Wiping a Hardrive

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Posted: 9/26/2004 9:48:32 AM EDT

I am going to give away an old computer of mine that I have been using for work and personal stuff but want to make sure that nothing is left on harddrive. I have read a post here about this topic before but cannot find it using searrch. any help would be appreciated. thanks s-maxx

Posted: 9/26/2004 9:58:04 AM EDT

[#1]

Norton's Utilities has a wiping function in their defrag program.

Posted: 9/26/2004 10:02:05 AM EDT

[#2]

PGP has a utility to write over the empty ares with random bits

Posted: 9/26/2004 10:05:18 AM EDT

[#3]

I use Del-Part, you should be able to find it on the web for free. Im not sure if it erases EVERYTHING like a low level format though.

Posted: 9/26/2004 10:06:45 AM EDT

[#4]

the drive manufacturer should have a free download to low-level format the drive... select write 1s to fill the drive, without actually using some forensic tools, the data is gone. You can get "hashing" programs that will overwrite the drive several times to make sure it is gone for good.

I wonder if a driver full of 1s weighs more that a drive full of 0s?

Posted: 9/26/2004 10:09:30 AM EDT

[#5]

If you want to erase all traces of old data then look for utils that also erase "slack space" in disk clusters. Here is one program that does it: Clean Disk

Posted: 9/26/2004 10:14:11 AM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
the drive manufacturer should have a free download to low-level format the drive... select write 1s to fill the drive, without actually using some forensic tools, the data is gone. You can get "hashing" programs that will overwrite the drive several times to make sure it is gone for good.

I wonder if a driver full of 1s weighs more that a drive full of 0s?

Only if weighed in virtual reality.

Posted: 9/26/2004 10:18:00 AM EDT

[#7]

Quoted:
the drive manufacturer should have a free download to low-level format the drive... select write 1s to fill the drive, without actually using some forensic tools, the data is gone. You can get "hashing" programs that will overwrite the drive several times to make sure it is gone for good.

I wonder if a driver full of 1s weighs more that a drive full of 0s?

why would it weigh different? the particles are the same, just arranged differently.

Posted: 9/26/2004 10:26:11 AM EDT

[#8]

Quoted:
Quoted:
the drive manufacturer should have a free download to low-level format the drive... select write 1s to fill the drive, without actually using some forensic tools, the data is gone. You can get "hashing" programs that will overwrite the drive several times to make sure it is gone for good.

I wonder if a driver full of 1s weighs more that a drive full of 0s?

why would it weigh different? the particles are the same, just arranged differently.

Well... it was just a joke, but if you want to discuss it literally, I suppose that one could argue from a relativistic point, using the concept of Brownian motion, that the arrangement of "particles" could in fact have an effect of the measured weight of an object? Granted, at such a small level that it would not stand reason, but still an interesting argument.

Posted: 9/26/2004 7:16:19 PM EDT

[#9]

I think the freeware I am thinking of is "wipedisk" which you download and it makes itself a bootable floppy.

GunLvr

Posted: 9/27/2004 4:45:39 AM EDT

[#10]

Is BCWipe any good?

Posted: 9/27/2004 4:48:45 AM EDT

[#11]

FDISK... delete the boot sector and reformat.

Posted: 9/27/2004 4:51:54 AM EDT

[#12]

Try DBAN, it rocks.

You boot with the cd and walk away, it does the rest.

Posted: 9/27/2004 5:05:32 AM EDT

[#13]

By USAF "Intructions" (Regs - another McPeak legacy), we have to use a program that wipe the hard drive and it must at least use a minimum of 3 passes. My Command uses Wipedrive and it works nicely.

All harddrives are wiped but if it was classified drive it will involve one more step. We pummel them with one of these, a 8 lb Sledgehammer.

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