Anyway to erase EVERYTHING?

[2048Megabytes]

If I ran Zilla Data Nuker with three full passes writing over the hard drive and wanted to sell it to a complete stranger I would not feel uneasy about it.

The Federal government may have tools that citizens don't have, but very likely no civilians have the tools to get data that has been overwritten three times on a hard drive.

 

[larsch]

As far as I know, if you want to software wipe (I mean the FBI or CIA is coming) WELL, you need to wipe the entire drive, and you need to wipe it at least several times using multiple passes. Wiping once (such as your format) with all zeroes -- I wouldn't trust whatsoever if the SHTF.

Nobody has yet given a proof of concept that recovery after a single overwrite is possible.

Formatting a hard drive does not write zeros to the drive. It simply marks the written on space as free to write on to the operating system. You can format a hard drive 25 times and the data is still going to be there until it is overwritten by something else.

That depends. Microsoft changed how full format works in Vista.

 

[2048Megabytes]

That depends. Microsoft changed how full format works in Vista.

I do not think you are implying that Vista or Windows 7 fills a hard drive with zeros after a format. Neither does that when doing a format.

 

[larsch]

I did. You can verify it, if you try it. Microsoft also has a kb about it somewhere.

 

[Geoff]

Microsoft does not write over the data with zeros, it formats the drive in seconds. It takes a significant amount of time, 30 minutes+ depending on the hard drive for a one pass zero write.

 

[larsch]

I am talking about "full format". It writes zeroes.

 

[Mishkin]

This thread is actually pretty interesting. I'll give a rundown of what to me would be the best way to make HDD data unrecoverable:

1. Software wipe the drive, multiple passes, blah blah.

2. Take the largest magnet I could buy at a reasonable price and duct tape the sucker to the HDD for a few hours.

3. Take off the casing and burn the platters (and all) thoroughly, with gasoline.

4. Smash the burnt remains into little pieces with a hammer.

5. Take the burnt, crumbly pieces and divide them up into several piles.

6. Bury each pile in different locations, along with a smaller magnet for each group.

7. Have a beer.

Obviously the above is way overboard, but I'm assuming no technology on Earth would be able to recover any data, even if they found it.

 

[StrangleHold]

I am talking about "full format". It writes zeroes.

With Windows, the only difference in a full and quick format is, a full checks the drive for disk errors. Quick does not. The format itself is the same.

 

[larsch]

With Windows, the only difference in a full and quick format is, a full checks the drive for disk errors. Quick does not. The format itself is the same.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941961

"The format command behavior has changed in Windows Vista. By default in Windows Vista, the format command writes zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed."

 

[StrangleHold]

I'm talking about when you boot to do a install, when you pick the partition size and format, it does not write 0 to the drive.

 

[2048Megabytes]

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/941961

"The format command behavior has changed in Windows Vista. By default in Windows Vista, the format command writes zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed."

How interesting. You learn something new everyday.

 

[larsch]

I'm talking about when you boot to do a install, when you pick the partition size and format, it does not write 0 to the drive.

Well, you did mention quick vs full

 

[StrangleHold]

Well he never said he installed Vista or 7. XP gives you both options and qiuck or full does not write 0s. Full just checks for disk errors.

 

[larsch]

Sure, but in my first post I said the zeroes began with Vista