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how to erase data on a harddrive so it cannot be recovered
Posted on 2012-12-23
Hi, I have several used hard drives that I am selling. I would like to "clean" the drive so the customer can not get the data through traditional data recovery methods / programs. Does anyone have any applications that they would suggest?
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A quick Google will turn up any number of programs that will do this, but keep in mind that the more thorough they are, the longer they take.
The maunfatcurers' own utilities will usually have a facility to overwrite every sector with zeros; do this a couple of times and it's going to take some pretty sophisticated techniques to recover anything meaningful. Your average villain isn't going to have the resources or the time for this kind of snooping.
If you're really worried that this might happen, don't sell the drives - break them to pieces. Drives aren't so expensive that you'd lose that much money...
The maunfatcurers' own utilities will usually have a facility to overwrite every sector with zeros; do this a couple of times and it's going to take some pretty sophisticated techniques to recover anything meaningful. Your average villain isn't going to have the resources or the time for this kind of snooping.
If you're really worried that this might happen, don't sell the drives - break them to pieces. Drives aren't so expensive that you'd lose that much money...
Active today
My personal prefrence is Active Killdisk. It supports 17 security standards including DoD 5220.22-M.
the best free for software i have ever used is
http://eraser.heidi.ie/
http://eraser.heidi.ie/
I use Boot and Nuke: It is a free too. Burn it to a CD and boot your computer with it. It has an Auto Nuke option with 3 passes or as an advanced user, you can choose from various options.
http://www.dban.org
http://www.dban.org
Bear in mind that all these programs will only overwrite accessible areas of the disk, spared out bad sectors may be still readable with sophisticated equipment.
Active today
There still exists "hammer" method of erasing hard disks, but then I doubt you will be getting some buyers for them. ;) As Perarduaadastra said...
Active today
note that all erasing methods give a disk that is not readable for normal users and methods,- but given sophisticated time and materials, are still recoverable. (i know nobody that actually did it)
note also that all methods that write multiple passes to a disk, will take also MULTIPLE hours for each drive
up to you to decide what method you want
note also that all methods that write multiple passes to a disk, will take also MULTIPLE hours for each drive
up to you to decide what method you want
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