Wiping a hard drive?

datter

I'm selling an old Pentium II system that's just taking up space and have been told that a simple format isn't necessarily the most secure way to remove any personal information from it.

Any suggestions on how to effectively wipe a hard drive prior to sale?

AftershockVibe

Yup, you can use Boot And Nuke. Download from here:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

More information on the problem itself can be found here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_remanence

Sorted Cool

Arnie · Last edited by Arnie on Mon Jan 07, 2008 9:21 pm; edited 1 time in total

Or get Bcwipe and put the BCWIPEPD DOS utility on a bootdisk. You can even run it from the hard drive in DOS mode (assuming Win9x). It wipes the drive 7 times, the last time with random noise. This is according to the U.S. DoD 5200.28 standard for securely deleting files.

(Command for wiping the first disk: bcwipepd w -d0 )

Animal

Personally, I'd recommend using Eraser to securely wipe your files. It doesn't have a flashy interface, but it's a free and very efficient program.

AftershockVibe

Arnie

Oh, I wasn't aware of that. But where's that link? Razz

internetjobs

use dm at zero pulling....

JediPad

The best way is to degauss the hard drive if that is not possible get a program that starts with replacing all of the data on the hard drive with random 0s and 1s and do this at minimum 7 times. There are a lot of different programs but the one on sourceforge is free and is probably the best one for the cost.

Good luck and remember the only safe way is to replace the hard drive then destroy the old one.