Do you use Software that Wipes/Sanitizes Hard drives?

[audioicon]

Just curious, I owned a copy of wipe drive and has used it a few times, does anybody else use these kinds of product? Do these things really wipe drives?

I know they work but do these truly erase everything?

 

 

Audioicon

[TimOBrien]

Hardware is cheap and better (more sure!):

 

A 3lb sledgehammer for $8!!!

http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=6748

 

....aint nothin gonna get that data off there after this baby gets through with it....

 

(Seriously, drives are SO cheap now it doesn't pay to risk it. Just trash the drive with a hammer and buy a new one.)

[audioicon]

Hardware is cheap and better (more sure!): A 3lb sledgehammer for $8!!! http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=6748 ....aint nothin gonna get that data off there after this baby gets through with it.... (Seriously, drives are SO cheap now it doesn't pay to risk it. Just trash the drive with a hammer and buy a new one.)

 

 

You just made me laugh .

That is very true but what I wanted to know is this.

I usually use the wipe software when I can't get a virus out or want to clean the drive after few years of use. So I was wondering if it really removed everything.

 

AI

[js1]

Yes, wipe software does work.

 

Sledgehammer might not. Unless you break a drive so that all pieces of the platter are smaller than one sector, it's possible (but clearly not easy) to recover some data in a special lab. Usually a government lab, though.

 

js

[UstadKhanAli]

House fires do wonders for wiping HDs, if that's the issue here!!!

 

If you're just concerned about wiping out a virus and reinstalling everything from scratch, then yes, to the best of my knowledge, this sort of software should work just fine.

[audioicon]

House fires do wonders for wiping HDs, if that's the issue here!!! If you're just concerned about wiping out a virus and reinstalling everything from scratch, then yes, to the best of my knowledge, this sort of software should work just fine.

 

The one I use is called WipeDrive and it has a wipe option on it called DOD or the department of defense it also has many military settings, like the Air Force and so on. According to the company, the Pentagon uses this software to wipe all their computer before giving them to other departments.

 

AI

[UstadKhanAli]

Well, there you go. If the Pentagon, say, wanted to wipe out evidence that our Administration wanted to go to war before 9/11, they'd use the best software they could, wouldn't they?

[rasputin1963]

I've been using wipe software for some years now. I've been using the Gutmann 21-pass algorithm. It will only "wipe" (ie., encrypt, really) the "slack space" currently unused by any active file on your hard-drive. But I don't imagine it will eliminate viruses/trojans/worms/spyware/malware lying active or dormant in your currently active/extant files.

 

Another software I like is called 12 GHOSTS. It is a suite of tools, including one, SHREDDER, which will delete those "stubborn" files that XP and VISTA want to "hold on to". All of us can remember those days of WINDOWS 95 and WINDOWS 98 when the user was free to delete any file on his hard-drive he goddam well pleased. Suddenly, with the advent of XP, WINDOWS had figured out a way to prevent the User from deleting certain files.... even files not directly related to WINDOWS functioning itself. This is the beauty of 12 GHOSTS SHREDDER: it allows you to delete any file you like, in XP or VISTA.

[Anderton]

Okay, you've now turned us on to very cool French electro internet radio stations and software that can circumvent even Microsoft's best efforts. So, like what's your background, anyway?

 

Damn, I gotta get rich real soon so I can fly everyone to an SSS party.

[rasputin1963]

Okay, you've now turned us on to very cool French electro internet radio stations and software that can circumvent even Microsoft's best efforts. So, like what's your background, anyway? Damn, I gotta get rich real soon so I can fly everyone to an SSS party.

 

Ha-ha. Flattered you asked. I'm nobody, really. Just a burnt-out hillbilly from Texas who made music and partied WAY-Y too hard in the 70's, 80's and 90's. Haven't played live at all now for 8 years, which is a bit of a shame, maybe.

 

In the last two or three years I've suddenly been turned-on to the production aspect of recording... and for someone like me who's studied only performance all his life (piano, voice, guitar, trumpet, tuba, synthesis, arranging) it's kinda like being born again into a new world... One reason I talk about Oldies so much here on SSS is, I'm now going back and re-listening to ALL the records I've loved throughout my 44 years. I know all of you will agree that listening to your old favorites with an eye not so much for instant musical pleasure but for listening very closely to things like EQ, reverb and stereo placement, is a "whole 'nother" experience altogether.

 

For one thing, it's making me have a helluva lot of respect for records and artistes and genres I used to dislike. As a kid in 1960's Texas, I used to dread it when my father would, of a weekend, pull out all his old records by folks like Ferlin Husky, George Jones, Bobby Bare, Hank Locklin, Johnny Cash, etc.

I just thought those country records were too corny for words. I was embarrassed of my own Scots-Irish hillbilly roots in Arkansas, Texas, Tennessee, North Carolina. Hell, I was into AM pop, R&B (Philly & Motown mostly), classic rock, and stuff like that.

 

Now I listen to an old record by Johnny Cash like "One Piece At A Time" and I am staggered by just how hip and cool it is--- from a soundman's P.O.V. The pattern of slapback echo has been carefully timed with the tempo of the song (it's one of those C&W "storytelling" songs with a brisk shuffle beat... really, this subgenre might be thought of as Country Rap", ha-ha). the pattern of slapback repeats has been timed as carefully and precisely as anything in a modern Techno/House record.

 

These days, I personally think the 1968 C&W record, "Skip A Rope" by Henson Cargill may just be one of the most perfect pop singles ever made.... not so much for the subject matter... but for the beautiful stereo/arranging job it boasts.

 

A record I used to LOATHE as a teenager--- "Satin Sheets" by Jeanne Pruett... now ranks, again, as one of the most stunning recordings I know of. (When that "Countrypolitan-style, M/F backup vocal choir comes in, Wow! I get chills riveting me to the core of the earth).

 

And all this is due to the fact that I've been able, mainly with CAKEWALK SONAR and peripheral products-- and purely at an amateur level, I must add--- to get a glimpse at my late age into the world of pure sound and how pure sound can be dramatically molded and tweaked... much moreso than I ever would have supposed as a young kid. I never dreamed, for example, as a teen playing in nightclubs, that a record producer and engineer are as much responsible for an artiste's success as the artiste himself--- because they control the artiste's very sound!!! I only had the dimmest awareness that every good music star has to have a "sonic signature" as well as the other things, like good songs, adequate chops and cool hair and clothes.

 

This forum is a great educative tool for me... I profit from so many of the discussions going on here, and am so thrilled by the erudition and wisdom you guys have so gladly shared here.

 

Anyhoo, enough about me--- back to the thread!

[MikeRivers]

Wipe hard drives? Hell, I don't even own a shredder to shred those half dozen weekly invitations to get a credit card (though I have about 20 years of back tax returns in the attic).

 

When I retired from my Government job, on my last day in the office, I used one of those "DOD quality" drive wiping programs to clean up the hard drive on the computer on my desk and told the IT guy what I'd done and that he'd have to re-install all the software for the next user. I explained that I didn't want to risk leaving something behind from my project that shouldn't be spread around. Actual reason was that I used the computer for some of my personal work and didn't want to leave obvious traces of that. Sure, there might be something on a network backup somewhere, but I'm cautious, not paranoid.

 

If someone stole my laptop computer, it wouldn't be hard for them to send themselves checks from my bank account with a little password hacking, but that's about as paranoid as I get.

 

Normally, wiping out my disk drive is the last thing I'd ever want to do. I'm comfortable with what's there, I'm not uncomfortable with what's there, and by the time my computers get old enough so that even I would want to replace them, nobocy would want them anyway. But if I did sell a computer, I'd probably simply reformat the drive, install a fresh copy of Windows, and hope I was selling it to someone dumber than me.

[slight-return]

 

Do these things really wipe drives? I know they work but do these truly erase everything?

 

 

Im not familiar with that particular product - is it a full drive wiper?

 

full drive wipers tha non-selectively overwrite the entire drive on a sub-FS basis do a very good job.

(Note : while the DoD milspec -- when I was in the game is was 55220 though its been, crap!, half a decade!! -- require multiple overwrites for a SW only wipe, to be honest - after the first overwrite, recovery of that data becomes a whole different ballgame - not impossible, but a lot damn harder)

 

 

As he guys mentione above, unless the internal media is fully compromised, I wouldn't trust simple mechanical measures - it's just such a crapshoot (at Ontrack serverely punished drives were recovered regularly )

 

 

subjecting the mag media of heavy degaussing is also an option, but again, you want to overwrite first - I think current milspec actually requires such

[Jon Doe]

You just made me laugh . That is very true but what I wanted to know is this. I usually use the wipe software when I can't get a virus out or want to clean the drive after few years of use. So I was wondering if it really removed everything. AI

 

For this situation, deleting the partitions on the drive, creating new ones, and reformatting it will probably suffice, and will likely be quicker. This can be done with the XP setup disk, XP Disk Manager tool in windows, Recovery Console, or a linux boot disk. I recommend using the original XP setup disk as tranfer of malicious code is pre-empted.

 

Of course, If the information on the drive is of a sensitive nature I recommend dismantling the drive and destroying the platters which is accomplished by removing/destroying their magnetic layer. After all, at the price of drives these days, the attempted re-use of them isn't prudent.

[rasputin1963]

Cool, Lakisha, thanks for setting me straight on that...

[seclusion]

Man I just unhook all my data drives reboot into the OS boot CD. Format from there. So the format doesn't get rid of virus's? Never had any issues from that! Mind you I've never not been able to get rid of a virus after a couple of updates!

Later

[audioicon]

 

Im not familiar with that particular product - is it a full drive wiper? full drive wipers tha non-selectively overwrite the entire drive on a sub-FS basis do a very good job. (Note : while the DoD milspec -- when I was in the game is was 55220 though its been, crap!, half a decade!! -- require multiple overwrites for a SW only wipe, to be honest - after the first overwrite, recovery of that data becomes a whole different ballgame - not impossible, but a lot damn harder) As he guys mentione above, unless the internal media is fully compromised, I wouldn't trust simple mechanical measures - it's just such a crapshoot (at Ontrack serverely punished drives were recovered regularly ) subjecting the mag media of heavy degaussing is also an option, but again, you want to overwrite first - I think current milspec actually requires such

 

 

I have successfully use this program many times. Here is the software I'm talking about. http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php

 

Just put it in the computer and reboot and it automatically takes over, all you do is chose the wipe options you want and it starts to work.

 

AI

[audioicon]

 

For this situation, deleting the partitions on the drive, creating new ones, and reformatting it will probably suffice, and will likely be quicker. This can be done with the XP setup disk, XP Disk Manager tool in windows, Recovery Console, or a linux boot disk. I recommend using the original XP setup disk as tranfer of malicious code is pre-empted. Of course, If the information on the drive is of a sensitive nature I recommend dismantling the drive and destroying the platters which is accomplished by removing/destroying their magnetic layer. After all, at the price of drives these days, the attempted re-use of them isn't prudent.

 

 

This is my brand new story, I started working on a three years old computer of a friend of mine. It's a HP, now the computer is very slow and crashes a lot even when you are working with smaller applications.

I researched the reformatting a hard drive does not wipe every thing off it.

 

Sine the computer had no security/Anti Virus/Spy ware etc. I decided to wipe the drive and then re-installed the operating system/drivers.

I inserted the wipedrive software, rebooted the computer and began the wipe process. The computer then froze. I tried again, it froze after 10% of the wipe process. According to the wipe software, if a drive freezes when wiping, the drive maybe "damage or is failing" and may not have long to live.

 

So I inserted windows backup and tried to re-format/go to the recovery console but the computer kept freezing.

 

I'm suspecting that the drive maybe damage but heres my problem. The computer was working before I started the wipe process but it crashed a lot and was very slow.

 

Should I buy a new hard drive? Is there another way to repair this drive?

 

Another thing, a new hard drive for this computer cost $599.00 from HP but outside vendors are selling it for about 80.00 this is because the outside versions has no enclosure and the drive in the computer from HP seem designed with screws to hold the drive in the computer. I'm confused.

 

This is the drive specs.

 

Make: Hitachi

Drive Name: Travelstar

Model# IC25N060ATMR04

Part# 08K0863

 

Just for kicks this is the laptop model HP Ze4800

 

Thanks guys!

 

Audioicon:thu:

[audioicon]

 

Wipe hard drives? Hell, I don't even own a shredder to shred those half dozen weekly invitations to get a credit card (though I have about 20 years of back tax returns in the attic). When I retired from my Government job, on my last day in the office, I used one of those "DOD quality" drive wiping programs to clean up the hard drive on the computer on my desk and told the IT guy what I'd done and that he'd have to re-install all the software for the next user. I explained that I didn't want to risk leaving something behind from my project that shouldn't be spread around. Actual reason was that I used the computer for some of my personal work and didn't want to leave obvious traces of that. Sure, there might be something on a network backup somewhere, but I'm cautious, not paranoid. If someone stole my laptop computer, it wouldn't be hard for them to send themselves checks from my bank account with a little password hacking, but that's about as paranoid as I get. Normally, wiping out my disk drive is the last thing I'd ever want to do. I'm comfortable with what's there, I'm not uncomfortable with what's there, and by the time my computers get old enough so that even I would want to replace them, nobocy would want them anyway. But if I did sell a computer, I'd probably simply reformat the drive, install a fresh copy of Windows, and hope I was selling it to someone dumber than me.

 

 

Mike this process for me is rather cleaning the hiding. I like to use the software because it appears to wipe everything clean, including viruses and the re-installed all my programs!

 

Anyway, here a read for you, enjoy http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,110012-page,1/article.html

 

AI

[slight-return]

 

I have successfully use this program many times. Here is the software I'm talking about. http://www.whitecanyon.com/wipedrive-erase-hard-drive.php Just put it in the computer and reboot and it automatically takes over, all you do is chose the wipe options you want and it starts to work. AI

 

 

sadly, not familiar with it (I mean beyond ad copy - Id really have to audit its operation to be familiar with it. Basics of checking out the soft recovery potential with a sector editor I could still do, as for some of the more esoteric stuff...I don't have access to those sort of resources anymore -- I mustered out half a decade ago)

[alphajerk]

um, just take out the screws from the original HDD and put them in the new one for the tool-less design they have going. its all standard {censored}.

[audioicon]

 

um, just take out the screws from the original HDD and put them in the new one for the tool-less design they have going. its all standard {censored}.

 

 

Thanks Alpha, I did call Hitachi, wow! Great support/service and they explained the same thing to me. I will be purchasing the drive from them or their recommended vendor, remove the screws and put that one in.

 

Thanks.

 

AI

[Jimbroni]

A little trick an IT dude showed me once. If you have those stubborn viruses that don't go away after a format, they have tainted the master boot record of the drive. To rescue the drive, format it several times but each time go into the BIOS and change the drive type. Turn off auto detect and just select random drive types, then format. Do this 3 or 4 times. Then at the dos prompt type fdisk /mbr. This wipes the master boot record. Now go into and select the appropriate drive type, or see if auto detect get its right. It might not after all the hell you just put it through. Then fdisk again to re-partition the drive, then format to appropriate specs of the drive. And you will have a hard drive that wiped clean like you just purchased it. He called it french frying the drive. NO software required, just a little elbow grease as my mom says.

 

All that may not be necessary. You could try fdisk /mbr then repartition and format first. If that don't work then try the multiple format thingy I just described.

[audioicon]

 

A little trick an IT dude showed me once. If you have those stubborn viruses that don't go away after a format, they have tainted the master boot record of the drive. To rescue the drive, format it several times but each time go into the BIOS and change the drive type. Turn off auto detect and just select random drive types, then format. Do this 3 or 4 times. Then at the dos prompt type fdisk /mbr. This wipes the master boot record. Now go into and select the appropriate drive type, or see if auto detect get its right. It might not after all the hell you just put it through. Then fdisk again to re-partition the drive, then format to appropriate specs of the drive. And you will have a hard drive that wiped clean like you just purchased it. He called it french frying the drive. NO software required, just a little elbow grease as my mom says. All that may not be necessary. You could try fdisk /mbr then repartition and format first. If that don't work then try the multiple format thingy I just described.

 

 

Here's another problem, the computer is not even detecting the drive and the drive has started to make really loud clicking/knocking noise like someone has a hammer in there.

 

I just bought a new drive, will be replacing it but still want to know what the hell that noise means.

 

AI

[Pope on a Rope]

 

Here's another problem, the computer is not even detecting the drive and the drive has started to make really loud clicking/knocking noise like someone has a hammer in there. I just bought a new drive, will be replacing it but still want to know what the hell that noise means. AI

 

 

It means drive is junk.

[alphajerk]

its might be the latching mechanism that keeps the HDD from being damaged when in transit [not powered on] if its just a clunk, tap the drive lightly with a screwdriver handle and it should release [i said lightly]. when powered on the arm has to release from the magnet that holds it in place... which could be the other end of the problem, the magnet didnt hold the arm in place and it has ruined the platter/mechanism, or said mechanism is just heading towards failure.... about the only way to recover data at that point is to literally freeze the drive. hopefully you are backed up and dont need to do that... you have to leave it in the freezer for 24 hours and sometimes run a cable into the freezer while recovering the data.