Wipe HD

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I'll be getting my desktop back from the tech soon. He's fixing one of the
internal HD's and getting XP to work. The other internal drive was messed
up, and he's getting the data off of it. He tells me the drive itself,
hardware-wise, is ok; it was just how the data and former OS was(n't)
working ...

Anyhoo, I want to wipe the whole drive. Not just format. I'll clean it
good and then install programs back onto it. My question:

Is there a good freeware/trial tool that I could use to wipe the whole
thing? Thanks!
 
If you know the manufacturer of the drive they may have some tools to do that. I have Western
Digital and their free diagnostic tool allows you to write all Zero's to the drive essentially
blanking the whole thing out.
 
Eraser - Free secure data erase tool to wipe files on your
hard drive
Secure Data Removal Tool to wipe, erase and clean
files and history including index.dat.
www.heidi.ie/eraser/ - 20k - Cached - Similar pages

| I'll be getting my desktop back from the tech soon. He's
fixing one of the
| internal HD's and getting XP to work. The other internal
drive was messed
| up, and he's getting the data off of it. He tells me the
drive itself,
| hardware-wise, is ok; it was just how the data and former
OS was(n't)
| working ...
|
| Anyhoo, I want to wipe the whole drive. Not just format.
I'll clean it
| good and then install programs back onto it. My question:
|
| Is there a good freeware/trial tool that I could use to
wipe the whole
| thing? Thanks!
|
| --
| <*(((><
|
| ~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
|
|
 
I'll be getting my desktop back from the tech soon. He's fixing one of the
internal HD's and getting XP to work. The other internal drive was messed
up, and he's getting the data off of it. He tells me the drive itself,
hardware-wise, is ok; it was just how the data and former OS was(n't)
working ...

Anyhoo, I want to wipe the whole drive. Not just format. I'll clean it
good and then install programs back onto it. My question:

Is there a good freeware/trial tool that I could use to wipe the whole
thing? Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use DBAN, to wipe.

dban.sourceforge.net.

It WILL simultaneously wipe all drives attached to the system if you
let it. Disconnect any non-target drives, just to be sure.
 
Eraser lets you select drives, partitions,folder or even
just files. It can do just free space or the whole shebang.

It does one pass or even 7 passes.


| > I'll be getting my desktop back from the tech soon.
He's fixing one of the
| > internal HD's and getting XP to work. The other
internal drive was messed
| > up, and he's getting the data off of it. He tells me
the drive itself,
| > hardware-wise, is ok; it was just how the data and
former OS was(n't)
| > working ...
| >
| > Anyhoo, I want to wipe the whole drive. Not just
format. I'll clean it
| > good and then install programs back onto it. My
question:
| >
| > Is there a good freeware/trial tool that I could use to
wipe the whole
| > thing? Thanks!
| >
| > --
| > <*(((><
| >
| > ~~~~~~~~~~~~
|
| I use DBAN, to wipe.
|
| dban.sourceforge.net.
|
| It WILL simultaneously wipe all drives attached to the
system if you
| let it. Disconnect any non-target drives, just to be sure.
|
|
|
|
|
 
Eraser lets you select drives, partitions,folder or even
just files. It can do just free space or the whole shebang.

It does one pass or even 7 passes.
Click to expand...

DBAN has control down to the partition level, you can control how many
pases, and even chose among wiping methods. But the main deal is if
you type in 'autonuke', your hard drives are toast. It'll wipe MANY
drives simultaneously, as many as your machine can handle. I've done 6
at once in an ordinary pc, and 12 an once in a scsi drive cage
attached to a server. (I work at a computer recycler, wiping drives
for reuse is one of my jobs)
 
What I like about Eraser is it is usable for the security
careful home user, to really delete one or more files. It
can do whole drives, but it can also do smaller jobs. A
reseller does "bulk" a home user just wants to be sure the
old tax returns are gone for good.


| On Jan 31, 8:19 pm, "Jim Macklin"
| > Eraser lets you select drives, partitions,folder or even
| > just files. It can do just free space or the whole
shebang.
| >
| > It does one pass or even 7 passes.
| >
|
| DBAN has control down to the partition level, you can
control how many
| pases, and even chose among wiping methods. But the main
deal is if
| you type in 'autonuke', your hard drives are toast. It'll
wipe MANY
| drives simultaneously, as many as your machine can handle.
I've done 6
| at once in an ordinary pc, and 12 an once in a scsi drive
cage
| attached to a server. (I work at a computer recycler,
wiping drives
| for reuse is one of my jobs)
|
|
| >
| >
| > | On Jan 31, 6:27 am, "<*\(\(\(><" <[email protected]>
wrote:
| > | > I'll be getting my desktop back from the tech soon.
| > He's fixing one of the
| > | > internal HD's and getting XP to work. The other
| > internal drive was messed
| > | > up, and he's getting the data off of it. He tells
me
| > the drive itself,
| > | > hardware-wise, is ok; it was just how the data and
| > former OS was(n't)
| > | > working ...
| > | >
| > | > Anyhoo, I want to wipe the whole drive. Not just
| > format. I'll clean it
| > | > good and then install programs back onto it. My
| > question:
| > | >
| > | > Is there a good freeware/trial tool that I could use
to
| > wipe the whole
| > | > thing? Thanks!
| > | >
| > | > --
| > | > <*(((><
| > | >
| > | > ~~~~~~~~~~~~
| > |
| > | I use DBAN, to wipe.
| > |
| > | dban.sourceforge.net.
| > |
| > | It WILL simultaneously wipe all drives attached to the
| > system if you
| > | let it. Disconnect any non-target drives, just to be
sure.
| > |
| > |
| > |
| > |
| > |
|
|
 
This was an interesting thread. I'll check out the suggestions. At this
time, I want to nuke one drive, and wipe the free space on two others. I
should have a tool to wipe out individual files in the future. The line of
work I'm going in to has some strict guidelines about security and
confidentiality. I'm still just a student, but I've already used my
computer to do work that is of a confidential nature.

Have fun!
 
What I like about Eraser is it is usable for the security
careful home user, to really delete one or more files. It
can do whole drives, but it can also do smaller jobs. A
reseller does "bulk" a home user just wants to be sure the
old tax returns are gone for good.
Click to expand...

Hmmm, does it erase all the current free space (including slack) that
file has ever used, when it does that? I'm thinking that defrag could
be an Achilles heel for single file erase jobs.
 
That is what it says on their website/readme file...
----------------------------------------------------------------
NOTE: This version uses the new installer. You Must remove
versions
5.5 and below by executing a) unwise/unwise32.exe in the
eraser directory
or b) add/remove from the control panel.
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Eraser 5.7 (July 25th 2003)
----------------------------------------------------------------

CONTENTS
1. LEGAL
1.1. Copyright
1.2. License agreement and Disclaimer
1.3. Digital signature
2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
2.1. Libraries
3. HOW TO INSTALL & UNINSTALL
3.1. Before installing
3.2. Installing
3.3. Help?
3.4. Uninstalling
4. DESCRIPTION
5. AUTHOR
5.1. Web site

----------------------------------------------------------------
1. LEGAL

1.1. Copyright

Eraser Copyright © 2002-2003 by Garrett Trant. All
rights reserved.
Eraser Copyright © 1997-2002 by Sami Tolvanen. All
rights reserved.

All registered and unregistered trademarks mentioned
in
this document are the property of their respective
holders.

1.2. License agreement and Disclaimer

This program is free software; you can redistribute
it
and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General
Public License as published by the Free Software
Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at
your
option) any later version.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be
useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the
implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
for more details.

You should have received a copy of the GNU General
Public License along with this program; if not,
write to
the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple
Place -
Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307, USA.

1.3. Digital signature

The setup program is signed with Pretty Good Privacy
(PGP) (public key available at web site) for
verifying
the authenticity. The signature file should be
included
with the archive. This file has the extension
'.asc'.

If you did not receive a separate digital signature
file
with this archive, download the official binary
distribution at the home page (see section 5.1).

----------------------------------------------------------------
2. SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

This version of Eraser runs on Windows 95, 98, ME, NT
4.0,
2000, XP and later.

2.1. Windows Common Control Library (COMCTL32.DLL)

You must have version 4.72 or later version of the
Windows Common Control Library in order to use
Eraser.

If you are using Windows 95 or NT and have not
installed
Internet Explorer 4.01 or later, you must download
an
update at:

http://www.heidi.ie/common/

Later versions of Windows come with the updated
library.

----------------------------------------------------------------
3. HOW TO INSTALL & UNINSTALL

3.1. Before installing

Be sure to uninstall any previous version of Eraser
before installing. Also make sure you have the
required
libraries installed before running setup (see
section
2.1).

If the setup program asks you to reboot Windows
after
installation, you must do that before running
Eraser.

3.2. Installing

EraserSetup.exe is a self-extracting executable
containing the
program files.

Run EraserSetup.exe to install Eraser. The setup
program will
extract the files and copy them to a desired
location.

3.3. Help?

After installing, you can open the help file (in the
Eraser directory) by double-clicking the ERASER.HLP
file.

You can also get answers to some frequently asked
questions and read a step-by-step installation
instructions at Eraser home page (see section 5.1).

3.4. Uninstalling

You can uninstall Eraser normally via Control Panel,
Add/Remove Programs. You should not remove the files
manually because the settings in the registry would
not
be removed.

----------------------------------------------------------------
4. DESCRIPTION

Eraser is an advanced security tool, which allows you to
completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by
overwriting it several times with carefully selected
patterns.

You can drag and drop files and folders to the on-demand
eraser, use the convenient Explorer shell extension or
use
the integrated scheduler to program overwriting of unused
disk space or, for example, browser cache files to happen
regularly, at night, during your lunch break, at weekends
or
whenever you like.

The patterns used for overwriting are based on Peter
Gutmann's paper "Secure Deletion of Data from Magnetic
and
Solid-State Memory" and they are selected to effectively
remove the magnetic remnants from the hard disk making it
impossible to recover the data.

Other methods include the one defined in the National
Industrial Security Program Operating Manual of the US
Department of Defense and overwriting with pseudo-random
data
up to one hundred times.

----------------------------------------------------------------
5. AUTHOR

The new maintainer of this product is Garrett Trant.
For more information visit http://www.heidi.ie

Sami Tolvanen, the original author of this software is a
student in the university of technology in Finland. For
more information,visit his home page at
http://www.tolvanen.com/sami/.

5.1. Web site

You can download the latest version of Eraser and
the
required libraries at Eraser home page.

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

------------------ ----------------------------------------------


| On Jan 31, 10:48 pm, "Jim Macklin"
| > What I like about Eraser is it is usable for the
security
| > careful home user, to really delete one or more files.
It
| > can do whole drives, but it can also do smaller jobs. A
| > reseller does "bulk" a home user just wants to be sure
the
| > old tax returns are gone for good.
| >
|
| Hmmm, does it erase all the current free space (including
slack) that
| file has ever used, when it does that? I'm thinking that
defrag could
| be an Achilles heel for single file erase jobs.
|
|
 
I'll be getting my desktop back from the tech soon. He's fixing one
of the internal HD's and getting XP to work. The other internal drive
was messed up, and he's getting the data off of it. He tells me the
drive itself, hardware-wise, is ok; it was just how the data and
former OS was(n't) working ...

Anyhoo, I want to wipe the whole drive. Not just format. I'll clean
it good and then install programs back onto it. My question:

Is there a good freeware/trial tool that I could use to wipe the whole
thing? Thanks!
Click to expand...


I use Eraser (http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/ or
http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/) but also have a copy of Killdisk
(http://www.killdisk.com/). Both are free.

P.S.
Please be polite when posting to Usenet by using an alphanumeric
moniker, not one composed of non-alphanumeric characters. For example,
when searching Google Groups for old posts (or even in many newsreader
clients), the non-alphanumerics get ignored or cause parsing errors.
 
For me there is nothing better than the Win98 FDisk.


FDISK doesn't erase any user data or files.

-John O
 
That is what it says on their website/readme file...
Click to expand...
Thank you for the link. It DOES have the defrag weakness in single
file deletion mode.

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

"I erased file 'x' and found that I could recover it! I thought the
whole objective of this program was to erase it so that it cannot be
recovered."
....

"Equally if you defragment a drive you may find traces of an erased
file because the original file is potentially moved all over the disk.
The current copy is erased but a forensic scan of the drive may locate
parts of the file where it was being moved around during the
defragmentation."
 
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