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Want to Sell Reminder: Properly Wipe Storage Devices Before Selling

SKYMTL

HardwareCanuck Review Editor
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Joined
Feb 26, 2007
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12,840
Location
Montreal
This is just a friendly reminder to everyone here on the BST forum to make sure to PROPERLY erase all of the data on ANY storage device before selling it. Trust me, you don't want those previously private videos of you and the wife showing up on the 'net let alone any personal / financial details.

Formatting a drive only does so much as anyone with an hour on their hands can restore much of the data from a formatted drive.

There are a couple of utilities I am going to recommend:

Heidi Eraser

and

Darik's Boot and Nuke


Both should offer you options for erasing your data before a sale. If you have other suggestions, please don't hesitate to post them up here.

However, if you are an exhibitionalist who doesn't mind your private vids / pics in someone else's hands, be my guest and sell away. :bleh:
 

_dangtx_

Banned
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
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12,682
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mtl
the one on ubcd seems to do a better wipe..they say. i like boot and nuke too.
 

_dangtx_

Banned
Joined
Aug 4, 2007
Messages
12,682
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mtl
nope. you can recover stuff. unless its properly erased. then the guy would have to use a very expensive machine to get ure pron pics back..not worth it :D
 

lowfat

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Feb 12, 2007
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12,817
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Grande Prairie, AB
No. Tools that zero the drive can't access bad sectors or blocks. AFAIK HDDerase is the only tool that can erase on a firmware level.
 

lowfat

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Staff member
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Feb 12, 2007
Messages
12,817
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Grande Prairie, AB
Well with SSD's, HDDerase erases the cells on the drive. So not only is it a good 100x faster as it doesn't need to write anything. It should also be nearly impossible to grab data off the cells.
 

Skyllz

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 19, 2008
Messages
789
Location
Ottawa
The real question is... who bought what from who and what was on there? :rofl:
 

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