Cleansing W2K System for Resale

  • Thread starter Thread starter TMitchell
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T

TMitchell

I am going to sell my 4-year old computer system soon. I want to make
sure that no trace of my clients past information (I'm and energy
consultant) is left behind. I have the Eraser program that is good for
eliminating "free space" (which includes old deleted files) and cluster
tips, but what parts of the W2K system itself and related programs, like
MS Office, files/folders do I have to pay attention to in order to
make sure that other privileged information is not retained o the hard
drive?

Is there a guide out there on the internet that walks through this type
of cleansing process?
 
From: "TMitchell" <[email protected]>

| I am going to sell my 4-year old computer system soon. I want to make
| sure that no trace of my clients past information (I'm and energy
| consultant) is left behind. I have the Eraser program that is good for
| eliminating "free space" (which includes old deleted files) and cluster
| tips, but what parts of the W2K system itself and related programs, like
| MS Office, files/folders do I have to pay attention to in order to
| make sure that other privileged information is not retained o the hard
| drive?
|
| Is there a guide out there on the internet that walks through this type
| of cleansing process?

Use a utility like Norton's GDisk.exe to "wipe" the hard disk of all data.

ftp://ftp.symantec.com/public/english_us_canada/products/ghost/manuals/DoDwipe.pdf

The utility is available in the Norton Utilities, the retail and enterprise versions of
Ghost and other Norton packages.
 
Why not wipe the entire drive with something like Darik's Boot and Nuke then
reinstall the OS and sell a clean machine?
Louis
 
TMitchell said:
I am going to sell my 4-year old computer system soon. I want to make
sure that no trace of my clients past information (I'm and energy
consultant) is left behind. I have the Eraser program that is good for
eliminating "free space" (which includes old deleted files) and cluster
tips, but what parts of the W2K system itself and related programs, like
MS Office, files/folders do I have to pay attention to in order to make
sure that other privileged information is not retained o the hard drive?

Is there a guide out there on the internet that walks through this type
of cleansing process?
Click to expand...

How about simply re-installing Windows, using the 'formatting disk'
option when prompted.
 
Hi,

......How about simply re-installing Windows, using the 'formatting disk'
option when prompted.

Formaatting a disk doesn't erase or even overwrite old data that's been
on a disk. Many free softwares out there will easily bring all those
files back to life, even after a format. Overwriting the drive first is
the least you should consider doing. One of the easier ways to do that
is many copies of a giant file copied to your drive until you fill it
up. That way when a software is used to show your old or previously
deleted files it'll just bring up the trash you've devloped as fill, bmp
files work well for the purpose. Purchasing a disk cleansing software is
also an option of course.

Slapping the drive in another machine as a slave for the overwrite and
reformatting makes the whole drive available for trashing all the old
info from it.

---==X={}=X==---

Jim Self

AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association #140897
EAA Technical Counselor #4562
 
PA20Pilot wrote:

Formaatting a disk doesn't erase or even overwrite old data that's been
on a disk. Many free softwares out there will easily bring all those
files back to life, even after a format. Overwriting the drive first is
the least you should consider doing. One of the easier ways to do that
is many copies of a giant file copied to your drive until you fill it
up.
Click to expand...

Surely a low-level format (not a regular post-partitioning format)using
the hd manufacturer's disk utilities effectively overwrites any data
that's there? And it would be a lot easier.
 
Sid said:
PA20Pilot wrote:



Surely a low-level format (not a regular post-partitioning format)using
the hd manufacturer's disk utilities effectively overwrites any data
that's there? And it would be a lot easier.
Click to expand...
 
I have used Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN) freeware from SourceForge. It
suppossedly erases the disk to DOD standards by writing random 1's and
0's to the entire disk several times. I have not run any recovery
software to test it.

Warning secure this floopy. If it is inadvertently inserted into the
floppy drive and the machine reboots your disk is nuked.

"Darik's Boot and Nuke http://dban.sourceforge.net/
DBAN is a self-contained boot floppy that securely wipes the hard disks
of most computers. DBAN is open source and will work on DOS, Windows
3.1, Windows 95/98/NT/ME/2000/XP, FreeBSD, NetBSD, OpenBSD, or Linux,
and also meets the DoD cleaning and sanitizing standard."
 
Hi Sid Knee,

.........Surely a low-level format (not a regular post-partitioning
format)using the hd manufacturer's disk utilities effectively overwrites
any data that's there?

I wouldn't assume that. All a format is doing is dividing the disk into
sections that can be written to and telling the software it's no longer
used space to work around, not scrambling the magnetic information
that's already there. It's kind of like removing the lable from a video
tape and closing the recording protection hole, the movie is still
there, but it's now available to write over.


---==X={}=X==---

Jim Self

AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association #140897
EAA Technical Counselor #4562
 
PA20Pilot said:
Hi Sid Knee,

........Surely a low-level format (not a regular post-partitioning
format)using the hd manufacturer's disk utilities effectively overwrites
any data that's there?

I wouldn't assume that. All a format is doing is dividing the disk into
sections that can be written to and telling the software it's no longer
used space to work around, not scrambling the magnetic information
that's already there.
Click to expand...

I think you are describing a regular format there, Jim, not a low level
format. The manufacturer's low level format utility works at a lower
level and (I believe) leaves the the disk surface in the state it was in
when it left the factory ... fully erased and unpartitioned.

It certainly takes a very long time to do it.
 
Hi again,

.........(I believe) leaves the the disk surface in the state it was in
when it left the factory ... fully erased and unpartitioned.

I know better than to argue the point, I'm wrong more often than I'd
like to admit. For sure though, it takes more than deleting things to
really make them go away for ever.

Every now and then I undelete old drives I come across and it's
interesting what I find on them.


---==X={}=X==---

Jim Self

AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association #140897
EAA Technical Counselor #4562
 
Hi Airman T,

.........Speaking of that, what about FDISK? Is that recoverable?

Good quesion. I don't have a clue what people have used to format the
disks I come across. There was one once upon a time one that I couldn't
get anything off, but I don't recall if there may have been another
problem with it or not.

With three or four different ways to hide old info on disks, formatting,
overwriting, deleting etc., I wouldn't be surprised if at least one of
them did a better job than another.

---==X={}=X==---

Jim Self

AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association #140897
EAA Technical Counselor #4562
 
From: "Airman Thunderbird" <[email protected]>

| Speaking of that, what about FDISK? Is that recoverable?
|
| PA20Pilot wrote:

Forensically -- YES.

Go back to the original post...
"I want to make sure that no trace of my clients past information"

The hard disk needs to be wiped.
Not... re-partitioned, reformatted or re-low level formatted.
 
If I FDISK a hard drive, then donate it to the Red Cross, who sends it
to our under-privileged brethren in Nigeria, say, could they get my bank
numbers off it?
 
From: "Airman Thunderbird" <[email protected]>

| If I FDISK a hard drive, then donate it to the Red Cross, who sends it
| to our under-privileged brethren in Nigeria, say, could they get my bank
| numbers off it?
|

Yes. All it takes is a little computer forensics 101 and the desire to obtain the data.

The US DoD standard for "sanitizing" a hard disk is the following...

Write a byte pattern; 10101010
Write the pattern's complement; 01010101
Write a different pattern; 11110000

Repeat the above process 6 times for each byte

That's just for sensitive/proprietary information and is not for hard disks containing
classified data.
 
Hi again,

.......So the best answer seems to be physical destruction.

Or as I wrote earlier, and David H. also suggests, over writting what's
on the disk.

If you save a picture file of a car, write it over with a black square
picture and save that file, then use a recovery software to recover the
file, you'll get the black square picture not the original car image.

If you really worry about your info being compromised perhaps the hammer
would be your best choice.


---==X={}=X==---

Jim Self

AVIATION ANIMATION, the internet's largest depository.
http://avanimation.avsupport.com

Your only internet source for spiral staircase plans.
http://jself.com/stair/Stair.htm

Experimental Aircraft Association #140897
EAA Technical Counselor #4562
 
PA20Pilot said:
If you really worry about your info being compromised perhaps the hammer
would be your best choice.
Click to expand...

I don't know about the hammer but seriously, if it's that critical, it
might be better to save the drive for another purpose and swap it for a
new one. At the price of drives these days, it's a viable option.
 
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