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PC question: wiping a hard drive
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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Hi you techie peeps. I have got a new laptop and want to "freecycle" my old one, but obviously for security and privacy reasons want to wipe hard drive first. Its an hp compaq with windows 7.... how do I do it?
thanks  |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Do you want to completely erase the whole drive (data, operating system etc) and reinstall Windows from the installation media that came with your laptop?
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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You don't even need to install Ubuntu. The drive/part I on manager in the live CD will let you format it.
Don't do a quick format, that will leave data recoverable as it does the something not that dissimilar to removing the index of a book... |
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Someone had once suggested to me that I should remove the hard drive and completely destroy it with a hammer then put in a cheap new one (off eBay), format it and reinstall Windows. That's the only way of being 100% sure. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"You don't even need to install Ubuntu. The drive/part I on manager in the live CD will let you format it.
Don't do a quick format, that will leave data recoverable as it does the something not that dissimilar to removing the index of a book..."
That's not secure at all.
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"If I said 'Download and Burn an ISO file to CD' would you know how to do that?
I haven't got a scooby  "
Ok, I would remove the hard drive and freecycle it without the drive. If it's free, someone will have it. |
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Depends how far you want to go.
Quick and fairly secure (in that advanced forensic tools would be needed) is to down load something like CCleaner and wipe free space.
Formatting and deleting files is not secure or safe, much of the data is still recoverable.
With magnetic media, simply erasing data still leaves a magnetic "shadow" on the media of previous data.
Deleting a file only deletes the first character of the file name from the File allocation table (or equivalent) and marks the disk space as available for re- use.
Formatting does a once only pass at erasing data.
Utilities like CCleaner (I'm sure there are many more), work by repeatedly writing 1s and zeros over the disk and progressively weakening the magnetic residual "shadow" until it becomes so faint as to require the level of forensics that only government agencies are capable of. |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"If I said 'Download and Burn an ISO file to CD' would you know how to do that?
I haven't got a scooby
Ok, I would remove the hard drive and freecycle it without the drive. If it's free, someone will have it."
how do I remove a hard drive??? |
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By (user no longer on site) OP
over a year ago
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"Depends how far you want to go.
Quick and fairly secure (in that advanced forensic tools would be needed) is to down load something like CCleaner and wipe free space.
Formatting and deleting files is not secure or safe, much of the data is still recoverable.
With magnetic media, simply erasing data still leaves a magnetic "shadow" on the media of previous data.
Deleting a file only deletes the first character of the file name from the File allocation table (or equivalent) and marks the disk space as available for re- use.
Formatting does a once only pass at erasing data.
Utilities like CCleaner (I'm sure there are many more), work by repeatedly writing 1s and zeros over the disk and progressively weakening the magnetic residual "shadow" until it becomes so faint as to require the level of forensics that only government agencies are capable of."
lol, I havent done anything illegal on it; I just dont need it anymore and would rather give it away than lash it in a tip |
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"
If you have sensitive data on your old hard drive, take it out and hit it repeatedly with a 4lb lump hammer.
Jenny."
This is what I did after transferring stuff I wanted, then I smashed it into tiny bits. Not very greeny recycley but effective data protection wise. |
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yeah, I usually smash mine up too, after transferring stuff I want. By the time I throw stuff away the disks are usually woefully small and pitifully slow by current standards, and disks are cheap. |
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the only way to guarantee security is to destroy the harddrive. However have you anything that is really that sensitive on your harddrive? And what are the chances of the person who gets your laptop being a super-villain with the skills and access to a to a tunnelling electron microscope needed to recover anything from a re partitioned and fdisc(ed)harddrive?
I think you will be safe but if you dont feel the same way remove the harddrive and use a big drill bit to turn it into swiss cheese. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN), is a free data destruction utility available for download as a bootable ISO. It does data sanitization to DoD 5220.22-M standard.
Which pretty much means that it needs the NSA or the CSI good to have any chance of getting the back.
So let's face it, if you've been that naughty that you're worried about the NSA restoring your drive contents, best not freecycle it, but rather just throw the thing into the fires of Mt. Doom. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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I've used DBAN successfully before but it does require you to burn a CD.
Your best bet, suitable for your purposes, is to download 'ccleaner' as mentioned above (free program) and in the tools/drive wiper section, use the drop-down menus to select "Entire Drive" and "Very Complex Overwrite (35 times)"
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Nothing is safe on a hard drive how do you think all the weirdo's get caught  "
It can be fairly safe, but you really have to know what you're doing in terms of multi layered encryption. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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The OP would simply like to give someone else the chance of having a usable Hard Drive. Understandably she'd like her data to be removed.
IT experts do recommend DBan to securely "nuke" it clean. And certainly a repeated sledgehammering to destroy it. Unless you have some cordite to hand.
However, for the OP's purpose CCleaners Tool/Drive Wiper/Advanced Overwrite (3 passes) would be more than sufficient.
There's even a 7 or 35 pass overwrite setting for the really paranoid.
Look on google for CCleaner by Piriform, it's free and fairly intuitive to use, pm me if need help. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"Nothing is safe on a hard drive how do you think all the weirdo's get caught
It can be fairly safe, but you really have to know what you're doing in terms of multi layered encryption. "
Do MI5,MI6 and the like really scour the likes of Freecycle for second hand hard drives from single women?
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"I've used DBAN successfully before but it does require you to burn a CD.
Your best bet, suitable for your purposes, is to download 'ccleaner' as mentioned above (free program) and in the tools/drive wiper section, use the drop-down menus to select "Entire Drive" and "Very Complex Overwrite (35 times)"
"
CC cleaner cannot wipe the system partition that's currently running. |
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"I agree, a good hacker could recover info from a formatted hard drive, destroy it physically and pass it on, the new owner can get a hard drive for it. "
Out with the drill!
Just as a matter of interest just how many good hackers do you think are trawling freecycle and the like looking for old PC's to hack when they can buy pallet loads of old bank and insurance company computers for little or nothing that have easily accessible data on unencrypted hard-drives?
Not that I know anything about this... 
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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You can't destroy the hard disk unless you know how. Even if you know how you can't be sure that the data is completely gone.
The fact you are asking means you don't know how so don't try. take the Hdd out of the laptop, and give it away without the disk in it. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Simple fact is that if anyone really wanted to get your data back they could. Even hitting or burning it wont help. The only way to be 100% is to use a car magnet or squirt jif into the drive to destroy it.
Assuming most people arent that bothered beyond a cursory check then using data shredding software coupled with a format afterwards should be fine. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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there is no market in reconditioned laptops and pcs, they are being churned out so quickly now we don't have time to blink. keep what you have, destroy if you feel the need and move on to your next purchase. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Darik's Boot And Nuke (DBAN), is the best, CCcleaner is a good alternative ... Taking the drive out and hitting it is also good, but can be fiddly and a bunch of work ... Lots of very, very tiny screws ... |
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In reality, unless someone "really really" wants your data, then they're not going to go to the hassle of trying to recover it. If there is a restore partition or a disk which came with it, then just restore it to factory settings. I'd assume that whoever the new owner is will want windows on it, so this would be the best option. |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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Use format from a bootable cd, like the good old dos days lol format in fat16 then fat32 then ntfs that should suffice unless you are on any security or police watch list! |
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By (user no longer on site)
over a year ago
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"I agree, a good hacker could recover info from a formatted hard drive, destroy it physically and pass it on, the new owner can get a hard drive for it.
Out with the drill!
Just as a matter of interest just how many good hackers do you think are trawling freecycle and the like looking for old PC's to hack when they can buy pallet loads of old bank and insurance company computers for little or nothing that have easily accessible data on unencrypted hard-drives?
Not that I know anything about this...
"
Identity frauds worth billions, as long as there's money involved, people will develop the skills. I have obliterated old hard drives with a big big hammer, then stick it in with your general waste and (unfortunately) landfill it. |
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"I agree, a good hacker could recover info from a formatted hard drive, destroy it physically and pass it on, the new owner can get a hard drive for it.
Out with the drill!
Just as a matter of interest just how many good hackers do you think are trawling freecycle and the like looking for old PC's to hack when they can buy pallet loads of old bank and insurance company computers for little or nothing that have easily accessible data on unencrypted hard-drives?
Not that I know anything about this...
Identity frauds worth billions, as long as there's money involved, people will develop the skills. I have obliterated old hard drives with a big big hammer, then stick it in with your general waste and (unfortunately) landfill it. "
Right...
And there was me thinking that the most common identity theft method was sending spam mail with attachments that have a keystroke recorder and zombie worm embedded in them, or having bent waiters or till operators skim credit cards...
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"Hi you techie peeps. I have got a new laptop and want to "freecycle" my old one, but obviously for security and privacy reasons want to wipe hard drive first. Its an hp compaq with windows 7.... how do I do it?
thanks "
To save you time, trouble and worry about security... keep the PC as a spare.
To satisfy your desire to give something away to someone... send me £20  |
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