Discussion Forums > Technology
Looking for hardisk format software
daveLovesIt:
You're right about the rubber hose. Suppose they are looking for critical terrorist data, I imagine the nukes would go off long before they broke keys or scraped the right bits off the disk surface. Its much easier just to beat someone on the head with the corner of their hard disk whilst shouting "What is your passphrase!?" =)
I absolutely believe you are right about the expensive processes being reserved in cases where the disk owner is deceased. And we are essentially talking almost exclusively about known/suspected terrorists. I doubt even a tiny portion of criminals manage to be diligent about data-hiding and erasure 100% of the time anyway.
--- Quote ---Thermite may be cheap, but the drive isn't.
--- End quote ---
Well, I wasn't suggesting it as a general method of erasing files, just better than kilns and hammers and way more fun. Of course, melting your disks to slag is a pretty suspicious act in and of itself, unless you work for the military or something. Normal people going to extreme lengths to destroy data is likely to attract investigation even when there wasn't one to begin with. But they'll just monitor you and try to catch you red-handed doing something you shouldn't be.
Meomix:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1bUyp00RvTw
bork:
It just happens that my wife and I work ceramics so we have a both a standard electric kiln and a raku kiln so for me it just fun putting the drive in the raku kiln and turning the burner to high and watch the different colors the flames take as it melts down.
The main point I want to make is that even if you do wipe it with a software program, the OS still tends to squirrel things into that drive that still remain after it is wiped. Depending on what you used it for will determine its fate when it comes to its end of its life. Mine go to the flame Gods. A small amount of paranoia is healthy but being obsessive about it may need a doctors attention.
Meomix:
And up we go.
datora:
.
You didn't specify the environment you're interested in. Linux? Windows? Mac? BSD ..?
If you have a disk in under one OS, delete tha sensitive stuff, defrag, then write zeros to it then install a different OS on it with a different formatting (i.e. if it used to be NTFS, format w/ new OS under FAT 32, write zeros again across the free space). Someone will have to know that the disk used to have the data on it of interest, and they aren't gonna find much.
Speaking of which, remove the drive and use utilities from one OS to wipe a drive with data from another (i.e use linux from one computer to re-format then wipe a windows drive from another computer). That'll be jolly fun to attempt a recover from. Holy Mossad with a toothpick might stand a chance.
And, you should be using Trucrypt, anyway. If your sensitive data is in a Trucrypt 'virtual drive' and you then write zeros across the drive, anything recovered is gonna look like it was random-written with seven passes. We're back to a fun weekend retreat with Jack Bauer again for anything useful to be possibly recovered.
So, this topic kind of is about before today and what might be on drives you used before Trucrypt ... sledge hammer & incineration is the fastest method. And, after today, when you are using Trucrypt. I mean, you wanna be all serious and stuff, then you're serious enough to think ahead and prepare beforehand.
Part of this topic seems to be about that you're worried about data on a drive, but not so worried that you still want to use the drive or recover money for it. I'd say that data isn't really all that troublesome to you. If it is, then sledge hammer & blow torch .. that'll take five minutes. Make sure the platters are seriously warped and melted. All the data wipe algorithms take hours for true military intelligence level wipes.
Different methods are useful under different time constraints. Are you interested in some sort of magical insta-wipe ..? Doesn't exist. Not for the level you're talking about here. Well, unless you have a military-grade degausser in your desk drawer. And the kiln out back is already hot, but I don't think you can run in front of the ATF fast enough to pull that off.
I "knew a guy" who had his computer setup to run scripts that would wipe his hard drive if someone attempted unauthorized access. So, police come through his door one night and he's busy attempting to force an unauthorized access on his system to initiate the wipe. Which they catch him at, as he is doing it.
So, now he's told them that there is important data on the system he doesn't want them to have, more important than a couple ounces of dope and a unregistered weapons in the house. They pull the plug on the system and and send it off for very special examination now that they know it's so important to him. And, he gets charged and convicted for tampering with evidence. something like three to five years in addition to the other charges.
Restoration has a random write plus multi-pass utility for shredding empty space. You can run it off a floppy drive.
You might also want to spend some time at Above Top Secret. That place will have hundreds of recommendations.
Be prepared: burn your sensitive data to DVDs and place them in a magnesium-lined steel box. Death Note has a good training video on that.
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