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Recovery of DB

Hi,

We got one requirement from one of our client.

Under data protection act,if once we end up the contract with a customer,we need to delete the data from our servers and we need to give them assurance that once deleted we cannot hold any kind of data with us.

So my question is, once we delete all the backups,LDF and MDF files and SAN backups(because our DB's are stored on SAN),can we recover the DB's back.

I know once all the files wrapped, we cannot get the DB back?

But can we recover the data from arrays?

Thanks in Advanace

SOLUTION

Paul MacDonald

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ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

Kyle Abrahams, PMP

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Lee

I hope you're asking for reassurance that the data cannot be recovered (it probably can be) and not how to recover the data after deleting which would be illegal.

A forensics recovery company could porbably recover the data. All you can do is say that you will securely delete the data but short of taking a hammer to the disks, you won't be able to guarantee this.

ccfcfc

ASKER

lsavidge,

The question is based on your former assumption.

We have utilities to delete data to meet certian levels of requirement, but we have only ever used these on an NTFS volume. The question here is whether there is a tool(s) available that would allow us to perform a certified-level wipe on a RAID array on which SQL is installed and on which other DBs will still be in operation.

Is there anything available along those lines ?

TIA

Paul MacDonald

The operating system (and therefore the disk-wiping utilities) will see a RAID volume as a physical disk and so should perform the same operation in the same manner.

If you have any questions about a particular software product - including a software product you already own - you should contact the manufacturer. Ultimately, you should be fine.

SOLUTION

Nem Schlecht

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ccfcfc

ASKER

The spec we are working to is a minimum of 3 times, with a random pattern, up to 35 times using the Gutmann method.

Nem Schlecht

3x should be plenty, I would think. 35x is gonna take, what, a week to do?

Kyle Abrahams, PMP

Eraser can handle that for you. Has options on what algorithm to use for X number of passes.

The information provided by paulmacd is correct. The os doens't care about raid, and it will write the bytes the same to each disk.

There is no need to delete and recreate the partition.

ccfcfc

ASKER

Are the tools mentioned able to leave data on a disk/array in place and only ensure that data that has been deleted cannot be recovered, or are they whole disk/array deletion tools only ?

Kyle Abrahams, PMP

Eraser has 2 modes . . . the first is on file delete it will erase those bits automatically, and it also has a free space wiper. Meaning it will scrub your entire free space. Any files on the drive are left in tact and can be run while the system is running (although it can be a quite a resource hog).