i've seen the following recommended elsewhere:
http://www.dban.org/

Hirens BootCD 10.4 (ideally installed on USB drive)
http://www.hiren.info/pages/bootcd-on-usb-disk
Has many options to wipe hdds.

overwrite it 5-8 times, todays hdd space density is so high, its easier to get rid of it all than 8-10 years ago

like format the HDD 5-8 times, or what?

i guess that depends on what your format actually does. i didnt say format, because a format doesn't require the physical data to be overwritten.

btw i suggest this book, its a good read:

Secrets and Lies: Digital Security in a Networked World
Bruce Schneier

i think the last 2 topics in this wiki link could be interesting:

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

maybe with dd?
haha sorry j\k

Eraser and run a 35 pass gutmann.http://eraser.heidi.ie/

It'll be safe, personally I would try and get into better habbits, look into truecrypt and invisible partitions the next time you do a major install, or keep the drives for storange and put a cheap second hand one in there

20-25 quid is worth peace of mind.

i believe one pass is sufficient.

truecrypt is a good idea.

On a similar note : whats the best data recovery software?

I used this once.

http://www.pcinspector.de/default.htm?language=1

Few years ago Zero Assumption Recovery (ZAR) was absolutly the best. It was extremaly slow, unstable, and not free (pirated versions were russian only and very unstable if working at all), but that was the only software that was able to get back files deleted by antyvirus, as well as some years old files that trace of shouldnt even exist.

open your hdd & use a magnet.

Afaik if your using a soft there will always be a a way to get your information back...(it costs money)

Or you can use truecrypt to encript the entire drive, then format it normally...

Even if they recover *EVERYTHING*, if you used a good password it's impossible for even NASA or whatever to decrypt it in the next century...

I heard NASA guys love to try and decrypt data from HDDs they find here and there. These NASA guys can recover *EVERYTHING*

That point is: they can recover *EVERYTHING*, but they and even all the computers in the world cant *DECRYPT* it.

But.. these NASA guys really like to do it. I mean, they can *DECRYPT EVERYTHING* if they want to. They work for NASA, they're the best!

double the key size = squared time to brute force a key, even nasa guys can't break decent keys with todays processors.

much easier to break you & get the key

ya NASA guys are known for they thuggish ways of obtaining keys :D

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=54107

"According to police reports, Nowak drove from Houston, Texas USA to Orlando, Florida, USA on 4–5 February 2007. She packed latex gloves, a black wig, a BB pistol and ammunition, pepper spray, a hooded tan trench coat, a 2-pound drilling hammer, black gloves, rubber tubing, plastic garbage bags, about US$585 in cash, her computer, an 8-inch (20 cm) Gerber folding knife and several other items before driving the 900 miles (1,400 km) to Florida. Early police reports indicated that she used diapers during the trip but she later vehemently denied wearing them.[17][18] On February 5, 2007, Nowak went to the Orlando International Airport, waited for about an hour in the baggage claim, and then proceeded to the airport parking lot, where she located and confronted Colleen Shipman, who had just arrived from Houston by plane.[19]"

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

haha proper

Yeah, they work for NASA - sending shit into space while decrypting your hard drive.

quantum computah B<

not if you dban it. it replaces all the 1s and 0s with just 1s or 0s (dont remember which). because of that the procedure can take forever, but it does completely wipe your hdd

you still can't get rid of the transcient energy the dipols emit when they switch spin.. TEMPEST traces of your hdd will still be all around

o.O

ya some aliens might even pic up your porn in a few years because you decided to erase your whole harddrive at once

You do know that magnets are what spin hard drives?

Indeed, it doesnt work gasoline....

You write on a hard drive with a magnetic field. If you pass a magnet on your hdd there are high chances that nothing will happen...But if you remove the shield (protects from air & MAGNETIC FIELDS) & then pass a magnet on the platter you will write on it.

Ok I thought you were one of those dumbasses who think floppies are like hard drives.

afaik you need a powerful magnet but i think it's the best way to erase your hdd

You would need something a normal individual is never going to have access to. Especially not skint. He's poor.

do low level formats

bcwipe is the only program that really works. you can stop it half way and your mft is still clean and no program will find any files. with only 1 pass

applications > utilities > disk utility > erase > security options innit

Just truecrypt the whole disk, it'll write it fully with random crap. Then you can format and sell.

Throw your hdd in lava. I heard even the people at nasa can't read it then.

He will have to hurry. The eruption over here is starting to die.

as quickly as your economy?

Lame joke plussed by jamerio. I hope you are proud of yourself.


p.s. brum is a shithole

Here's a plus, hope you're proud of yourself!!!

P.S.
Your country is broke and on fire, I'm half expecting Bjork to kick the bucket any second.

Your country has been broke and shit for centuries. There is nobody famous from wales who is actually good at anything.

What you mean like singers like Tom Jones, or actors like Anthony Hopkins, or Athletic Gods like Colin Jackson, or religious folk like the Archbishiop of canterbury, or Bands like manic Street Preachers, or Rugby Legends, people who helped crack enigma codes?

I'm curious what other traits you wish me to supply you with, I'm pretty sure it compares favourably to your bankrupt shit hole whom the world will never ever invest in again and I must say has done so little.

You do nothing as a nation apart from fail, when you're not on fire you're stealing money and supporting your whole society on other peoples success.

I don't care waht you say, tnohing can be worse than being on fire, poor and losing every ounce of faith in the outside world.

When wales gets that bad, do come back, until feel free to give me on last dying retort as you patalogically broken mind does what it can to recover, for I shall not reply.

We both know its true, so tug your little cock good night and go to sleep. Night night.

Tom Jones sucks. Anthony Hopkins is overrated. Religion sucks. Colin Jackson is black and therefor not Welsh like the BNP said. Manic Street Preachers suck ass.

Wales is poor and a shithole.

Talk to me when you finally get out.

Lol, I raged this guy so much he caused another Volcanic Eruption last night.

"April 14th, 2010

REYKJAVIK, Iceland — Icelandic emergency officials evacuated hundreds of people near a restless volcano Wednesday amid strong signs of a second eruption."

Some 800 people near the Eyjafjallajokull (AYA-feeyapla-yurkul) glacier were evacuated after seismic activity suggested a second eruption, said Rognvaldur Olafsson, a chief inspector for the Icelandic Civil Protection Agency. The volcano, 75 miles (120 kilometers) east of Reykjavik, erupted March 20 after almost 200 years of silence."

http://calamities.gaeatimes.com/2010/04/14/hu...ion-16581/

Enjoy your day :)

Yeah fat guy who never leaves the house and tries all day to convince the people of esr he's not shit at sf4 raged me. Try again loser.

Don't blow your top over it.

Don't cry about not going to your villa in Monaco. Oh wait.

Youre laughing of people being evacuated? Not a good attitude dude, mainly taking into account all the fans of your infamous career in the gaming industry that will follow your behavior.

+dylan thomas

lol

Even something like you has to see the irony in those comments,

Less than 24 hrs later it starts erupting and has caused unprecedentated misery for 1000's of people over Europe and shows no signs of slowing down halting all airpalnes. Epic call Icelander.

Now everyone hates Iceland :)

Don't worry Jamerio the ash won't kill your sheep.

we already hated Iceland because of IceSave ;)

According to some data recovery labs, backed by usual procedures in corporations, it is possible to recover data that were overwritten up to 7 times.

what i said in #3

the amount of times you need to overwrite it is dependant on the density at with bits are stored on the physical drive; the density on newer drives being alot higher.

i.e. destroying data on newer drives is accomplished in fewer write-cycles than it is on older drives.

1999 the typical number of cycles was 32, today its - like you say - alot less

if you have access to a science lab. otherwise just use a 1 pass bcwipe, in dos or on the trash bin in windows

trash bin in windows only renames the files afaik?

edit: isnt it something like

cooller.dm68

in trashbin: #ooller.dm68

trashbin deleted: _ooller.dm68
?

not sure tho, its been a while

most apps add wipe files to the trash bins context menu

with most wiping programs you can still see the file names and undelete them using http://www.softwareshelf.com/products/file_rescue_plus_home.htm after they have been wiped. if you use bcwipe then you cant, all files are all 0byte with random names

easy recovery etc stand absolute no chance. and usually wont find anything

and using bcwipe once in a while to wipe your swap file and free space, with wiping the trash. speeds up windows loading times 2x. with no junk in mft. its as good as a regclean after ten years

switch to vista or win7 to get rid of the swap file problem :D

post a pic of it looking like win98 shell like xp can have and i might. then spend a year making it good with all custom context menus for windows update to reset it all

simple: remove those HDD's before selling and take them to your grave.

quick newbie how to please

Just google "Reformat hard drive". It is easy and you shouldn't need software to do it for you.

Doesn't work. Not nearly secure enough.

What's not secure about erasing your HD?

Because reformatting isn't secure? Data will still be available for recovery.

How I do it:

- Download an ISO of Ultimate Boot CD (UBCD)
http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/
(Release Candidate for version 5 is now available too

- Burn it on CD (its also possible to use a bootable USB-stick if your motherboard BIOS supports it)

- Check the boot sequence in your BIOS, so you will boot from the CD or USB-stick

- In UBCD browse to harddis tools > Wiping Tools > Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN)

- Then read this simple tutorial and if you need more help, check DBAN's website

paranoid much?

If you read the posts:
There's a Nigerian guy (according to Jamerio he is a she...) who works for the nasa and who wants to steal your indenty. He is a thug too & he will use violence to get your key if you crypt your hdd...

©ESReality

you need this

I say we take off and nuke the site from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

If you're really want to go about this the right way, start with ATA secure erase. A Linux livecd like the latest Ubuntu will allow you to do this. From there just run the 7 pass DoD overwrite method in dban.

bump

http://lifehacker.com/5520289/use-an-ubuntu-l...ue&s=i

Meh.

http://74.125.95.132/search?q=cache:ytumYIWyn...=firefox-a

i used dban. didnt realise it was going to take so long though, done now anyway.
thanks for help.