So that no-one can ever pick out your bank details or anything from the depths of the harddrive?

Do you need a specific programme or is there just some master wipe function hidden somewhere?

I’ve an old computer i want rid of, but want to make sure its properly wiped clean before it ends up with anyone else.

Any advice appreciated.

File shredder

Basically you want something that will write 1/0s to the drive. The most effective software will write to the drive with differing algorithms several times, upside is your data is nuked, the bad is that it can take a while…i.e leave it overnight.

Darik’s Boot And Nuke is supposed to be one of the best.

Download. Info.

Dban

tj’s suggestion is the best one and the only one guaranteed to wipe your data.

Basically you want something that will write 1/0s to the drive. The most effective software will write to the drive with differing algorithms several times, upside is your data is nuked, the bad is that it can take a while…i.e leave it overnight.

Darik’s Boot And Nuke is supposed to be one of the best.

wow, any evidence for that?

If I did a single pass zero of a disk, could you recover it?

DBAN is over the top, but at least is free and convenient so I would use that.

I believe most secure software writes random 0s and 1s 7 times across the entire disk.

I’m with TJ on this. The only way to be sure is to physically damage the media.

go with the hammer – it’s quick & easy

It’s all a bit over the top though TBH – I take it it’s just a personal PC disc?

I’m with TJ on this. The only way to be sure is to physically damage the media.

[citation needed] 🙂

any software the writes nothing but 1’s and 0’s at block level on the HDD. It wil take hours….or you can use a contraption that runs magnetic fields over the drive, but i doubt you have one of these sat at home!! 🙂

If you are gonna bin it anyway, do as TJ says, and smash the platters 🙂

We sometimes do confidential server destructions for clients and the only secure way is indeed to physically destroy the platters. A single pass of 0/1’s is fairly simple to recover from with decent recovery software, multiple passes are much harder but some data is still usually recoverable (with expensive gear not usually found in your average hackers bedroom…)

Not true…. Hammers can only mess up the outside. These days the data density i so great that someone with decent tools can get _something_ off even a dented HDD.

Try booting into linux, removing the partitions and then writing 0s over the whole disk twice.

Then, if you want to be sure, either find a proper hard drive shredder, or take a braising torch to the platters themselves.

We sometimes do confidential server destructions for clients and the only secure way is indeed to physically destroy the platters. A single pass of 0/1’s is fairly simple to recover from with decent recovery software

you could have won this:

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you could have won this:

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The constant excitement in some peoples lives must be overwhelming at times 🙂

Willard, if you use a 4lb lump hammer as TJ posted I guarantee the platters will be broken into many pieces without doing more than dent the outside There’s not a lot of room inside the case and platters are very fragile. If in doubt shake enclosure afterwards and if it doesn’t rattle enough hit it again until it does.
Most satisfying 😀

Hammers can only mess up the outside

you need a better hammer

Anyone suggested napalm yet?

Drill it.

2nd drilling it

but realisticaly, is your porn stash worth that much to a hacker?

Forensic data recovery has been known to recover data from platters that have been overwritten 8 times. It follows that you will need to completely fill the drive with non-sensitive data at least nine times to be reasonably comfortable that you sensitive data has been removed.

Or, remove the platters from the drive housing and smash them. I know which is quicker.

Platters are not faintly fragile in the mechanical sense as Sandwhich suggests. They’re surprisingly tough, although the magnetic coating is very thin. Predominantly, impacts disturb/dislodge the read/write heads and the arms they’re supported on, moving them out of alignment.

Scienceofficer, I don’t know my own strength. All the ones I’ve bashed have been very broken using just a carpenters hammer. Off for more weetabix now, I’m feeling peaky 🙂

Surprised no one has suggested it yet

Open it up and burn the disk.

All the ones I’ve bashed have been very broken using just a carpenters hammer.

Depends on the hard drive. Some use a glass or ceramic platter which should shatter fairly easily, others use aluminium which is somewhat harder to shatter with a hammer.

I always used a cold chisel driven right through the casing a few times, then a bit of loving with a hammer.

Drac – Member

Open it up and burn the disk.

I read that as

“Open it up and bum the disk” 🙂

certainly might help though

A single pass of 0/1’s is fairly simple to recover from with decent recovery software

Er, no it’s not. No way to recover data without dismantling the drive and using specialist techniques. The sort of techniques an ordinary criminal won’t have available to them – after all why should they bother when there are plenty of discs out there which have just been reformatted.

The question really is do you have anything so sensitive that it justifies going to greater lengths? I’d suggest that if you did you wouldn’t be talking about it on here.

Most of the responses are just another example of how paranoid some people are.

Crikey, all sounds rather extreme!

Its just an old home PC. It still works, so I was going to freecycle it so that someone else can get some use out of it before it’s landfilled. Since i’ve done online banking and the like on it in the past, I just want to make sure i’m not leaving any trace of that or anything else (extensive porn collection, etc etc).

As is probably fairly obvious, i know bugger all about computers… If I use Book & Nuke will it leave windows and the actual programes on the computer intact i.e. so the computer is still usable for someone else?

Maybe if you had said that you were passing it on in the first place the answers would be less extreme.

If I use Book & Nuke will it leave windows and the actual programes on the computer intact i.e. so the computer is still usable for someone else?

Nope. Will completely erase the HD. Not aware of any easy way to erase the HD properly and leave the OS there, though it’s probably possible. If you have programs which were installed after you started using the computer – ie data and programs are mixed – then it would be a complete nightmare to erase the data and not the programs. And of course if you erase the programs but leave the OS, it will get upset that stuff is no longer there.

By far the easiest way is just to wipe properly with B&N and then re-install – or provide installation discs if you can’t be bothered.

Maybe if you had said that you were passing it on in the first place the answers would be less extreme.

Maybe people shouldn’t start making dodgy assumptions – my impression from the OP was always that he wasn’t destroying it (few people feel the need to do that).

Boot and Nuke (DBAN) won’t leave any programs or OS on the disk. To clean a HD it’s all or nothing. If I was freecycling a PC I’d definitely DBAN the disk but that’s all I’d do (none of this smash up nonsense) – it’s up to the other person to provide the software unless you have a disk and software key you can pass on. That way any ‘problems’ are theirs and not yours (i.e. you’ve not inadvertantly left data on the disk).

DBAN is the way to do (run it with the default options – it might take 2-4 hours).

Matt

Thanks for the replies. Sounds like DBAN is the way to go.

Cheers.

Maybe people shouldn’t start making dodgy assumptions – my impression from the OP was always that he wasn’t destroying it (few people feel the need to do that).

The closing line the OP is my get out clause.

So that no-one can ever pick out your bank details or anything from the depths of the harddrive?

😉 yeaaahhhhhh…. “bank details”

would chuck norris know?