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Completely Erase A Hard Drive (Question)

S

SuperG

Limp Gawd
Joined
Jun 26, 2003
Messages
198
Hi all,

This may be a little over the top, but I rescently read that whenever you send back a hard drive to get it replaced, you should use a special formatting software to COMPLETELY ERASE all traces of data on that hard drive. I think I even read that you are suppose to do it like 3 times over or something, to be sure no data can be recovered. They say that using the standard DOS format command is not nearly good enough. Does anyone know what software to use to achieve this complete, unrecoverable format? I know there is some software out there that does "zero-fill", but I am not sure if that is the same thing, or if that is sufficient. Anyone with information on this subject, please advise. Thanks.

SuperG
 
i use eraser also. it is a decent app and very useful in windows. personally, since i have not needed to terminate any data on a drive i write zero's using wd dlg utility. but eraser does offer a few data terminations sets with configurable user sets and boot floppy app. time is all that is needed with it.
 
Originally posted by SuperG
to be sure no data can be recovered.
Click to expand...

you can get close to that, but if enough effort is invested into it
it more than likely can still be recovered (for thousands or tens of thousands of dollars and alot of time) , and we are talking forensic analysis here, where the previous magnetic states of each bit is read and recompiled, NSA\FBI level stuff)

if its truely "sensitive" data that under no circumstances can escape
the drives are generally destroyed

for your application however, I would assume either
DBAN or Autoclave would suffice (both are freeware)

Autoclave happens to be included on the Ultimate Boot CD (freeware ISO)
 
It looks like DBAN is what is included in Eraser. To those who said they use it, approx. how long does it take to do a standard DoD (9 pass) wipe? Assuming it is one 60GB hard drive. Also, I read on the DBAN FAQ, that it is slower on Intel Springdale chipsets (which is what I have), but that it can be fixed with a driver update? Any ideas/info on that? It is stated here: http://dban.sourceforge.net/faq/index.html (4th question).


Thanks

SuperG
 
Originally posted by phasmatis_nox
Nail gun.
Click to expand...


Hehe, well since I have to return this drive to get a new one, I don't think a nail gun is the best idea.
 
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