How do I clean a hard drive?

[spandex]

BTW if your HD dies and you take your laptop into a shop to get fixed and they say yer we can do it. But a day later they phone and say sorry it is dead we can not even get it started by plugging into our three computers so you need a new HD.

So what I need to know is there any way to get the info off of it?

 

[mickle]

I set fire to mine and then threw it in the canal.

Nobody should have to look at that kind of filth.

 

[Abitrary]

Big magnet?

If there is any confidential data on there at all that you are concerned about, then reformatting a hard drive will still leave a 'ghost' of the data that a police or MI5 expert could quite easily extract.

I too would spend about 5 minutes passing a strongish magnet over the disk to destroy the data at a physical level and then reformat.

 

[Abitrary]

...and that applies to programs like cyberscrub. An expert can still recontruct significant parts of the data.

 

[Cycling Naturalist]

I would feel the only way to totally wipe a HD is to destroy it in some way i even had a mate who went thru a heavy mobile porn stage - he hammered it to death when he wanted rid of it!

What's "heavy mobile porn?"

 

[LLB]

If there is any confidential data on there at all that you are concerned about, then reformatting a hard drive will still leave a 'ghost' of the data that a police or MI5 expert could quite easily extract.

I too would spend about 5 minutes passing a strongish magnet over the disk to destroy the data at a physical level and then reformat.

We have industrial demags at work, one pass would be enough as they try to grab anything magnetic when you get within a foot of them.

 

[yenrod]

What's "heavy mobile porn?"

Lots of big breasted ladies - no seriously a SERIOUS amount of images on a phone: even I was surprised !

 

[Manonabike]

is it possible to do a low level format these days?

maybe that is the answer.

 

[JamesAC]

Using a proprietary piece of kit will render any files unreadable by your average purchaser of second hand pcs. However, the Powers_That_Be can recover files that have been over-written by many sets of random data.

If you really want to keep your sensitive data secure, then destroy the disk. You can do this by heating the platters to red heat, or by phyisically damaging the platter surfaces with a file, for example.

 

[barq]

BTW if your HD dies and you take your laptop into a shop to get fixed and they say yer we can do it. But a day later they phone and say sorry it is dead we can not even get it started by plugging into our three computers so you need a new HD.

So what I need to know is there any way to get the info off of it?

Yes. You'd be amazed how much data is recoverable if you are prepared to pay. Sometimes the disk itself is fine but the electronics have failed. Data recovery specialists can attach functioning electronics from an identical drive and get your data off. Or they can dissect the drive in a clean room if necessary.

Amazingly even if you overwrite each block many times data may still be recoverable (e.g. by the CIA). A block that was originally a 0 might be overwritten many times with random data, but it is still theoretically possible to tell it apart from a block that was originally a 1. Blocks that have been 1s many times are magnetically stronger 1s than 1s that have also been 0s. That on its own wouldn't be enough but as they start to build up a map of the probability of different blocks being either a 0 or a 1. Since the data on the drive will be in a known format, rather than entirely random, you should ultimately be able to piece it back together again. Consequently lots of my colleagues in the USA not only have shredders for paper, but also for hard drives.

 

[jay clock]

I am only keen to avoid the amateur finding my Dad's emails. If the CIA want to find it I am sure they will!

 

[spandex]

Yes. You'd be amazed how much data is recoverable if you are prepared to pay. Sometimes the disk itself is fine but the electronics have failed. Data recovery specialists can attach functioning electronics from an identical drive and get your data off. Or they can dissect the drive in a clean room if necessary.

Amazingly even if you overwrite each block many times data may still be recoverable (e.g. by the CIA). A block that was originally a 0 might be overwritten many times with random data, but it is still theoretically possible to tell it apart from a block that was originally a 1. Blocks that have been 1s many times are magnetically stronger 1s than 1s that have also been 0s. That on its own wouldn't be enough but as they start to build up a map of the probability of different blocks being either a 0 or a 1. Since the data on the drive will be in a known format, rather than entirely random, you should ultimately be able to piece it back together again. Consequently lots of my colleagues in the USA not only have shredders for paper, but also for hard drives.

I was told That I could do that but it would cost £1000s I was kind of hoping there was another way?






As I do not have £1000s

 

[Night Train]

I think it is even possible to get data off a disc that is no longer disc shaped.

I might put my old discs together and melt them with an oxy-acetylene torch. I've not got anything much to hide but I really don't like the idea that my data could be accessed.

 

[Carwash]

I second suggestions for Darik's Boot and Nuke. With an eight-way random re-write it will make all data on the disk pretty much unrecoverable (although it may take a while to finish).

barq is technically correct in saying that the very tenacious might still be able to recover some information, given large amounts of time, money and resources. But we'd have to be talking about a drive that has some *seriously* important data wanted by the US government for you to worry about that!

 

[yenrod]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disk_formatting