zero out a hard drive

  • Thread starter Thread starter bob
  • Start date Start date
Brett said:
DBAN booted from a floppy or CD is effective.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
Click to expand...

While on the DBAN site (forums/bug tracker etc), I found a
reference to this.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=129

Apparently, there is a secure erase feature built into IDE (not SCSI)
hard drive (2001 or later). The ZDNET article claims the BIOS blocks it
("BIOS freeze lock" - presumably so malware will have a harder
time triggering it). The function has been built into drives for
some time. A downloadable DOS utility to use it, is available here
(I haven't tried to use this - just tried DBAN once).

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDErase.zip
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDEraseReadMe.txt

As I understand it, the Secure Erase can be "posted". Once the
command is applied, you could turn off power to the drive. Each time
that the drive is powered up, it'll be working on the Secure Erase, and
will not accept user commands until the Secure Erase is finished.
If you didn't need to verify it, you could set the bit, and then
carry your hard drive to a flea market, to get rid of it. The
new user couldn't use the drive, until the internal routine had
completed.

I found an alternative method mentioned as well

The easiest way to wipe your MBR and partition table on a
Linux box is with a command like:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda count=1 bs=512 && sync && echo done

The dd or "disk dump" command, works at the raw drive level.
In a Unix environment, it is used for fast movement of data from
one device to another (sector by sector). /dev/zero would be an
infinite source of zeros, to zero out something. The count of 1
and block size of 512 bytes, would be enough to wipe the MBR
in the first sector.

There is a Windows version of dd available - the web page says
they even include the /dev/zero virtual device.

http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

Overwriting the MBR would only take a fraction of a second, and
in theory should be enough to encourage any balky OS to install
over top of what was previously on the disk. That isn't a
secure erase, but writing that one block may be enough to convince
a new OS, that the disk is "blank".

It all depends on how "erased" the disk has to be, as to which
tool to use. My DBAN experience didn't leave me that impressed,
because I think at the time, the OS I was trying to install, was
still giving me a hard time.

I can see hours of fun ahead...

Note - if you use DBAN, make sure only the disk to be erased
is connected to the computer. The DBAN forums are filled with
hard luck stories about people who autonuked their backup drive
"with all their music and movies".

Paul
 
Paul said:
While on the DBAN site (forums/bug tracker etc), I found a
reference to this.

http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=129

Apparently, there is a secure erase feature built into IDE (not SCSI)
hard drive (2001 or later). The ZDNET article claims the BIOS blocks
Click to expand...


The SCSI inplementation is called "Security Initialize" according to one
CMRR article.


it ("BIOS freeze lock" - presumably so malware will have a harder
time triggering it). The function has been built into drives for
some time. A downloadable DOS utility to use it, is available here
(I haven't tried to use this - just tried DBAN once).

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/SecureErase.shtml

http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDErase.zip
http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/HDDEraseReadMe.txt

As I understand it, the Secure Erase can be "posted". Once the
command is applied, you could turn off power to the drive. Each time
that the drive is powered up, it'll be working on the Secure Erase,
and will not accept user commands until the Secure Erase is finished.
If you didn't need to verify it, you could set the bit, and then
carry your hard drive to a flea market, to get rid of it. The
new user couldn't use the drive, until the internal routine had
completed.
Click to expand...

Excellent reading. Thank you.

I found an alternative method mentioned as well

The easiest way to wipe your MBR and partition table on a
Linux box is with a command like:

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda count=1 bs=512 && sync && echo done

The dd or "disk dump" command, works at the raw drive level.
In a Unix environment, it is used for fast movement of data from
one device to another (sector by sector). /dev/zero would be an
infinite source of zeros, to zero out something. The count of 1
and block size of 512 bytes, would be enough to wipe the MBR
in the first sector.

There is a Windows version of dd available - the web page says
they even include the /dev/zero virtual device.

http://www.chrysocome.net/dd

Overwriting the MBR would only take a fraction of a second, and
in theory should be enough to encourage any balky OS to install
over top of what was previously on the disk. That isn't a
secure erase, but writing that one block may be enough to convince
a new OS, that the disk is "blank".

It all depends on how "erased" the disk has to be, as to which
tool to use. My DBAN experience didn't leave me that impressed,
because I think at the time, the OS I was trying to install, was
still giving me a hard time.

I can see hours of fun ahead...
Click to expand...

I use dd for backing up data quite often though I've not used the Windows
version. Acronis True Image ran from a CD is another tool.

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/saw27/notes/backup-hard-disk-partitions.html

Note - if you use DBAN, make sure only the disk to be erased
is connected to the computer. The DBAN forums are filled with
hard luck stories about people who autonuked their backup drive
"with all their music and movies".

Paul
Click to expand...

Very good point which is easily overlooked.
 
What is the best way to completely zero out a hard drive?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Your drive maker has utilities for this.

Maxtor/Seagate: get "seatools" for dos or windows

For western digital it is "Data Lifeguard"

both have options to write zeros multiple times, a necessity if you
really want it done. Alternatively got to sears and get a craftsman
hammer and a pair of goggles. Works for me...

regards
 
I was hoping for a Windows program with a GUI. Anyone know of any?

Thanks.
Click to expand...

Did you google search for windows drive erase?

Here's one,
http://www.killdisk.com/

There's probably something more thorough if you need
multipass random writes instead of the free version of
killdisk but you only asked about zeroing a drive.
 
stockDrover said:
Your drive maker has utilities for this.

Maxtor/Seagate: get "seatools" for dos or windows

For western digital it is "Data Lifeguard"

both have options to write zeros multiple times, a necessity if you
really want it done. Alternatively got to sears and get a craftsman
hammer and a pair of goggles. Works for me...

regards
Click to expand...

Microwave oven works great also.
 
kony said:
Maybe for a CDR but for a hard drive? That seems a very
terrible idea, do you have any sources to back this up
Click to expand...

I never said the hard drive would be usable afterward,.nor the microwave.
 
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