Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

I was just wondering what everyone else does when they are upgrading their computers and laptops, do you sell your old equipment ?

The thing that bothers me a bit is you hear about all these computer geeks that can retrieve lots of information of your hard drive like passwords and banking details etc, does this mean that its not adviseable to sell an old computer or laptop because of the possibilty of someone retrieving all your information from your hard drive ?

I was just wondering how all these sellers on ebay get round it because you see loads of pc`s and laptops on there that are a couple of years old, to me it seems like a massive risk.

Klaatu

I'd suggest you use a disk wiping utility to completely remove all data on the drive before you part with it. Obviously, state that on eBay, but show it running to potential buyers when they come to view.

gazza-uk

low level it

then reinstall os - for the buyer to see.

Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

Do you know of any, a link would be good ?

From watching a tv programme it said that no matter what the average person did an expert will still be able to recover data from off your drive, police use it against people downloading child **** etc to recover the url addresses and other data stored on their pc`s.

So the question for me is, can a hard drive be completely wiped with no traces left and is their any software out there to do this ?

mrtheedge2u2

simply wipe your hard drive and reinstall the OS.

OllyK

Do a google for Eraser, it's free. Do a clean boot to a DOS disk and then wipe from the command prompt, 7 times wiping is the default, but go for more if you like. Expect to leave it running for a while.

Next re-install an OS and choose normal format rather than quick.

Unless the buyer has access to a forensic lab, they won't be getting anything off that and even then they may struggle. A quick format doesn't actually wipe the disc and if you get hold of some undelete utilities they can recover data, the page file is also a favourite place to look for stuff, hence the clean boot wipe.

mike1210

another one to have a browse at

SourceForge.net: Downloading ...

its an image file that you would need to burn to CD with your burning app of choice, nero etc. Then boot from CD and follow instructions

Borat_Drives_A_Scooby

Ive downloaded Eraser586, is this something you use just before you are about to do a fresh install of windows or is it something you put on your system at any point and you use it as and when ?

You have lost me with that one Olly, i`m just a novice with pc`s. Whats a boot to a DOS disk and the command prompt part etc ?

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

Why not remove the hard drive and put it in an external enclosure - then you have access to all your old data on your new PC as well as eliminating the risk.

SJ_Skyline

I run machines into the ground, copy data across to the new machine and then destroy the old hard drive and take the main chassis for recycling. When I say destroy the hard drive - I take a claw hammer to it and dont stop until it's in pieces. Maybe a bit extreme but there's no way you're getting any data from it (and it's strangely theraputic smashing something up...).

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

OllyK

Both. It installs on windows so you can "wipe" individual files and or free space that may have once contained files. If you look at the option on the start menu that it creates on install, one option is "Create Nuke Boot disk", this shoudl walk you through what you need to do to create the disk.


Once you have the boot disk as described above, reboot your PC and it should start from the disk / cd you've created. If not you may need to go in to the BIOS and change the first boot device of your PC.

Brendan Hughes

BuRR asks you to send it to him

_Meridian_

iTrader: (1)

If someone if sufficiently interested in the original contents of your HDD, and has enough money, then NOTHING will stop them except heating the platters above the curie temperature of the magnetic surface. The FBI have recovered data from smashed platters, and software erasers are even less secure. But for the purposes of stopping the average geek, low-level formatting is probably enough. Making a few alterations to the partition table along the way will help as well.


M

suprabeast

id do as the others say. buy another 2.5" HDD and swap it over. take your one out of the pc and keep it.

Hard disks are so cheap these days

speedking

Does defragging delete the information that it moves files 'on top of' to compact the used space?

OllyK

It overwrites the information, which is what a wipe tool does (7 or more times in many cases). However, IIRC the magnetic resonance is such that with the right tools it can still be read. I see interesting potential for hard drives with infinite storgae capacity

flashgordon666

Defragging just replaces files so there more easier to locate so your pc is faster. It does nothing.

you need to format the HD which means it uses a magnet in the hd to wipe your HD back to 0 and 1's.

To do this you need a bootup disc and/or your windows disc.

Theres a couple ways of doing it. I think when i do it I put the disc in and it will come up with a black screen with white writing. Read it and head to format. Should take about an hour or 2 to format.

If you aint got a disc you can make one, in control panel in a icon but i cant remmeber which one right now.

Manni

Install a new hard drive,reinstall the OS, keep the old one for yourself,put it in a USB cradle and use it for backups is the only way to be sure.

OllyK

No, no, no, the only way to be sure is to nuke it from orbit

speedking

You misunderstand. Defragging writes separated parts of files so that they are together to reduce head travel. Therefore the data 'underneath' where the file is moved to will be overwritten. I am not proposing a defrag as a way of killing all data, just that defragging probably makes a lot of deleted files very difficult to recover / impossible to recover without specialist equipment. Of course, which ones get overwritten is random.

jods

Yeap yep yep - Selling a PC to a family down the road without clearing all the "Ahem" interesting website addresses on it has some unexpected comeback.

AndyC_772

iTrader: (2)

FWIW, I believe one way in which hard discs containing secret information are destroyed is to chop them in half with a bandsaw and dissolve the parts in acid. That might be a bit extreme depending on how worried you are about people finding out what's on it though!

So, to summarise, your options in terms of preserving data security are:
1) Nuke
2) Saw / acid
3) Keep it yourself and use it in your new PC
4) Multi-pass repeated erase software - I believe 7 passes writing arbitrary data is reckoned to be 'forensic safe', beyond recovery even with specialist equipment
5) Low-level format - probably your best option IMHO, Nobody's going to spend more on forensic data recovery than they reckon they could scam from your credit card.
6) Defrag - waste of time IMHO. If you delete all the files from the drive and then defrag, it won't actually write anything to the disc at all!
7) Quick format - easily recovered with simple commercial tools. Not safe.

Klaatu

Most people have covered off the subject well, although some people are a little confused about fragmentation. If you really are that paranoid, then replace the drive and reinstall. A low level, or factory format, and reinstall will usually suffice. If you do want to destroy the drive find someone with an industrial shredder, nothing will be retrieved after that.