Formatting doesn't really erase all data, so after u format the FBI can still recover ur pornz!!!
Yes and no. Formatting ... the actual "takes forever to finish"
non-quick format ... actually
does erase all data. It will zero fill all the sectors in the partition formatted.
The problem which the "secure erase" utilities attempt to address is that the data previously written to a sector which has been "zero-filled" can still be recovered by someone with the tools of a forensic lab at their disposal. The secure erase utilities fill a sector with different patterns to attempt to remove the residual magnetic imprint of the original data. The number of times the patterns are written can vary anywhere from "a couple" up to 35 or more times.
This is why the process can take so long. Writing almost every sector on a disk 35 times can take a bit. For example, to secure erase a drive with, say, 58GB on it using 35 passes would require writing over 2,000GB of data. 8O
So ZF, will wipe EVERYTHING. After that u can format and ur gooood2goooo. After some viruses u also gotta do a ZF to get rid of them
No, it won't. However, it will wipe out everything as far as the recovery tools available to most people are concerned. It will also clear out the data in the boot sector and remove all partition information. So a ZF does delete more than just a secure erase directed at the sectors used by file system. (That's why a zero fill would delete a virus which had infected the boot sectors of a drive).
Ok well the thing is I will be doing this for some lady who wants to give her computer away to someone and doesn't want any of her personal information recovered. So it's a job basically, how long exactly do you think it will take?
For most people doing a complete zero-fill with the hard drive's diagnostic disk is probably enough. It all depends on how paranoid the person asking you to clear the disk is about ensuring her data is "erased". Is it enough to erase it to the point where someone using a copy of "GetDataBack" or equivalent won't be able to recover it? Or does she want it erased so that an intensely interested government entity with lots of money and resources would be unlikely to recover anything from it?
That kill disc thing wont work for my application?
I only took a brief glance at it, but it looks like it would work. To be thorough you could run the kill disc with a low number of passes and then do the zero fill. That should be plenty if all shes going to do is trash, donate, or sell the drive.
How long it takes depends on how big the drive is that you're going to wipe ... and on how fast the disk can be accessed on the system you use to wipe it. No?
Also after the zero-fill is complete what is the command to format?
Any OS install disk should be able to do a quick partition and format of the drive. Or download the install/setup utility from the drive's manufacturer, boot it, and it would also do the partition and format for you.
(But why would you want to? I thought all she wanted you to do was make sure the drive was wiped?)
-john, the ostensibly clueless redundant legacy dinosaur