Cleaing old / past data off of IDE Drives

[Moif Murphy]

Hi,

I have a couple of IDE Drives spare and I'd like to clean them up as
best as I can so they're completely blank (no left over data after
formatting etc). Can anyone suggest a freeware WIN32 or Linux equivalent
that can do the job?

Thanks!

 

[Mike Redrobe]

I have a couple of IDE Drives spare and I'd like to clean them up as best
as I can so they're completely blank (no left over data after formatting
etc). Can anyone suggest a freeware WIN32 or Linux equivalent that can do
the job?

In XP:

file-run cipher /w:d

will wipe the d: drive of all deleted data

 

[Moif Murphy]

In XP:

file-run cipher /w:d

will wipe the d: drive of all deleted data

Excellent, I never knew that.

Thanks!

 

[Bob Willard]

Hi,

I have a couple of IDE Drives spare and I'd like to clean them up as
best as I can so they're completely blank (no left over data after
formatting etc). Can anyone suggest a freeware WIN32 or Linux equivalent
that can do the job?

Thanks!

For Win, I've used Eraser for years -- free and easy, and effective.

Also, most if not all HD vendors have utilities that will write zeroes
to some or all of the HD; make sure you get the utility that writes to
the whole HD, not just the first few hundred sectors. FWIW, writing
zeroes is not as safe as one of Eraser's multi-pass procedures, but IMHO
it is good enough to prevent ordinary mortals from reading your data.

 

[Moif Murphy]

For Win, I've used Eraser for years -- free and easy, and effective.

Also, most if not all HD vendors have utilities that will write zeroes
to some or all of the HD; make sure you get the utility that writes to
the whole HD, not just the first few hundred sectors. FWIW, writing
zeroes is not as safe as one of Eraser's multi-pass procedures, but IMHO
it is good enough to prevent ordinary mortals from reading your data.

Ok great, I'll check Eraser out as well.

Thanks, Bob.

 

[=?iso-8859-1?Q?Rita_=C4_Berkowitz?=]

I have a couple of IDE Drives spare and I'd like to clean them up as
best as I can so they're completely blank (no left over data after
formatting etc). Can anyone suggest a freeware WIN32 or Linux
equivalent that can do the job?

Get "Reclassified" it's the best data wiping/security tool in the industry
and is approved for NSA use.

<http://www.geocities.com/ritaberk2006/reclassification.htm>







Rita

 

[Arno Wagner]

Hi,

I have a couple of IDE Drives spare and I'd like to clean them up as
best as I can so they're completely blank (no left over data after
formatting etc). Can anyone suggest a freeware WIN32 or Linux equivalent
that can do the job?

Thanks!

For Linux: dd_rescue /dev/zero /dev/<target>
Will overwrite every sector with zeros and give a progress indicator.
dd_Rescue is available, e.g., on the Knoppix CD Linux.

Arno

 

[bealoid]

Hi,

I have a couple of IDE Drives spare and I'd like to clean them up as
best as I can so they're completely blank (no left over data after
formatting etc). Can anyone suggest a freeware WIN32 or Linux equivalent
that can do the job?

Thanks!

I like DBAN. It's open source and free.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

You only need to do one over-write, unless you're working to someone's
spec. If you're paranoid or can't be bothered arguing with people or
are working to someone's spec you can do more. Dban allows you to do
all sorts of different wipes.

 

[Eric Gisin]

In XP, use diskpart after deleting partitions:
list disk
select disk #
clean all

 

[Moif Murphy]

I like DBAN. It's open source and free.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

You only need to do one over-write, unless you're working to someone's
spec. If you're paranoid or can't be bothered arguing with people or
are working to someone's spec you can do more. Dban allows you to do
all sorts of different wipes.

I downloaded burnt off the ISO of DBAN and it's done the job wonderfully.

Thanks