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wipe hard drive


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#1
binsch

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hey
i was wondering if there is a free way to wipe a hard drive clean without physicaly destroying it. if not then what is the best way to physically destroy it so that it cannot be restored.
thanks a bunch
--ben--

EDIT: i want it so that the information can never be accessed again

Edited by binsch, 26 April 2006 - 09:57 PM.

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#2
Retired Tech

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There isn't a way of wiping a drive so that data cannot be recovered
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#3
Kemasa

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You can use a disk wipe program like:

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

There are also methods which the DOD uses to declassify a disk, which makes the data basically unreadable, at least to the level that the government considers acceptable.

To what degree do you need to wipe the data? Writing data to the whole disk is enough for most purposes since to recover the data would require a lot of effort and expense.
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#4
binsch

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well its sort of for my dad hes an accountant and his old computers have people's personal information on it so how about physically destroying it
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#5
BlackPandemic

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Take a large hammer and some gasoline...first: Grasp the hammer firmly and strike directly on the hard drive. Next, douse the drive parts in gasoline and light ablaze...there you go..no more hard drive!

From Kemasa's recomendation, that sounds like enough to wipe your dad's computer. :whistling:
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#6
warriorscot

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Run dban a couple of times, they are ready to reuse, data recovery would take a forensic lab to get back after that.

To destroy them completely a very strong magnet would render it inoperable
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#7
Kemasa

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For destruction, which I don't think is needed personally since wiping it will be good enough unless the government is after you and doing the DOD multiple pass (which dban might do) will take care of that). A magnet is not good enough to wipe everything in paranoid mode.

In a past life, the way the disks were destroyed was to remove the platterers, sandblast the magnetic coating, cut up the platters and then melt them all. Just removing the coating is not good enough in the worst case.

Using the multiple pass erasing is good enough for the DOD for secret projects. For what you have said dban is good enough at a llow level (it has been a while, so I am not sure if it has the higher levels of wiping, but I think it does). You can also fill the disk with random data several times.
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#8
warriorscot

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You can get software to write to the DOD standard lots of apps use it these days.
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#9
dsenette

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thermite works wonders (or you could take the platters out and send them to me....we actually use HD platters in our alluminum furnaces here at work to raise the phosphate...or phosphorus..one of the two..levels in the alluminum)
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#10
WinCrazy

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Another free hard disk wiper is Killdisk.
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