cleaning the disks completely - How do I do it?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul S.
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Paul S.

Hi,
I have an old (6 years) computer and I want to give it away to charity.
But forst, I want to make sure the disks are completely erased in terms
of any data I may have on them.

How can I insure that the disks are completely cleaned of any personal data?


Thanks
 
Paul said:
Hi,
I have an old (6 years) computer and I want to give it away to charity.
But forst, I want to make sure the disks are completely erased in terms
of any data I may have on them.

How can I insure that the disks are completely cleaned of any personal
data?


Thanks
Click to expand...

Use one of a good many utilities that overwrites the data with 1's and
0's...preferably several times...
 
Use Fdisk from Win98 Bootdisk, remove all partitions, then creat new one(s)
and format it, and then do again with Fdisk, remove all partitions, then
re-create new one(s) again, then format after reboot. This should be clean
even the first time unless they have pro stuff to find old datas, anyway,
why they want to do that? If you really need it to be clean, you can then
get pro software to wipe clean your hdd, only if you think its worth, fdisk
and fromating the HDD is good enough fro normal person not to be able to
retreive data.
 
NoDVD+/-R said:
Use Fdisk from Win98 Bootdisk, remove all partitions, then creat new one(s)
and format it, and then do again with Fdisk, remove all partitions, then
re-create new one(s) again, then format after reboot. This should be clean
even the first time unless they have pro stuff to find old datas, anyway,
why they want to do that?
Wrong.

If you really need it to be clean, you can then
get pro software to wipe clean your hdd, only if you think its worth, fdisk
and fromating the HDD is good enough fro normal person not to be able to
retreive data.
Wrong.
Click to expand...
 
Paul said:
Hi,
I have an old (6 years) computer and I want to give it away to charity.
But forst, I want to make sure the disks are completely erased in terms
of any data I may have on them.

How can I insure that the disks are completely cleaned of any personal
data?


Thanks
Click to expand...

O.K., I should have been more specific. The computer is a Gateway, and,
I have the NT 4.0 installation disks. I have already re-formatted the D
drive using the NT "disk manager" program. So, I am pretty confident
that the D drive is a blank slate. But, the "Disk manager" won't let me
re-format the C drive since that's where the operating system "lives."

If I re-install the operating system will it re-format the C drive and
thus erase any traces of old data on the disks? And, if not, then what?

Thanks

Paul
 
Paul said:
O.K., I should have been more specific. The computer is a Gateway, and,
I have the NT 4.0 installation disks. I have already re-formatted the D
drive using the NT "disk manager" program. So, I am pretty confident
that the D drive is a blank slate. But, the "Disk manager" won't let me
re-format the C drive since that's where the operating system "lives."

If I re-install the operating system will it re-format the C drive and
thus erase any traces of old data on the disks? And, if not, then what?

Thanks

Paul
Click to expand...

Paul, data is easilly recoverable even after a reformat. To make it more
difficult, you'd want to use a program that overwrites the drive. I use
one from bootdisk.com called Wipe. It only overwrites the drive once, so
the data is still recoverable. A utility that overwrites it 7 times
makes it pretty unrecoverable, even by FBI standards. If you're happy to
take the chance of someone recovering your data, then there're plenty
of programs that can wipe the partition table from a bootable floppy or
cd. I use a windows98 boot floppy, which can be downloaded, and put Wipe
onto it, then wipe the drive, repartition, and reformat it. Any data
that's on the drive is still technically recoverable, but it won't be
exceptionally easy to do. A simple reformat is pretty simple to work
around, if you enjoy snooping. I've found some pretty sensitive stuff on
old hard drives that people have thrown out. That's why companies often
remove hard drives from computers prior to either disposing of them or
donating them to charity. It's too easy to recover information, and may
be too time consuming to effectively wipe every drive.
 
Just for information purposes, another tool I often use on hard drives
that I've come by second-hand is tomsrtbt. It's easiest to make from
within linux, and is a cut down linux that is bootable from a floppy (a
cdrom iso is also available, IIRC). Makes getting rid of all sorts of
partitions easy, as linux's fdisk program is more fully featured than
Microsoft's is. However, the Wipe program I mentioned in my last post
will completely overwrite the drive with a repeated data pattern,
including the mbr, so the partition table is lost in that case (again
IIRC). I have a series of floppies and cdroms with different hard drive
utilities. You might also see who manufactured your drive: manufacturers
sometimes make these disk wiping tools freely available for use with
their drives, along with hard drive testing utilities. I just went back
to bootdisk.com and the webmaster is still asking for a donation to
download the Wipe/Zap programs. I've downloaded so many things from his
website I was happy to make a donation when I first downloaded wipe/zap.
 
Paul, data is easilly recoverable even after a reformat. To make it more
difficult, you'd want to use a program that overwrites the drive. I use
one from bootdisk.com called Wipe. It only overwrites the drive once, so
the data is still recoverable. A utility that overwrites it 7 times
makes it pretty unrecoverable, even by FBI standards. If you're happy to
take the chance of someone recovering your data, then there're plenty
of programs that can wipe the partition table from a bootable floppy or
cd. I use a windows98 boot floppy, which can be downloaded, and put Wipe
onto it, then wipe the drive, repartition, and reformat it. Any data
that's on the drive is still technically recoverable, but it won't be
exceptionally easy to do. A simple reformat is pretty simple to work
around, if you enjoy snooping. I've found some pretty sensitive stuff on
old hard drives that people have thrown out. That's why companies often
remove hard drives from computers prior to either disposing of them or
donating them to charity. It's too easy to recover information, and may
be too time consuming to effectively wipe every drive.
Click to expand...

You need a program like Shred found @:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,13352,00.asp

(e-mail address removed)
 
Paul S. said:
Hi,
I have an old (6 years) computer and I want to give it away to charity.
But forst, I want to make sure the disks are completely erased in terms
of any data I may have on them.

How can I insure that the disks are completely cleaned of any personal data?


Thanks
Click to expand...

http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/faq.php

This will do the job and do it very well.
 
Erasing the harddrive disks is NOT adequate; the data is still recoverable.
You need to use an OVERWRITING program that will write random characters
onto the entire harddrive at least six times.
 
Sooky Grumper:
Maybe for you, a truly inside out computer user, for my friends who works at
the charity, they don't know what does HDD do inside the PC. They are not
dum, they just use the computer to do what they need, not "playing" the
computer like you and myself. But I fully agree with your way of cleaning
the HDD totally! I have been using zap to wipe HDDs, but I have never tried
to retrieve data from a wiped HDD, I will try once, learning something new
everyday.
Anyway, you never know who will ended up looking at your good old harddrive.
Better safe then sorry.
 
Paul said:
Hi,
I have an old (6 years) computer and I want to give it away to charity.
But forst, I want to make sure the disks are completely erased in terms
of any data I may have on them.

How can I insure that the disks are completely cleaned of any personal
data?
Click to expand...


Darik's Boot and Nuke:
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Download, create bootable media, boot, and nuke!
(It's free)


-WD
 
If one wanted to clean a hard drive computer so as to install a fresh
copy of Windows XP Pro on it..... would it be a good idea to use
something like the above?
Click to expand...


It sure wouldn't hurt, but it sounds like overkill. Deleting the
partition with a bootdisk and fdisk would be *much* quicker. dban
overwrites the entire drive, as to eliminate any evidence of the data
written on it.


-WD
 
Will said:
It sure wouldn't hurt, but it sounds like overkill. Deleting the
partition with a bootdisk and fdisk would be *much* quicker. dban
overwrites the entire drive, as to eliminate any evidence of the data
written on it.


-WD
Click to expand...

If data erasure isn't the objective, then I agree with Will here. The
WinXP setup procedure has a stage where you can repartition and reformat
the drive, so a separate disk for that is unnecessary.
 
Paul said:
Hi,
I have an old (6 years) computer and I want to give it away to charity.
But forst, I want to make sure the disks are completely erased in terms
of any data I may have on them.

How can I insure that the disks are completely cleaned of any personal
data?


Thanks
Click to expand...
Hi,
I am using two software tools that you guys recommended: Darik's Boot
and Nuke and "eraser"


Thanks for all the responses to my posting!

Paul
 
Paul said:
Hi,
I am using two software tools that you guys recommended: Darik's Boot
and Nuke and "eraser"


Thanks for all the responses to my posting!
Click to expand...


You're very welcome. All too often, the OP never bothers to follow up
to their own threads...


-WD
 
Hi,
I have an old (6 years) computer and I want to give it away to charity.
But forst, I want to make sure the disks are completely erased in terms
of any data I may have on them.

How can I insure that the disks are completely cleaned of any personal data?


Thanks
Click to expand...

You need the good Data-Doctors help with this one.

http://www.datadocktorn.nu/index.php

If you follow his instructions to 'Defraggle your motherdisc'

http://www.datadocktorn.nu/us_frag1.php

I'm sure no one will be able to read your data.

Adam S

PS back up anything you want to keep before following the doctors
instructions 8-)
 
You need the good Data-Doctors help with this one.

http://www.datadocktorn.nu/index.php

If you follow his instructions to 'Defraggle your motherdisc'

http://www.datadocktorn.nu/us_frag1.php

I'm sure no one will be able to read your data.

Adam S

PS back up anything you want to keep before following the doctors
instructions 8-)
======================================
Click to expand...

WARNING!

The web location above instructs you to disassemble your hard disk drive
after removing it from teh computer!!

Don't do it!!! You will destroy it if you do.

Jack
 
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