Wiping Mechanical Hard Drives

[_dangtx_]

i use hdtune a lot, so after saving me data i load up gutman,followed by dod,and then another gutman.

das question is, for those that use hdtune or any other app that gives you the choice, do you chose to verify as well? (increases wait times quite a bit)

edit :

 

[LarkStarr]

what drug dealings do you do that you need to wipe your mechanical disk THAT much?

 

[_dangtx_]

what drug dealings do you do that you need to wipe your mechanical disk THAT much?

(un)fortunately none.

just the occasional bank acct info on there just in case the wipe doesnt take the first time

 

[LarkStarr]

I'm 99.99% sure sure 7 passes will catch at least 50% of your back info, never mind 35.

 

[_dangtx_]

you think so?

besides very expensive machinery, if some kid decides to wiz up and read what your bank info was on there...

im guessing gutman,dod,gutman should prevent that from happening..right?

*should pm ak about the q if he dont post

 

[PerryC]

Chances are, after 7 passes the average kid isn't going to be able to pull anything of that drive. Serious equipment might be able to get something worthwhile off the drive...but then thats something the average kid probably wouldn't have.

 

[Dazmode]

3 passes is enough, after 7 you need really expensive equipment to get your data, so this mostly commonly used for sanitizing routines. You also can Gauss or shred drives.

 

[frontier204]

Well if we're at this level of paranoid, recall that these software wipes will not work on any remapped sectors of the drive (because those sectors no longer exist according to the software).
Some kiddie with access to a clean room and a way to swap platters can theoretically pull data off old "bad" sectors. Maybe someone can chime in if the HDD's internal secure erase deals with this? Probably not...

I don't use verify unless I'm doing the HDD wipe as a stress test and want to use the drive again.

 

[Squeetard]

The US government spec for wiping drives is 8 passes. Zero's then ones with the last pass being random zero's and ones.
I say you are being overly paranoid with that even. If someone wants to go through the immense expense and trouble to get my old data, they can have it. What's the worse that can happen? They get your banking info, you phone your bank and have the fraudulent charges reversed.

Try changing you banking password every time you toss and old drive. Done.

 

[LarkStarr]

remapped sectors have to actually contain the data, and then a usable amount of said data. the chances of that are quite slim.