Writing a hard drive to zeroes...

[superslug]

I need to write my hard drive to zeroes or do anything else that does more than reformat it. I want the data on it gone, wiped clean as a whistle. I know there's utilities out there that do this, but I need one that can be run as a bootable CD. Floppy options won't work.

Anyone know of/use such a program or could give a purchasing recommendation?

 

[Turner]

I used to have one at work, we got it off the maxtor site. If you can't find one, PM me and I'll see if I can't dig up the utility.

OTOH, removing the partition and reformatting the hard drive during setup usually works pretty good....

Course, if you have a second comp, you could always mount the drive as a slave on the other system and do it from there. Then you don't need to worry about having a bootable CD.

 

[bobgote]

Magnets. you need magnets.

 

[Aphex_Twin]

You can always format it, use fdisk to get rid of all the partitions, format it in Linux or something, then re-format it with microsoft. There won't be much left.

 

[kcwong]

The question should be: Why do you need to do that?

Usually a fdisk and a format will erase the data good enough that most folks can't recover them - unless they're experts in that area.

If you really want to write your HDD, byte by byte, to zero, that'll gonna take a lot of time.

Is the data in there really worth that? Will anybody bother with all the trouble to recover data from it?

There're algorithms that is used to do that - and some are free.

PGP (www.pgp.com) has such a function - it writes to a specific sector of your HDD several times to ensure the data cannot be recovered. However, it seems they're trying to make more money, so the newest free edition does not include that - you'll need to search for old versions.

 

[funxus]

I heard that the only way to be perfectly sure that the data is totally erased and unrecoverable is to destroy the HDD. Probably by burning it...

I'm also interested in what you might have on your hard drive that is worth all that trouble. Obviously you don't have to give an answer, but I'm curious.

 

[superslug]

It's not a concern of privacy or sensitive material. It's just that even when I do a fresh install of windows and format the drive in the process, a good number of files and folders from previous installations still wind up being recognizable and accessible from the new installation. Despite my constant running of Spybot, Adaware and virus scanners, adbots and I think maybe sasser got onto my hard drive. I want to make sure they're gone, gone.

Sadly, I don't have a second computer with which to mount as a slave, and for some godawful reason I can't get two to work at the same time together on my current motherboard. Nor will it ever boot from any floppy drives. It's a very peculiar motherboard but I can't really afford a new one right now...

 

[Turner]

Browsing www.snapfiles.com and came across these utililties:

Necrofile.

PC Inspector e-maxx. This one says it will create a floppy, but you might be able to trick it into creating a bootable cd. Or make the bootable cd and copy the floppy to the cd.....

Active@ Kill Disk. Works with any system that can boot to dos. Assuming you can put dos onto a bootable cd, then this might work.

Those are the only three I found, but you could probably find more at the disktools section. And this was only the freeware part, I didn't look at the shareware part.

 

[kcwong]

It's not a concern of privacy or sensitive material.

In that case, a fdisk (after which you must re-format) is enough.

It's just that even when I do a fresh install of windows and format the drive in the process, a good number of files and folders from previous installations still wind up being recognizable and accessible from the new installation.

Formatted and files still recovered? Are you sure? How did you format the drive?

Despite my constant running of Spybot, Adaware and virus scanners, adbots and I think maybe sasser got onto my hard drive. I want to make sure they're gone, gone.

Virus scan works by checking files against some known patterns. If the virus is new, it won't match the patterns.

BTW, when I heard the news about Sasser, I go to Windows Update and read the "How to protect against Sasser" stuff. And I found that the patch that fixes the security hole was already installed on my computer almost a month ago.

So what does that mean? It means you should check Windows update regularly. Use the auto-check-for-update option (which is on by default). When Microsoft releases a fix, some (but never all) technical info about it are also released. A hacker might be able to use that info to figure out a way to attack Windows/other M$ products. If you don't apply those patches as they are released, you'll be very vulnerable to attacks.

Sadly, I don't have a second computer with which to mount as a slave, and for some godawful reason I can't get two to work at the same time together on my current motherboard. Nor will it ever boot from any floppy drives. It's a very peculiar motherboard but I can't really afford a new one right now...

Is it a faulty motherboard, or do you need help configuring it? I mean, what motherboard doesn't allow boot from floppy?

 

[superslug]

Formatted and files still recovered? Are you sure? How did you format the drive?

It was formatted during the Windows installation.

Is it a faulty motherboard, or do you need help configuring it?

More than likely it's an error/lack of knowledge on my part. Either that or the floppys I tried went bad. The computer was something I built by hand, so I'm probably lucky it ever booted at all...

I've tried some of the links Turner posted, it looks like that Necro program will cut down on the clutter. Whatever bug or bot was there may not be anymore, and if I keep current on Windows update with daily scans of antivirus, spybot and adaware I'll hopefully be able to keep this installation going for a while.

 

[t92300]

What windows version were you using?
because if it is win98 it does not format your hard drive on setup it just runs scandisk. Which does not format your hard disk.

for win9X reboot computer in msdos mode
type format c:
and then y

that should get rid of every thing

 

[superslug]

I run Win2k.

 

[t92300]

hmmmmmmmm from what I remember there is an option in the 2k installation to format your hard drive...

try fdisk?...

 

[kcwong]

It was formatted during the Windows installation.

Haven't installed a Win2K for a while now (usually done by my company's network admin, and my Win2K at home works very well)... but I do remember there's a format option during setup.

Maybe (*may be*) the option found out you're using the correct file system (FAT32 or NTFS), and decided not to re-format (MS software likes to do that kind of thing!)... because otherwise, I found it hard to believe that directories and files survive a format...

And as t92300 said, during setup, delete the partition and create a new one. I'll be your slave/computer support for all eternity if your files are still there after that

More than likely it's an error/lack of knowledge on my part. Either that or the floppys I tried went bad. The computer was something I built by hand, so I'm probably lucky it ever booted at all...

Press Del / F1 / F2 / F8 (depending on motherboard... but usually it's Del) while your computer boots... that should display the BIOS page. Flip through the pages and find an option about "boot device" or "boot sequence". Make "Floppy" or similar options the first one. Then save and exit.

Of course, it's possible that your floppy's gone bad.

I've tried some of the links Turner posted, it looks like that Necro program will cut down on the clutter. Whatever bug or bot was there may not be anymore, and if I keep current on Windows update with daily scans of antivirus, spybot and adaware I'll hopefully be able to keep this installation going for a while.

Softwares can help you only to a certain point... to minimize the amount of virii/trojan/spyware your computer will get into contact with, you'll need to be careful. Don't open suspicious attachments, don't click on suspicious links, don't run suspicious executables (EXE, COM, DLL, SCR, XLS (with marcos), etc.), properly setup your computer, use personal firewalls, etc.

 

[hbdragon88]

I heard that the only way to be perfectly sure that the data is totally erased and unrecoverable is to destroy the HDD. Probably by burning it...

I'm also interested in what you might have on your hard drive that is worth all that trouble. Obviously you don't have to give an answer, but I'm curious.

I read a Tech Times Column in the Los Angeles Times 3 years ago, and someone asked the same exact question - how to totally erase a hard drive. They said that the person should soak his/her hard drive in acid for three days, or use a data-scrubbing program that repeatedly writes to a sector, so it's hard to recover. Or to be completley safe, to break the computer open and take out the hard drive before donating the computer to charity.

 

[superslug]

Microwaving a hard drive alongside a gallon of nitrcoglycerine (or any flammable, explodable household cleaner) for thirty minutes also works. A can of something should only cost about $5 and a cheap old microwave about $20. However, it's recommended you do this in a large backyard and keep a cordless phone handy with the fire department on speed dial.

 

[zurichuk]

yep there's an article in the New Scientist this week about how data is recoverable even after wrting 0's many times or formatting, quite interesting if you get the chance to read it, microwaving as superslug suggested was a method that worked well

 

[superslug]

I just ran the Necro file that Turner linked to on my C drive and it wiped over 2 gigs of "nonexistant" data. Thanks, Turner! That'll likely save me the trouble of starting over from scratch.

 

[Turner]

You're welcome....don't forget the snapfiles site, there's a lot of good stuff there!

 

[Neomega]

You can almost always get one from your hard disk manufacturer. They are called low-level formats. All headers are erased. For me a 10 gig Western Digital 7200 harddrive took about 1.5 hours.