PC hardware: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data?
- 11/14/08 3:00 PM
Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data?
by Lee Koo (ADMIN) - 11/14/08 3:00 PM
Question:
I have several old hard drives that I would like to donate to
a worthy cause, but I am not sure how to get rid of all the
personal information that is stored on them. Any suggestions
as to what I can do? Some hard drives are not in the
computers and a couple of them are. Please provide step-by
step instructions on how I can thoroughly clean these drives
out. Thank you!
--Submitted by Kathy C.
Enough to be safe, not so much as to be paranoid --Submitted by watzman
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7591_102-0.html?forumID=26&threadID=314496&messageID=2896932#2896932
Getting rid of old drives... --Submitted by Wolfie2k5
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7591_102-0.html?forumID=26&threadID=314496&messageID=2897100#2897100
Re: Donating Hard Disc Drives. --Submitted by chauffeur2
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7591_102-0.html?forumID=26&threadID=314496&messageID=2896970#2896970
Use the Drive manufacturer's utilities --Submitted by back_water_tech
http://forums.cnet.com/5208-7591_102-0.html?forumID=26&threadID=314496&messageID=2896983#2896983
If you have any additional recommendations or advice to share with Kathy, let's hear them. Click on the "Reply" link to post. Please be detailed as possible in your answer and list all options available. Thanks!
Depend's on just how sensitive you consider the data
by Steven Haninger - 10/31/08 6:24 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If you're going to donate the drives, you surely don't want to spend money cleaning them. An easy way that should be 99+% safe would be to look for the manufacturer's diagnostics utility that allows wiping the drive during destructive testing. It will remove data, formatting, partitions etc and leave the drive essentially as it came from the factory. This doesn't mean specialized equipment cannot recover some data from the platters but someone would have to really want your stuff to invest in that type of gear. You could perform the erasure several times just to further reduce the possibility the data could be read. I'd have to think that would be good enough for most purposes and I have to think you're not storing atomic missile secrets or you'd not even consider giving these drives away.
Disk Wiping Software
by maggiemae99 - 10/31/08 6:57 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
If you have a Windows computer, simply download the free version of the Department of Defense standard-conforming disk-erasing software Active KillDisk at http://www.killdisk.com.
About donating Hard Drives
by GFW - 10/31/08 7:02 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
First, if you have any hard drives of less than about 40Gb, you might as well take a hammer to them (a few big dents will render them unreadable) and trash them.
For drives of more than 40Gb, see if there is a group that refurbishes older computers for use in inner city or rural schools. In some places the Telephone Pioneers Chapter may be doing this. They should be able to erase your data and protect your privacy if they have such a program.
About donating Hard Drives
by ViroCMN - 11/3/08 5:24 AM In reply to: About donating Hard Drives by GFWNot True!!!
I know of certain business that have hundreds of uses... They don't use more than 5 gigs on their machines and some of those machines have 250gig HDD's but they been partitioned @ 20gig. Its sad I know but company policies....
Cleansing a hard drive
by golfzilla - 10/31/08 7:06 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Pound it with a sledge hammer and then burn it.
to golfzilla
by butch1127 - 10/31/08 8:35 PM In reply to: Cleansing a hard drive by golfzillaout of all the replys on cleaning the hard drive, you gave the best and direct answer out of all.i am 66 years old. retired computer tech at 65. you can always tell the think they are the greatest by their long replys & the way they put people down. wished i knew a much as they think they do.this is the reason i normly don't answer any questions. just waunted to say great answer. have a great day
Ah!!! That's what it means!
by ozdonat31 - 10/31/08 11:13 PM In reply to: to golfzilla by butch1127I always wondered what "crash and burn" means.
idea
by dawn-ooo - 11/4/08 12:34 AM In reply to: Ah!!! That's what it means! by ozdonat31what an idea. keep it up.
Hard drives
by cao2289 - 10/31/08 7:06 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I have personally used a program called Wipe Drive. You can completely eradicate all data to U.S. Department of Defensse standards for data erasure. Basically what a regular format does is just delete the MBR (Master Boot Record) and the index, leaving all data on the hard drive but the computer doesn't know how to access it ebcause the index and MBR are gone. What this program does is write random characters and zeros and ones across the entire hard drive, 4 times! Depending on the size of your drive it could take a long time to do. For example, I recently had to wipe my drive, a 500GB Seagate and it took a little over 4 hours.
Why.........
by ironwoodmi - 10/31/08 7:12 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I would say why suffer with deleting the info and donating the drives.
Technology advances everyday and there is really no need for saving these items as newer will be better. Take a strong magnet and run it over the drives a few times and destroy the info and toss them into your trash can or dump them off at a recycling station.
I know, I know, most people are going to say the opposite and that its a great idea to donate items to causes. But how many times do you stash things away saying your going to donate them and they end up sitting in the bottom of your closet for YEARS!!!! I just hauled FOUR truckloads of JUNK to our waste facility and i was glad to get rid of it. Free of clutter and better off.
You have been watching too many TV
by Watzman - 10/31/08 8:04 PM In reply to: Why......... by ironwoodmiYou have been watching too many TV shows and Movies.
First, you can't erase the platters of a hard drive from outside the drive using any normally avaialbe source of magnetic fields (if you have acces to an MRI machine, well, then .... maybe). The magnetic field strength required AT THE PLATTER to erase the platters is VERY high, and this strength decreases by the inverse square law. The heads are VERY close to the drive, within 20 one-millionth's of an inch. But by the time you get to even just a half-inch it's just about impossible ANY normally available souce of magnetic fields.
Second, if you could do that, it would not only destroy the data, it would destroy the drive (which you don't care about). The reason is that in addition to erasing the data, if you could "bulk erase" the platters, you would also erase the drive's servo information. The drive can't operate without this, and it can't be recreated in the field, so you have destroyed the drive.
Third, however, I take issue with the callousness of all of the replies (yours included) that basically say to destroy / discard the drive as worthless. The drives do have value, and it's wasteful and environmentally unfriendly to pitch a perfectly good drive when a simple wipe of the drive will resolve all legitimate security issues that a normal person would reasonably have. I teach computing at a local college, and we can always use discarded drives. Even defective drives make good teaching tools when we take the covers off and let students have them as we try to explain concepts like tracks and secotors and cylinders and heads and platters and so on.
Disposable nation
by patruga - 11/14/08 7:02 PM In reply to: You have been watching too many TV by WatzmanI agree with you, some members have truly displayed a cavalier attitude to a growing problem - electronic waste. Somehow we have become a nation where everything is disposable, not reusable. Having taught in a few improvished schools, I KNOW the value of a 20 gig or even 10 gig harddrive. So, If you can "safely" donate your HDD, do so, it will be one less item in the landfill, and who knows, maybe even a grateful recipient.
Why throw it away when it works just fine.
by wmarr - 11/15/08 6:47 AM In reply to: Disposable nation by patrugaI can understand the reasoning behind disposing of old computer hardware. Not that it didn't work, just that a person can afford to upgrade to hardware that can do more or perform better. Nothing wrong with a 20 gigger drive. I have (and am) used these drives for everything from primary boot to OS, data storage, a second drive, you name it. Even have a 10 gigger all loaded up with XP just in case a clients machine won't work, and all I do is change the jumpers and connect the cables to see if that is all that is wrong with the machine. I personally use Kill disk or Gleary's utilities. You can actually delete (in windows) all the personal stuff then run "wipe free space utility. There all is done but no software or OS has been erased just the free space that was once occupied by your data.
PS. remember to empty your recyle bin and run CC Cleaner before you do this. Also you have to delete your browsing history (online banking etc.) BEFORE you run wipe free space.
Hello!
by shyamalchatterji - 11/15/08 9:23 AM In reply to: You have been watching too many TV by WatzmanThis is a very logical answer.
If the question is regarding a method of erasing the data , the replies are expected to be address the same.
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