minute. If you haven't got that, a 1/4" bit will suffice -- just punch a few more holes. No one's going to bother it.

Remember you're drilling through the PLATTERS, not just the circuit board (the board is easy to replace).

And popatim is correct. The feds and other security mavens have cool tools that can pull data out of almost any drive, even after multiple write/delete operations.

 

[chenw]

Sorry for hijacking, but how difficult would it be to physically cause a head crash in a HDD (by possibly weighing down the read head with the drive spinning, assuming that doing this helps hinder data recovery), dismantle the individual platters and throw each platter in separate locations?

 

[popatim]

No point in going to that effort, just smash it good with a hammer. Most platters are made of glass or ceramic (they have a magnetic coating on them) and break fairly easy. If you want to be 100% sure, take the cover off and then smash them.

 

[TyrOd]

To remove all data on a drive you do a multiple run format. This means you write the data to a 1, then write it to a zero, and doing this multiple times ensures the data can not be reread. 1 pass is sufficient for 95% (anyone not in a data recovery lab), 3 pass is 99% and 7 passes would be 99.999% (7 pass is what is done by government.


Now for an SSD, doing this will shorten its lifespan. Most SSDs have a utility that will have it scramble all data and make it unreadable without reducing your ssd performance/lifespan.

ADDED:
Any partition program like Easus or Paragon Partition Master will have the ability to do a multiple pass format. If you just want a single pass format then you can use windows built in utility and just uncheck "quick format".

Now in regards to reading a damaged drive, top end labs can recover data off of fragments of hard drives. Doing the format is a completely sufficient means of destroying the data on the disk, but if say the drive is an old format that you have no ability to read then damaging the platters to the point the drive will no longer spin will make data recovery way to much cost/effort to be worth it to anyone wanting to do identity theft or hack online passwords.

1 pass is enough on a hard drive as long as it's on the entire LBA. The problem is no software only tools like DBAN can write over reallocated sectors(wwhich can be recovered by data recovery labs).

Once a sector is written over once by 0 or random data, no data recovery lab can retrieve anything. Anyone who tells you otherwise is misinforming you.

Nobody can recover from fragments of drives either. This is also a lie/misinformation people see on TV.

On SSD's hidden/reallocated blocks/pages are an even bigger problem and can be recovered from bare dumps from the NAND flash in some cases.

This is why encryption-based secure erase is the only TRUE way of guaranteeing no data can be recovered(except for government agencies). The only remaining problem with hardware full drive encryption on SSD's is that they all have backdoors for government agencies, so only physically destroying the NAND is a 100% guarantee.

 

[The Original Ralph]

spent a little too much time on The Silk Road have we?