hard drive format

J

JlCollins005

New Member
kk everyone has heard it if u format ur hdd, supposedly there are programs that can tell u what was on it or something like that is this true,
 
Formatting methods

Simon@Linux said:
Yep, but how easy or difficult that is depends upon the file system that was used.
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Not only this, it also depends on the method you used to format your hard-drive; a usual format will only 'wipe' once, but organisations like the NSA use the Guttmann method, 'wiping' 35 times using a complex algorithm. This is obviously more secure and pretty much absolutely ensures no data can be re-traced!

Oh, and then EMP (electro-magnetic pulse) the HDD, that should mess it up pretty good!
 
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the best way to render a hd unreadable is to just write a load of 1's and 0's over the whole hd there are programs out there that do this but you will need 2 hd's no one can read anything from it coz its all replaced with 100010010010
so basically its gone
 
I use a little app called data rescue II, and it can recover files you deleted years ago. When you delete a file or format a HD data is not over written, the table of contents is simply wiped out and all the data on the drive is just marked as free space so it can be over written. Now, once the data is over written then it is gone.

Secure formats write zeros to every sector (billions of sectors) to the HD taking a very long time to complete but it will eventually destroy most of the data on your HD. However, some companies have devised technologies that will actually rebuild some of that data, but I do not know much about it, and I know its ungodly expensive.

I have personally recovered data from formatted hard drives and then also pulled up documents that the user had deleted three years previous.

Just think about how long google will have your gmail archived on their caches, lol even after it is deleted!

Oh and if you are trying to destroy data on a HD, drill a hole through the platters, that will destroy the data permanently.
 
tlarkin said:
Oh and if you are trying to destroy data on a HD, drill a hole through the platters, that will destroy the data permanently.
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Hmm, well that depends on who is recovering the data, because secret servieces can recover HDD's that have been blown-up, torn-up and generally screwed up in any way, but they can still get it back.
 
Red Naxelaster said:
Hmm, well that depends on who is recovering the data, because secret servieces can recover HDD's that have been blown-up, torn-up and generally screwed up in any way, but they can still get it back.
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Sometimes. And if you are in that kind of trouble, then you are screwed.
 
Red Naxelaster said:
Hmm, well that depends on who is recovering the data, because secret servieces can recover HDD's that have been blown-up, torn-up and generally screwed up in any way, but they can still get it back.
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yeah I have heard those ghost stories myself, but then again, if I were to melt a platter with some thermite I bought from the hardware store, the data is gone. Unless they can rebuild the platter to its exact previous state molecule by molecule I do not think it is possible.

Either way, i try not to be one of those tin foil hat guys
 
you'd have to be doing something pretty f'ed up before they'd spend that much time trying to bust you.

and at that point, they may as well just monitor your ip traffic and bust you remotely
 
tlarkin said:
Either way, i try not to be one of those tin foil hat guys
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Haha Red Naxelaster, you know your one of them, you password for your user on the school computers last year was 27 characters long, your the most 'Hang Coat Hangers on the ceiling of your room' guy i know :D
 
well i recently formatted a hdd and it had some pics of a friend that died and was wandering if there was ne way of recovering them, on a windows based pc, can ne 1 help
 
JlCollins005 said:
well i recently formatted a hdd and it had some pics of a friend that died and was wandering if there was ne way of recovering them, on a windows based pc, can ne 1 help
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google search data rescue PC, it is a very nice program I use it at work when I need to recover data.

Hope it works out, you can download and run the demo and it allows you to recover a few files, but then you have to buy a license to run the whole thing and recover all the data you want.

it is made by a company called prosoft.
 
if I were to melt a platter with some thermite I bought from the hardware store, the data is gone. Unless they can rebuild the platter to its exact previous state molecule by molecule I do not think it is possible.

Either way, i try not to be one of those tin foil hat guys
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Apparently thermite doesn't destroy enough of the data for the US Air Force so they had commissioned someone to design something that would wipe a drive better. I don't know how much truth there is, as it's was just an article I read a while back.

Tin foil hats are important, but only the design, as everyone knows tin foil amplifies the goverenment mind control rays, you need nickel plated hats :P

Seriously, a standard format is more than enough for just about everyone.
 
cromewell,

good advice on the nickel plated hats, I didn't even realize it made a difference. Now that I have that covered, it is back to zombie proofing my house incase of an uprising of the undead!:eek:
 
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