Wiping my HDD without risk of Recovery

S0litaire

I use a Linux program "dcfldd" it's for the option to use a text string rather than random data or zeros.

I usually use a rude message and overwrite the entire drive a few times...

So if someone does try to recover it, they are usually left with a Chuck of text telling them to "f#&k off, stop being nosy" lol.

AndyCF

S0litaire wrote: »

I use a Linux program "dcfldd" it's for the option to use a text string rather than random data or zeros.

I usually use a rude message and overwrite the entire drive a few times...

So if someone does try to recover it, they are usually left with a Chuck of text telling them to "f#&k off, stop being nosy" lol.

ah DD I'd forgotten about that.

tronator

JJ_Egan wrote: »

<erases data by wiping its contents beyond recovery>

Not true and the write up posted is misleading .
Forensic recovery can be used .

Do you have any links with real life examples where someone recovered wiped/overwritten data?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_recovery#Overwritten_data

"... there is no practical evidence that overwritten data can be recovered, while research has shown to support that overwritten data cannot be recovered."

googler

Take the HDD out and keep it. Sell the PC without it.

henm2

DBAN works for me. Just boot it off a flash drive.

were

tronator wrote: »

Do you have any links with real life examples where someone recovered wiped/overwritten data? ;

Another vote for dban. Killdisk works too.

Years ago we had a contract and we had seagate st225 - 20 whole meg of storage. These were nasty and unreliable drives, and this range apparently help kill off Amstrad too.

We used to format the disk and put the back into service. A few weeks later some documents could appear, or half a document dissapear and a new half of the previous owners document appear. In some cases the new owners knew the owner of the previous disk. In once case senior staff reviews which were confidential came to light.

Granted the were not totally erased as in binary patterns as deban etc, but formatting and reinstalling software is not the way to go.

henm2

Formatting has never been a secure way of doing things. Wiping sectors of a drive using the likes of DBAN is the way to go.

tronator

were wrote: »

We used to format the disk and put the back into service. A few weeks later some documents could appear, ...

As you said further down, formatting is not wiping or overwriting.

I use good old dd to write one pass of zeroes to a hard disk (not SSD).

For SSDs one should use the secure erase command. If you trust this article, a format with NTFS in Windows 7 or ext4 or xfs with current versions of mke2fs and xfsprogs should be sufficient.

Silvester89

There are several.programs that should be sufficient for what you need and they all generally work the same. When you delete a file, it's not fully deleted at first. The space is just saved until you need it for something else. All these applications do is overwrite thay data with random data overwriting your own deleted data.