PC hardware: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data?
- 11/14/08 3:00 PM
Drive deletion is SO important!
by JeffAHayes - 11/14/08 11:11 PM In reply to: Use the Drive manufacturer's utilities by back_water_techA local school district sold or donated its old computers a couple years back and whoever was in charge of that project was idiotic enough to do NOTHING to at least SOME of the OFFICE hard drives that had HUNDREDS of student and staff Social Security numbers and other sensitive information on them!
This came to light when one of these computers ended up as the property of a parent of one of the students, who brought it to the attention of the local news media. Of course there was a large public outcry and heads rolled, etc., and in classic REACTIONARY FASHION, rather than simply implementing a solid DOD-type hard-drive-shredding program before selling old computers -- or at the least, removing hard drives from the computers -- the school district, which in this case is for the largest county in South Carolina -- simply put an OUTRIGHT BAN on selling or giving away ANY old school computers, which now have to be crushed, or incinerated, or something of that nature.
Greenville County, SC, is well-known for its reactionary politicians, anyway... But most anytime something involves schools, people get up in arms. Yet all this could have been avoided, many people could have benefited from free or reduced-price used computers, MUCH less waste would have entered the waste stream, etc., had some IDIOT simply have employed basic computer recycling security protocols any home user with half a brain would know to use!
While I agree that probably even the DOD-level stuff CAN be recovered by SOMEONE, I also agree with the majority that a SINGLE, decent, complete overwrite and erase will likely do it for all but the most sensitive data, and the programs designed to do more should do the job for everyone else.
Jeff Hayes
Spartanburg, SC
data recovery
by anybod1 - 11/15/08 12:54 AM In reply to: Drive deletion is SO important! by JeffAHayesi was under the impression,that unless you physically destroyed your discs all data was recoverable...( at least companies selling data recovery software claim this)
How to get rid of all personal data
by Mrspuddleduck - 11/15/08 10:03 AM In reply to: data recovery by anybod1I think the easiest way to do this is to use the PCs Recovery Discs, they take the PC back to the Factory state and erase all personal data as if it was just bought new again, I did this when I sold my old PC on ebay.
Re: Donating Hard Disc Drives.
by chauffeur2 - 10/31/08 9:24 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hello Kathy C,
In my personal opinion, by far the best (and most effective) way to erase all data from a Hard Disc Drive is to use a Disk wiping utility like Darik's Boot N' Nuke® (Dban) or Killdisk™.
Both of these utilities are freeware and are very user friendly; they will completely erase all data from the HDD and present it in RAW format (as if it had just come off the manufacturer's production line).
Darik's Boot N Nuke can be downloaded from:... http://www.dban.org/
Killdisk is available at:.. http://www.killdisk.com/downloadfree.htm
All you'll have to do is read the respective instructions carefully to create either a floppy disc or bootable CD for either of these programs. (Its fairly easy to do.)
To use the program, connect the HDD that you want to erase in a computer, by itself, pinned as a "Master"; load either the Floppy Disc or Bootable CD and follow the on-screen prompts...its that simple.
I have used both programs, and find them to be equally good as each other.
You can rest assured using either DBan or Killdisk will ensure that no recoverable data is left on the Drives once the process has finished.
All you need to tell the recipient/s is that they will have to format (and partition) the Drive before use.
One point to take into consideration is that either program will take anything up to 4 ˝ hours to do its job. (That's calculated with a 80Gb HDD.)
Hopefully you will find them useful.
Kind Regards,
Dave T. (chauffeur2)
Seconding Darik's Boot N Nuke
by rich_jtg - 11/1/08 4:27 AM In reply to: Re: Donating Hard Disc Drives. by chauffeur2Darik's Boot N Nuke is probably the easiest and most effective way I've ever seen of erasing the data on a drive.
It has been mentioned a couple of times on CNET Live.
I'll Third DBAN in a heartbeat! x:
by btljooz - 11/15/08 10:54 AM In reply to: Re: Donating Hard Disc Drives. by chauffeur2I much prefer DBAN due to the fact that it gives _several_ choices as to how many passed and what type of pass you would prefer. It even includes the "Gutmann Technique" which does take quite a while to perform. You can read about this particular technique starting here:: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutmann_method
The *free* version of Killdisk only performs three (3) passes of overwrites with 1s and 0s. Although I've had the odd occasion to be able to run it recursively, thereby overwriting the disk in multiples of three. One set of 3 passes on a 40 gig drive really doesn't take all that long...about 15 mins to a half hour or so, give or take a few minutes.
Donating hard drives
by matt614 - 10/31/08 9:35 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Kathy,
There are tons of file 'shredding' programs out there. You might find one at CNET, as a matter of fact. They all claim to erase all date by doing rewrites over the same areas, erasures and a lot of other schemes. Most work pretty well and someone would really need to work an excessive amount of time on a drive even before he/she knew if the date could be retrieved and the condition of the data. All that said, hard drives are so rediculously cheap (they'll be a lot cheaper as we proceed to solid state memory), an entire desktop can be had for under $300.00, new!. You are a very sweat person to be thinking of donating hard drives, but they are better off being used as desk weights, along with all those CD and DVD coasters.
deleting personal data
by luis primeiro - 11/14/08 7:04 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives by matt614big powerfull electromagnet will certainly do something to it
Deleting personal information
by fghouston - 10/31/08 9:50 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
This is a very good question. I am also seeking the answer. Because I didn't know the answer the last time I got rid of my hard drive, I ended up destroying the hard drive completely and donated it to the trash can to avoid the fear of exposing personal information.
I Still Save My Old Drives for my Windows 98.
by Dumbpeni - 10/31/08 11:19 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
I also still have old software mostly games that runs best on Windows 98.. I have Duke Nukem , Captain Comic among others. I still have old drives as small as 2.5 gb drives and even AMD 266 MHZ K2 chip/mother board in a AT case with only 235 watt powersupply. Anyway, I miss my old games mostly sharewares . Ah I miss playing Whiplash, a crazy car race game . I will go back to playing those good oldies when I have time after completing most of my high priority projects around my home. Those Pentium age games are cool unlike today's games , blah blah!! OR you can get enclosures to tuck your old drives in...You better hurry as enclosures are made for SATA drives and those made for EIDE drives are being discontniued... Both can still be connected to your USB , dont worry. You can use your old drives in enclosures as your third, fourth , or even tenth backup drive that you can bury somewhere in your backyard . You never know what will happen in ten years..We may witness a thermonuclear war!!
Invite your lady friends to your old drive wrecking party
by Dumbpeni - 10/31/08 11:27 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Be sure to ask them to bring their screwdrivers or impact screwdrivers that you can bam hard on to loose the screws on the old drives . Your lady friends can take turns figuring out to take your old drives apart with time limits like debates between McCain and Obama... Remove your coffee table and put in a old plywood board on conrete blocks on a tarp on the floor in your fancy living room... Your hubby will have a blast watching you ladies trying to take old drives apart without being allowed to help..
getting rid of your data
by tazadsldevil - 10/31/08 11:47 PM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
Hi there are some things you need to know.
read this articles
http://www.wikihow.com/Safely-Get-Rid-of-an-Old-Computer
http://www.microsoft.com/athome/moredone/protectpurgepersonalfiles.mspx
http://pcmike.com/2008/05/01/wiping-your-computer-of-personal-data/
http://geeksaresexy.blogspot.com/2006/08/disk-wiping-utilities-how-to-get-rid.html
so i hope that these do the trick but be aware that i do not know who you are going to donate the harddrives to but when you want to be shure use all the tools mentioned in the websites and search for a low level format tool , run it 10 x after that than reformate the harddrive like this:
(you need a computer with DOS )
download FDISK if it isn't on the computer
first if the hard drive has partions, erase the partitions using fdisk, and create ONE master partion , if the harddrive is over a limit use the max size fdisk can use and create a second or even third secondairy partition if needed
than put the harddrive back in the other computer and use linux , erase all partitions with linux and install linux on it .
next step is to repeat the wiping nouw use disk wiping utilities for linux, when that is complete remove the harddrive from the computer it was in originaly, fdisk the drive or use windows 2000 or xp discs, let them create a new partion (or partions) do NOT install windows back on it , put it back in the pc , jumper it to slave and check with that pc with every freeware recovery programme that's on the market if there is still information to be found on the SLAVE harddrive if not , the drive is now safe to donate and if there still is something to be found repeat all steps ..
goodluck )from a former system admin and still a computer feak - nerd that is also very curious about personal data.
getting rid of your data
by jamesdoc01 - 11/15/08 8:08 AM In reply to: getting rid of your data by tazadsldevilI use XL Delete.
Is that any good. I got the software through trial pay and they updated my account to the new version. lol!
Seems to say that it does the job also with a lot of choices when it comes to wipe method...
any comments on xl delete would help......
Scrubbing hard drives
by RustySly - 11/1/08 12:19 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
There are lots of programs out there for wiping hard drives to DOD standards. The one I use also destroys whatever is in the Recycle Bin, rather than using the Window's "Empty Recycle Bin" command. It may not be the best, but it certainly works quickly and simply for either task. It also wipes the slack (unused part of sectors) and empty space on you hard drives to stringent DOD standards.
This one is "CyberScrub Privacy Suite," which is available on line.
secure erase of dotated HDD
by cne4 - 11/1/08 12:45 AM In reply to: Donating hard drives, how do I get rid of all my personal data? by Lee Koo (ADMIN)
download b-c wipe. it can do a very secure HDD erasure of ANY files windows WILL not delete. place old HDD in existing (running) windows box,as 2nd or slave,& when it can be seen, by windows setup bc wipe for (3)passes! this program WILL erase--ALL files GOV'T UNRECOVERABLE DELETION of anything that was on old HDD. also external
U S B drive boxes have worked for me in the past.
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