Multiple Disk Erasing Hardware

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feffrey

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At work when we decommission computers all hard drives have to be secure erased before they leave the building. Right now we use dban which works good, however we are going to be wiping a lot of computers soon and need something that is smaller, faster, and can wipe multiple drives at a time. Using a degausser or physically destroying the drive out of the question due to policies. The drive must still be usable after wiping.
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/Drive_eRazer_Ultra.php
I did find this which would work (would have to buy several of them), but we would like to be able to wipe at least 4 drives at a time with a single device.
Anyone have a good recommendation for disc wiping hardware?
 
As far as I know, dban erases every hard drive attached to the system, whether you like it or not. It doesn't have any speed limitations that I'm aware of.
 
feffrey said:
At work when we decommission computers all hard drives have to be secure erased before they leave the building. Right now we use dban which works good, however we are going to be wiping a lot of computers soon and need something that is smaller, faster, and can wipe multiple drives at a time. Using a degausser or physically destroying the drive out of the question due to policies. The drive must still be usable after wiping.
http://www.wiebetech.com/products/Drive_eRazer_Ultra.php
I did find this which would work (would have to buy several of them), but we would like to be able to wipe at least 4 drives at a time with a single device.
Anyone have a good recommendation for disc wiping hardware?
Click to expand...

Are you looking for something that you have to open up the machines, unplug the drives and cable to them, or something where you are completely removing the drives and then looking to wipe them in groups?
 
MrsOldMX said:
DBAN does erase several drives at the time, the last time i checked...
Click to expand...

Bad choice of words on my part, DBAN will wipe multiple drives, but the computers we are getting rid of usually only has power and ide / sata for one drive or two at most.

mwroobel said:
Are you looking for something that you have to open up the machines, unplug the drives and cable to them, or something where you are completely removing the drives and then looking to wipe them in groups?
Click to expand...

Something where we can yank the drives out of the machines and drop them into a bay for wiping. Preferable no cables to have to attach to the drives.

Right now we just put in the dban disc into the actual machine that comes back. One problem is we have to use different versions of dban, as certain computers will not boot off the latest version, so it is a game of magical discs and floppies to find one that will boot sometimes.

We could build a dedicated dban system but hardware just for disc wiping would be better.

Something like this would be great, but it is too expensive and we don't need to wipe 9 at a time. http://www.ics-iq.com/product-p/f.gr-4004-000a.htm
 
You do not have any old machines sitting around that you can use for this purpose? dban needs very little hardware. I am thinking you could upgrade one of these old boxes with a 5 bay SATA hotswap and call it a day.
 
drescherjm said:
You do not have any old machines sitting around that you can use for this purpose? dban needs very little hardware. I am thinking you could upgrade one of these old boxes with a 5 bay SATA hotswap and call it a day.
Click to expand...

Majority of the drives we wipe are IDE, we haven't gotten rid of too many computers with Sata drives yet. A majority of our computers are 4 to 5 years old. :eek:
 
feffrey said:
Majority of the drives we wipe are IDE, we haven't gotten rid of too many computers with Sata drives yet. A majority of our computers are 4 to 5 years old. :eek:
Click to expand...

IDE typically has 2 connections on the motherboard and you can set a master / slave on each for up to 4 disks being wiped at a time. I used to do this at a job to get through all the pc's they were discarding.

To do more than 4 in a single system you'd need an add-in PCI card with more IDE connections. And with IDE, no hot swap so you have to power down the system before changing out disks so getting a high disk count won't be practical when you start wiping drives.

I doubt you'd really want to invest any money for a disk wiping system for a technology you're throwing away.
 
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You don't need to build a machine or use a dedicated machine, just do this:

1. Get an existing, semi-beefy PC with lots of USB ports.
2. Get a bunch of cheap USB HDD docks.
3. Install DBAN on a virtual machine.
4. Map all the USB ports to the virtual machine.
5. Start wiping :)
 
Wondering what OP ended up with, as I have a bunch of hd's I want to run DBAN on for break-in purposes.
 
i find this strange
going 4,5k+ 8port versus 2x 10$ pci 4p pata controllers ...
 
asgards said:
i find this strange
going 4,5k+ 8port versus 2x 10$ pci 4p pata controllers ...
Click to expand...

In a production environment the time spent hooking up hard drives to the controllers would add up. Ends up being a business value decision and I guess it was worth it to purchase :p
 
Neb said:
In a production environment the time spent hooking up hard drives to the controllers would add up. Ends up being a business value decision and I guess it was worth it to purchase :p
Click to expand...

In a production environment you simply destroy the hard drives.

A small incinerator. Rent a crematorium for 2 hours. Whatever.

But DBan is just a stupid idea for drives with no economic value.
 
DBAN has caused me grief on many occasions. I've rigged up a few USB HDD docks to an old windows PC and am trying this program with good success so far:

http://www.diskwipe.org/


I just open up one instance per disk
 
GeorgeHR said:
In a production environment you simply destroy the hard drives.

A small incinerator. Rent a crematorium for 2 hours. Whatever.

But DBan is just a stupid idea for drives with no economic value.
Click to expand...

from OP:

Using a degausser or physically destroying the drive out of the question due to policies. The drive must still be usable after wiping.
Click to expand...
 
Neb said:
from OP:
Click to expand...

My comment was directed toward you not the OP. But ...

The drives have no economic value to you, him, or the business he works for. Any money spent to do more than make the data inaccessable is money wasted.

But it is not my money.
 
1) Multiple Drill Points through the entire drive (especially the platters)... Titanium drill bit for $10, drill for about $80, or drill press and a wooden jig to hold the drives $200.

2) a Degauser, can much cheaper than a disk wiper.
- example http://www.datadev.com/hd-security-bundle-17.html

3) use a disposal company such as http://www.shredit.com/Pricing.aspx

We have used a Degauser in the past, they render the drive completely useless and permanently.

There are other companies that offer disk destruction some go as far as to even video tape the entire process, from receiving your disk to the shredding process, all the while recording who handles it along its journey to destruction.
 
GeorgeHR said:
My comment was directed toward you not the OP. But ...

The drives have no economic value to you, him, or the business he works for. Any money spent to do more than make the data inaccessable is money wasted.

But it is not my money.
Click to expand...

Right, but I was speaking from the point of the OP's statements which is why I quoted the OP. The business he works for apparently sees the drives as having economic value, why else would they require that they still be usable after wiping?

Data security can sometimes be an extraordinary priority and to some it's definitely not money wasted. :p
 
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