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What would you do? Wipe old hdd

Forum Storage : Hard Disks - What would you do? Wipe old hdd

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Primus462   08-13-2008 at 09:12:33 PM

I have an old hdd that I am wanting to sell. I was wondering if anyone knew of some free programs I could use to wipe the hdd before I sell it? I thought about formatting, but didn't know how well that worked at getting rid of the old data.

Any thoughts?

------------------------------ Phenom 9950BE |ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe | 2x1GB PC-5300 Kingston HyperX 2x1GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 | Visiontek 4870 OC'ed | WD Velociraptor 300GB | WD Caviar 320 GB | ViewSonic VX2035wm
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rozar   08-13-2008 at 09:39:15 PM
- 0 +

Formatting will not be enough to get rid of the data. You will want to use a DOD5220.22-M standard application to wipe the drive if possible. I do not know of a free one. If you are not that paranoid you could use this.

http://hddguru.com/content/en/soft [...] Wipe-Tool/

Message quoted 1 times
------------------------------ Intel DX48BT2 bone trail 2 || Q9650 with Xigmatek S1283 || 4GB Gskill DDR3 1600 || 1 - 300GB 15k SAS boot , 3 - 750GB SATA Raid 5 || Adaptec 5805 SAS RAID controller || ATI 3870 || Antec 300 Chassis with Nspire 600 watt PS
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Primus462   08-13-2008 at 09:47:23 PM
- 0 +

rozar wrote :

Formatting will not be enough to get rid of the data. You will want to use a DOD5220.22-M standard application to wipe the drive if possible. I do not know of a free one. If you are not that paranoid you could use this.

http://hddguru.com/content/en/soft [...] Wipe-Tool/



Rozar, have you used this yourself?

Message quoted 1 times
------------------------------ Phenom 9950BE |ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe | 2x1GB PC-5300 Kingston HyperX 2x1GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 | Visiontek 4870 OC'ed | WD Velociraptor 300GB | WD Caviar 320 GB | ViewSonic VX2035wm
 Reply to Primus462
DXRick   08-13-2008 at 09:49:57 PM
- 0 +

Seagate and WD have free utilities that will write zeros to the entire drive. These will wipe out all data.

Reply to DXRick
bf2142-rules-ok   08-13-2008 at 09:56:21 PM
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Unless you have been storing state secrets , FDISK and Format (not quick) will suffice

Message quoted 2 times
Message edited by bf2142-rules-ok on 08-13-2008 at 10:02:28 PM
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Primus462   08-13-2008 at 10:05:23 PM
- 0 +

bf2142-rules-ok wrote :

Unless you have been storing state secrets , FDISK will suffice




Well, I probably shouldn't say anything, but I am a Russian spy. The name's Vlad. :D


Seriously though, I plan on selling it on eBay and didn't want someone with a means to pull off the old data to buy it in hopes of finding some personal non-public data on it. Sorry, for the paranoia, but I work in Information Security. I can't help it.

------------------------------ Phenom 9950BE |ASUS M2N32-SLI Deluxe | 2x1GB PC-5300 Kingston HyperX 2x1GB PC6400 Corsair XMS2 | Visiontek 4870 OC'ed | WD Velociraptor 300GB | WD Caviar 320 GB | ViewSonic VX2035wm
 Reply to Primus462
GhislainG   08-13-2008 at 10:28:08 PM
- 0 +

If you really value your personal info, the only safe solution is to drill a hole through the platters and then trow the hard disk out. That way you are absolutely sure that the data can't be recovered. In secure environments, defective drives never are returned to the manufacturer. They are destroyed and so are drives that are no longer used.

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knotknut   08-13-2008 at 10:43:36 PM
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Acronis will do what you need and has a free trial. What I dont know is if the free version lets you use that function. I think it is only $26.99 or something like that at newegg.

http://www.acronis.com/

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juvealert   08-13-2008 at 11:14:07 PM
- 0 +

Use DBAN

select the DoD method and give it to 5 rounds it should be ok

Reply to juvealert
rozar   08-14-2008 at 12:05:38 AM
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Primus462 wrote :

Rozar, have you used this yourself?



I have used the Low Level Format tool many times, its essentially the same thing. It works well.

------------------------------ Intel DX48BT2 bone trail 2 || Q9650 with Xigmatek S1283 || 4GB Gskill DDR3 1600 || 1 - 300GB 15k SAS boot , 3 - 750GB SATA Raid 5 || Adaptec 5805 SAS RAID controller || ATI 3870 || Antec 300 Chassis with Nspire 600 watt PS
 Reply to rozar
dallasjoh   08-14-2008 at 01:41:46 AM
- 0 +

Use Killdisk, it's free and works great. I use it on all my old hard drives

http://www.killdisk.com/

------------------------------ http://valid.x86-secret.com/cache/banner/450637.png
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Zorg   08-14-2008 at 01:53:39 AM
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bf2142-rules-ok wrote :

Unless you have been storing state secrets , FDISK and Format (not quick) will suffice

That is total crap. I would be able to pull all kinds of data off that with any half decent data recovery program.


Depending on the level of protection you want The free Active@ killdisk will write Zeros.

If you don't want your data to be recoverable by anyone with more money, time, expertise and equipment then you will need to pay for it and use the DoD 5220.22-M or Gutmann's data destruction method.

If they really want the data (read Government) they can still recover it but I don't think that is a problem.

The zero write will probably be sufficient for you. DBAN etc. will also work fine.

Yes I have personally used Active@ Killdisk to wipe any remnants of XP from my disk and it does work. As said, the manufacturers tools have a zero write ability as well.

Reply to Zorg
qwertycopter   08-14-2008 at 02:06:13 AM
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+1 for DBAN and A@K. I've used both and either will get the job done. I wouldn't recommend the Gutmann method however. It is one of the longest methods but doesn't provide better results than the DOD wipes. Many of the data patterns it uses in its 35 passes are for older drives and are therefore irrelevant and worthless for modern drives.


Message edited by qwertycopter on 08-14-2008 at 02:17:37 AM
Reply to qwertycopter
dallasjoh   08-14-2008 at 02:06:32 AM
- 0 +

??


Message edited by dallasjoh on 08-14-2008 at 02:37:35 AM
------------------------------ http://valid.x86-secret.com/cache/banner/450637.png
 Reply to dallasjoh
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