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Thread: Formatting box before disposal

  1. #1
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    Formatting box before disposal

    hey guys

    we are getting rid of an old Compaq Alpha 4100 running tru64 unix. Before getting rid of it we wanted to do some sort of formatting so that the data would be erased. What do you recommend?

  2. #2
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    there are many good one.

    here is one for example..

    http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/

  3. #3
    Also remember that it is more or less impossible to completely, irreversibly delete everything off of your hard drive. If you had any confidential business-critical files stored on that hard drive, that should be a concern. Our policy here is that we destroy all hard drives when we give away computers.

  4. #4
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    Does this tool work with UNIX.

    Q: "Which operating systems does Eraser support?"

    A: Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4.0, 2000 and XP (all versions, with or without service packs). Eraser has not been tested on other platforms.

  5. #5
    Just a Virtualized Geek MrLinus's Avatar
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    Perhaps this might be helpful: Active@Kill Disk
    Goodbye, Mittens (1992-2008). My pillow will be cold without your purring beside my head
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  6. #6

    ------best way to format a box you will not use any more-----

    if the data is really valuable... you could always take a hammer to the harddrive.... then leave it in a magnitized box..... there will still be fragments of data on the disk but i dout that anybody will want to try to put it back together... unless the FBI's forensics team is up for he challenge

    just a thought

  7. #7
    All the Certs! 11001001's Avatar
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    One that I've found works well is Iolo's DriveScrubber

    http://www.iolo.com/ds/story.cfm?story=25

    They offer a free trial download that you can use to make a bootable wipe floppy diskette with.
    It also has DoD 5220.22 compliant wiping capabilities (will overwrite disk w/random binary 7 or greater times)

    I've found it can be slow going on older drives: wipe speed depends on speed of HDD, not size of HDD

    /EDIT: I forgot to mention it runs on most OSs:
    Any drive, any format, any file system, any time!
    DriveScrubber itself merely requires an X86 compatible processor to run (that's anything that can run a DOS operating system, from 286's on). A Windows-based bootable diskette builder (an evaluation of which is available for download) is used to easily create a floppy disk which contains its own proprietary operating system that can be run on any X86 machine by simply inserting the specially created floppy and rebooting the machine to start DriveScrubber. Once DriveScrubber is started, any floppy or hard disk can be wiped, including:

    IDE, EIDE, SCSI, or floppy drives

    FAT16, FAT32, NTFS, Mac, Linux, Unix, and Sun, file formats

    Any operating system:

    Windows 3.1, 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, etc...

    Any version of DOS

    Any version of Mac OS

    Any version of Linux or Unix

    Anything else!
    Above ground, vertical, and exchanging gasses.
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  8. #8
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    the last harddisk i destoryed had some stuff i did want others getting (crypto keys, finacial stuff, as well as some technical stuff) so I decided to destroy it with a hammer, was actually really good fun smashing all the disks up, I drilled them out as well as i felt that if material wasnt there then it would be allot harder to recover, (the disk was knakered so i decided to experiment i would usually keep them otherwise)

    there wasnt allot of need for this in fairness probably just my destructive nature but i enjoyed myself....

    you could kill it by putting it in a microwave for a bit, but i doubt your mum will be to impressed....

    it sounds very much like you wish to sell the box so total destruction isnt an option, so i suggest some of the software methods suggested above.

    I think i remember ninil saying that it was common practice in military/ goverment computers to overwrite the disk 7 times with random 1 and 0, you could easily create a C program to do this.

    i2c

  9. #9
    AO Guinness Monster MURACU's Avatar
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    It depends on how sensitive the information on the machine was. In any case I would probably reinstall a different os on it. If it was installed with linux I would install windows and vice versa. If it was a sensitive machine I would repeat the process of creating and formating the partions a couple of times. each time with a different partion size. Not sure if that make much difference but i would do it anyway.
    As mentioned above the only way to be a 100% safe is to destroy the disks.
    \"America is the only country that went from barbarism to decadence without civilization in between.\"
    \"The reason we are so pleased to find other people\'s secrets is that it distracts public attention from our own.\"
    Oscar Wilde(1854-1900)

  10. #10
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    You need a BFM

    Big Freaking Magnet.



    Large subwoofers are an easy source of BFM's.

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