EggXpert

I am trying to completely whip out a hard drive how would I do that?? I want everthing off of it? And I am not sure how to do it. I know their is probably more than one way how would I do that??

This should be what ya need. Kill disk will wipe the drive where none of the original data can be recovered.

http://www.killdisk.com/

 

superjdf:

I am trying to completely whip out a hard drive how would I do that??

Step 1:  Unzip your computer's fly....lol

lowboy's option looks good.  Here's another, should you need:

http://hddguru.com/content/en/software/2006.04.13-HDD-Wipe-Tool/
 

Killdisk is good but still can be recovered ask the Feds they will let you know. I did hand over a HDD a couple years ago knowing that there was something on it from a customer at the time and well the Feds did recover the data form the HDD with in 3 days, and did arrest the suspect. The olny way to kill a HDD is to use a 12G shotgun.

Well I have one computer running ubuntu linux 6.06 on a 20gig HDD and I have another 120gig hard drive that when pluged in says it has 111 gigs left and I know there are no partitions on it. Their is some kind of data on it though, I am not sure what. Now say I wanted to erase what was on that, and recover the 7 or so gigs.

As far as the other 20gig how can I erase that partition?

'course If you do NOT want to use the drive ever again....then you could take the platters out and destroy them also.

guess which way is more fun ?

Tallon41:

'course If you do NOT want to use the drive ever again....then you could take the platters out and destroy them also.

guess which way is more fun ?

 

Alex I will take the shotgun for $1000, double jeopardy

I use window washer and has bleach settings for DOD,NSA, Guttman which deletes it and overwrites it up to 35 times and supposedly can't be recovered. But a 12ga at close range should do the job if in doubt clean it again...boom ..be a lot more fun.

lowboy:

I use window washer and has bleach settings for DOD,NSA, Guttman which deletes it and overwrites it up to 35 times and supposedly can't be recovered. But a 12ga at close range should do the job if in doubt clean it again...boom ..be a lot more fun.

 

By the average tech human it can not be recovered on a DOD,NSA or Guttman wipe. I have tired all of those and have sent them to some friends of mine that do recovery in the NSA for the hell of it a year ago and they where able to do it with a set of random 135pass , they were able to recover the TXT file which was zipped 198 times just to see if they could do it. They told me to use a 12G shot gun if you never want you info put out to the world to see.

I guess if they can tell what book your reading on your patio at night from space retrieving data from a HDD is no problem at all.

Some of the stuff "progs" that they showed me scared me shitless.

There is no way that you can be 100% sure, 99.9 perhaps but not 100%. Even a government wipe done many times can still be read by a patient team with an S E M.

If you really have stuff that you want to be absolutly sure can not be read, take out the platters, destroy them, bury the fragments in seperate piles in different countries and also sprinkle some of the peices at sea after soaking them in Nitric Acid, then you can be sure :-). ( I think)

Baer:

If you really have stuff that you want to be absolutly sure can not be read, take out the platters, destroy them, bury the fragments in seperate piles in different countries and also sprinkle some of the peices at sea after soaking them in Nitric Acid, then you can be sure :-). ( I think)

 

Its a Tomb Raider hunt will Jolie be there I will go.......,

 

Any way I have seen what the gov can do with a HDD and that alone is proof that none of the wipers work like they claim to

superjdf:

Well I have one computer running ubuntu linux 6.06 on a 20gig HDD and I have another 120gig hard drive that when pluged in says it has 111 gigs left and I know there are no partitions on it. Their is some kind of data on it though, I am not sure what. Now say I wanted to erase what was on that, and recover the 7 or so gigs.

As far as the other 20gig how can I erase that partition?

I guess you want to be able to use the whole drive, and not to destroy it. If that is the case, all you need is one of those utilities that erase the hard drive to zero, the drive manufacturers usually provide them as a testing drive tool, but they can perform a full erase as well. Maxtor used to have an excellent tool named Powermax, that works with all hard drives, but when Seagate acquired Maxtor replaced it with their own tools, here are the links for the most use brands of hard drive manufacturers where you can download a tool to zero erase the drive:

http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/

http://support.wdc.com/download/

If your drive is from another brand, please let me know, I probably have the link for that manufacturer as well.

 

When I saw the title I thought you were planning on microwaving the thing lol, though that would probaly be pretty good at destroying the data.

Alptraum:

When I saw the title I thought you were planning on microwaving the thing lol, though that would probaly be pretty good at destroying the data.

That would also be pretty good at shorting out your microwave, so probably not recommended. Seriously, if you really want to trash the thing so nobody but nobody will read it, take it apart and use a torch on the platters. Once the magnetic substrate is heated above its Curie temperature, it's toast, in more ways than one.

If you are truly worried about old data being recovered from the drive -- then the cost to replace it is minimal compared to the effort to clean it. Destroy the drive and buy a new one. On the other hand, if you do want to reuse the drive, then you're not that worried about it, and any of the above mentioned software programs will do just fine.

To Determine Binary Capacity:
A binary capacity is determined by dividing the total number of bytes, by the number of bytes per gigabyte (1,073,741,824 using base 2). On a 120 gig hard drive that leaves 111.76 gigs of space. You have not lost any space on that drive .There is no hidden data to delete.

p7307 is right.  You guys are having fun talking about how to destroy it but the guy wants to use it again.  You just have to remember that it will not be exactly 120gb.  The previous guy said 111.76 gigs.  Then windows will need 3 gb of restore points and windows needs some room for their ***** programing.  So just get something like killdrive and use that to get rid of everything if you must.

Outsource: http://www.harddrivedestroyer.com/media.php
DIY: http://www.garner-products.com/PD-8400.htm

So much for that data. :D

...I haven't messed with Linux myself, but I thought that Linux reports "correct" GB sizing...

I work at the computer services Graduate School of Business over at the University of Chicago, so the computers there hold some pretty sensitive market info and stuff. When someone there wants us to 'erase' a HDD, we give em two options: either I can run DBAN DoD on it and then degauss it [big magnet right next to it], or I can take it apart and take a screwdriver//hammer and physically mangle the drive. The 2nd option is so much more fun, but it seems like such a shame: the platters are sooo shiny...! And oh, harddrive magnets are so fun to play with =).

 

oh of course, if you have access, there's a machine that does low-level rewrites of the harddrive, and that supposedly does a better job than most of the boot/nuke progs out there. Still, if the feds want access, you're screwed either way unless you do the 12Gauge haha. 

So... can anyone explain how the feds can read data thats been over written? Just out of curiosity. I feel like reformating an HD then copying huge files until its filled would fix that.

well, I believe it has something to do with the fact that the binary system has only two numbers, somehow... I do not know for sure, so I would absolutely love an explanation..

CanNot:

So... can anyone explain how the feds can read data thats been over written? Just out of curiosity. I feel like reformating an HD then copying huge files until its filled would fix that.

 

The feds have equipment and software that is not given to civilians until 5- 10 years down the road. Just because you format the HDD and then layer it with several large files does not mean the data is gone, it still can be recovered very easily.

Alptraum:

When I saw the title I thought you were planning on microwaving the thing lol, though that would probaly be pretty good at destroying the data.

[Tallon41 ducks][Tallon41 then low-crawls out of the room]