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Thread: Low level format

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  1. #1
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    Low level format

    I am trying to get a list of the best low level DoD standard format tools... I wanna try them then run helix and other data recovery programs to find out what one is the best... Who wants to help?

  2. #2
    Gonzo District BOFH westin's Avatar
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    IBM/Lenovo recommends a tool called Secure Data Disposal... I have never used it, but you can find it at:

    http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/si...docid=TVAN-SDD

    Cheers!
    Westin
    \"Those of us that had been up all night were in no mood for coffee and donuts, we wanted strong drink.\"

    -HST

  3. #3
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Well, you can't do a low level format with a modern hard drive, and formatting does not overwrite your data unless you do a full one in Vista, which I believe overwrites with one pass of zeros.

    You might like to try this tool:

    http://www.heidi.ie/eraser/

  4. #4
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    I didn't know you couldn't do a low level format on newer drives... That seems strange to me, but now that I think of it I never did one on a newer machine. I have been playing around with it in class but only on older P3 dells. But I am going to look into it some more.

  5. #5
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Basically you are warned not to, or you might trash your HDD if you use an inappropriate tool.

    Wikipedia:

    Low-level formatting (LLF) of hard disks

    User instigated low-level formatting (LLF) of hard disks was common in the 1980s. Typically this involved setting up the MFM pattern on the disk, so that sectors of bytes could be successfully written to it. With the advent of RLL encoding, low-level formatting grew increasingly uncommon, and most modern hard disks are embedded systems, which are low-level formatted at the factory with the physical geometry dimensions and thus not subject to user intervention.
    EDIT:

    Please check this link. Whilst there are tools that might be described a "low level format" they actually are not in the traditional sense.

    http://www.ariolic.com/activesmart/l...el-format.html
    Last edited by nihil; April 5th, 2008 at 04:29 PM.

  6. #6
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    I don't know about low level formating but, I use this: http://dban.sourceforge.net/ tool when I am recycling a hard drive. It is a boot disk that allows several options for wiping a hard disk.

  7. #7
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    "dban" is "Darik's Boot and Nuke". It is very good for wiping a whole drive but not if you just want individual files and folders. It is actually packaged with the "eraser" application I linked to.

  8. #8
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    There is a utility built into Windows that will do this for you. Check out the Cipher utility. It writes over the chosen directory 3 times. You'll want to delete anything on the directory that you want to write over.

    http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx/kb/315672

  9. #9
    Senior Member t34b4g5's Avatar
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    i've used cipher on numerous occasions, especially when your working on a system that does not have internet access or if hardware has been locked down.
    Instead of mucking around enabling optical drives etc you can just go straight into a Dos Prompt type a few commands and it's taken care off.

    Off course disabling system restore and doing a restart and turning of paging comes in handy.

  10. #10
    Senior Member nihil's Avatar
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    Go here and get this:

    http://www.systenance.com/

    Index.dat Analyzer

    I think you're trying too hard to find flaws in it.
    Why? anything that runs in Windows is flawed by definition, because Windows has booted, recorded information, and locked files.

    but why would there be on a second drive that's added to the machine?
    Because Windows gets up to all sorts of things behind your back Also, I am not assuming more than one drive or partition.

    Do you realize how easy it is to insert a second drive, even if it has Windows installed on it, and delete the entire drive, including indexes and page file space?
    Obviously not................ I guess that I don't have enough experience.

    I can tell you that it is a lot more difficult than just booting from CD/DVD or floppy though. That is my entire point regarding loading the operating system first. Windows applications cannot be relied upon in this matter.

    As far as indexes go, who really cares if there are indexes pointing to files and folders that no longer exist
    Please use Google and research a product called "eNcase" I think that this might give you a better insight.

    You can also set Windows to not use a page file at all.
    OH! REALLY? booting Windows 98SE are we?

    You cannot "turn off" paging file in Windows XP. Also, why would you want to (assuming that you have even the vaguest idea of how the Windows operating system works?).

    If you set the Registry to delete the pagefile contents on shutdown, and follow the steps I suggested in an earlier post, you will be OK. Trust me, I have worked to finance and defence sector requirements for over 20 years............ I do know the rules.

    You can multi-task, rather than just sitting and waiting for a silly third-party app to get finished hogging your entire machine.
    Have you really read this post? You don't need to "multitask" when you are deleting data.............. in particular when you are wiping a whole disk.


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