(OT) Software to "Wipe" Contents of Hard Drive, Prevent Identity Theft, Etc.

[benalias]

Is there any freeware software that "wipes" the contents of a hard
drive, not only formatting it or erasing it but overwriting it enough
times to prevent the recovery, theft or misuse of this information?

That is an on-topic question, but I have some follow-up questions
that may be off topic:

Does this software require booting from a floppy and pretty much
monopolize the computer it is run on? Or, if two drives are installed
in a computer, can the software be run on one HD in the background
while the normal computer operations are run on the other HD?

There is a discussion in another forum where one of the participants
claims that "wiping" a hard drive basically monopolizes the computer
for 3 to 8 hours, and that he cannot afford that kind of downtime, and
the value of a used hard drive is minimal. So he advocates removing
the HD and literally drilling holes in it to prevent identity theft.

Is it really economically irrational to "wipe" a hard drive with
software that overwrites the hard drive sufficiently so as to prevent
any use of the information? Are people or companies that donate used
computers to charities, which in turn pass them on to other charities
or disabled persons or others for reuse--are these donors
irresponsible or irrational if they leave the old hard drives in the
donated computers? (Irresponsible if they fail to wipe the
information; and irrational if they do, due to the bad economics
involved?)

Of course, your opinions will be appreciated. But any references or
links to articles on this subject would also be appreciated.

C'ya.

Ben

 

[-½cut]

wrote in

Is there any freeware software that "wipes" the contents of a hard
drive, not only formatting it or erasing it but overwriting it enough
times to prevent the recovery, theft or misuse of this information?

Yup: http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

Does this software require booting from a floppy and pretty much
monopolize the computer it is run on? Or, if two drives are installed
in a computer, can the software be run on one HD in the background
while the normal computer operations are run on the other HD?

No and yes, provided that the normal computing isn't accessing the second
drive.

There is a discussion in another forum where one of the participants
claims that "wiping" a hard drive basically monopolizes the computer
for 3 to 8 hours

True if you only have the 1 HDD in the machine. The active drive -if
used for programs other than the wiping- keeps writing over the erased
bits, so you don't get a proper erase. If there's only 1 drive, you have
to leave it alone to do it's stuff, really.

Is it really economically irrational to "wipe" a hard drive with
software that overwrites the hard drive sufficiently so as to prevent
any use of the information?

If you're not going to hand the HDD on it's much easier to take a
sledgehammer to the HDD and burn what's left. If you are going to hand
it on, then wiping it is sensible. Most users can simply start the wipe
going and go to bed.

Are people or companies that donate used
computers to charities, which in turn pass them on to other charities
or disabled persons or others for reuse--are these donors
irresponsible or irrational if they leave the old hard drives in the
donated computers? (Irresponsible if they fail to wipe the
information; and irrational if they do, due to the bad economics
involved?)

Donors usually wipe the drive in their own self-interest. Remember that
corporate users often give the whole machine away, so it's not really
that much work to install a small app and leave the machine running for a
few hours. People that *DON'T* wipe their drive are not only incredibly
stupid; giving away company secrets and details that they would probably
rather not be made public. If there's data about customers on the
unwiped machine, then it's an offence (under the Data Protection Act in
the UK) and can make the donor liable for monster fines.

 

[Steve H]

Is there any freeware software that "wipes" the contents of a hard
drive, not only formatting it or erasing it but overwriting it enough
times to prevent the recovery, theft or misuse of this information?

That is an on-topic question, but I have some follow-up questions
that may be off topic:

Many encryption programs have a wipe function which will overwrite
data ( and free space ) with garbage, rendering the original data
unrecoverable ( except via horrendously expensive and time consuming
means ).
Blowfish advanced CS can do this:
http://www.bsn.ch/Lasse/bfacs.htm

Does this software require booting from a floppy and pretty much
monopolize the computer it is run on? Or, if two drives are installed
in a computer, can the software be run on one HD in the background
while the normal computer operations are run on the other HD?

Intensive disk writing programs will tend to hog resources - though
it's not inconceivable that some of them will have options to set the
priority. There may be difficulties with wiping a drive that contains
the running program - so I'd recommend fitting the target drive as a
slave.
I'm certain that there are some programs around that can run from a
bootable floppy - I used to use a DOS based encryption program that
used the Blowfish algorithm.

There is a discussion in another forum where one of the participants
claims that "wiping" a hard drive basically monopolizes the computer
for 3 to 8 hours, and that he cannot afford that kind of downtime, and
the value of a used hard drive is minimal. So he advocates removing
the HD and literally drilling holes in it to prevent identity theft.

It's the sort of operation you might want to run overnight - but if
you can't afford to turn the machine off then I would assume that,
your machine being so critical, you'd have a backup computer.
People that destroy hardware to prevent data recovery really piss me
off - I've seen perfectly decent machines at the local tip ( Pentium
IIIs etc ) that have been physically smashed with a hammer. It's sheer
waste. It's ever worse when decent modems, network cards, graphics
cards etc. are destroyed in this manner.

Is it really economically irrational to "wipe" a hard drive with
software that overwrites the hard drive sufficiently so as to prevent
any use of the information? Are people or companies that donate used
computers to charities, which in turn pass them on to other charities
or disabled persons or others for reuse--are these donors
irresponsible or irrational if they leave the old hard drives in the
donated computers? (Irresponsible if they fail to wipe the
information; and irrational if they do, due to the bad economics
involved?)

I would say that it's unwise to pass on a machine with any sort of
personal data on the drive ( and I've seen some verrry interesting
data! ).
The economic argument doesn't hold much water - if you're giving the
machine away then presumably you have one to replace it.... it can sit
at the back of the room quietly overwriting the data at its leisure.

To put it into context, it's about recycling.
If you can't be arsed to spend a bit of time and effort thinking about
the best way to process your 'waste' then you're effectively an
ecological slob.

My entire system ( bar the mo'board, CPU and half the memory ) is
based on used kit that I've either picked up for a song at the local
tip, or been given, or bought off ebay.
Stuff from the tip includes a HP professional series A3 printer, a
Kyocera B&W laser printer, a Fujitsu 17" monitor, a UPS, a USB and a
SCSI scanner... and more bits and pieces that I know what to do
with... and all bought for less than a few quid a time... or got for
free.


Regards,

 

[Sumairp]

I use Eraser everyday, on one of my 5 partitions, then give it the
week-end off .

Runs for a maximum of 5 minutes.

 

[tlshell]

Is it really economically irrational to "wipe" a hard drive with
software that overwrites the hard drive sufficiently so as to prevent
any use of the information?

I don't see why. All one has to do is set this to be done overnight or
during some other time when the OP is going to be asleep or gone, etc.
That time is of no use anyway and with the monitor turned off,
electrical consumption is negligible.

 

[WebWalker]

Is there any freeware software that "wipes" the contents of a hard
drive, not only formatting it or erasing it but overwriting it enough
times to prevent the recovery, theft or misuse of this information?

Use the HD "zero-fill" (some time it call low level formatting) utility.
You can download a copy from the HD maker website.

 

[He's Smart]

Is there any freeware software that "wipes" the contents of a hard
drive, not only formatting it or erasing it but overwriting it enough
times to prevent the recovery, theft or misuse of this information?

That is an on-topic question, but I have some follow-up questions
that may be off topic:

Does this software require booting from a floppy and pretty much
monopolize the computer it is run on? Or, if two drives are installed
in a computer, can the software be run on one HD in the background
while the normal computer operations are run on the other HD?

There is a discussion in another forum where one of the participants
claims that "wiping" a hard drive basically monopolizes the computer
for 3 to 8 hours, and that he cannot afford that kind of downtime, and
the value of a used hard drive is minimal. So he advocates removing
the HD and literally drilling holes in it to prevent identity theft.

Is it really economically irrational to "wipe" a hard drive with
software that overwrites the hard drive sufficiently so as to prevent
any use of the information?

Get a very large rare earth magnet[1] or several small ones, remove
the hard drive, set the magnet(s) on it for 27.333 minutes. Reinstall
the drive -- you will have nothing to worry about.

[1]
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?SID=&ccurrency=2&page=40071&category=1,42363,42346

 

[Roger Hunt]

Is there any freeware software that "wipes" the contents of a hard
drive, not only formatting it or erasing it but overwriting it enough
times to prevent the recovery, theft or misuse of this information?

(snip)

Get a very large rare earth magnet[1] or several small ones, remove
the hard drive, set the magnet(s) on it for 27.333 minutes. Reinstall
the drive -- you will have nothing to worry about.

[1]
http://www.leevalley.com/wood/page.asp?SID=&ccurrency=2&page=40071&category=1,4
2
363,42346

I liked this too. Lots of links on the page :
http://www.dansdata.com/magnets.htm

 

[jumbojim12345REMOVETHIS]

http://www.ics-iq.com/downloads.cfm

You have to register...use fake stuff... no big deal. scroll down to
Disk Wipe Free Demo

Haven't tried it but have their machine (Solo II Imagemasster) and
have used their other free software. Nice company....

~dan