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I've read so many articles about how to go about trying to erase and rewrite all information on your HDD to the point where it cannot be recovered. If people were so worried about the fact that what they may have done was on those disks, then why dont they just scratch them up with some steal wool or something and set them free on the side of the road? If you ditch the HDD, could there be an other evidence left on the rest of your computer or periferals?
You know, ive often pondered this too. I dont think ditching on the side of the road is the best idea (it 'could' get discovered and used as evidence against you....i mean, why would you go to the trouble of demolishing a HD if you hadnt dont anything wrong?) So, in regards to the posibility of still having your disk found, i would say, yea, erase the darn thing. And erase, and erase, and erase. And if you still want to ditch it, find the nearest active volcanoe and throw it in ;)
but better yet, just dont do anything worth having someone knock on your door with a search warrant for your HD.
-z3
What about governments with classified data? It has to be disposed of according to doctrine other wise other governments have ways of retrieving data. Even if it is damaged or incomplete it can still be of some use :)
I'd wipe it, then scratch it then burn it with an oxy :)
If you just toss it on the side of the road it may not be completely destroyed and they may not be able to trace it to you but it may have some info on it about something that doesnt necessarily have anything to do with you as an individual ..
How you dispose of a hdd depends on what is on it :)
why not that better use a s/w which erases the data beyond recovery and then do what ever you wnat , even damaged hard disk's data can be recovered , be what ever it may and knowing about CIA and FBI ,they will go to any lengths to recover data espicially if you a terrorist and an al quida member!!Quote:
If people were so worried about the fact that what they may have done was on those disks, then why dont they just scratch them up with some steal wool or something and set them free on the side of the road? If you ditch the HDD, could there be an other evidence left on the rest of your computer or periferals?
As a side note, what you want to do is either place the platters in a state of dust or a melted lump of metal. All other forms of the hd can have data recovered from them. Chop it up and they can painstakingly peice it together and read data off it. Overwriting is not completely safe unless its say local police or someone who is not govt funded. The govt has special techniques that can recover data from overwritten hdd's. The techniques exploit the inner workings of the hdd which you cannot control.
well said, i remember a case which i saw in t.v ,ver a man ripped off his hard disk to detroy the evidence against him ,he thought that he had got clear off , but the state gov.t got in touch with fbi and fbi got the data read and handed over it to the cops , now that man servers 30 years in prison
ive heard that the fbi people use physical methods to recover data, they just press the head of the reader to keep it off from bouncing.
well som fbi !
Well for obvious reasons, I personally prefer to erase/format a disk then merely throw it away. Unless I were to submerge it in oil, light it ablaze, then melt it in the toaster oven, and finally throw away the scraps at the local dump, then I wouldn't throw the disk away. But you have to make sure it's contents can not be recoverable. Simply leaving it on the side of the road isn't smart because someone can easily pick it up, load it into their computer, and see what's on it.
there is nothing on a HDD that a good old fashion acetlyne torch wont erase. I think the point everyone is making is that only complete and utter destruction to the point of the platters not being recognizable is the only way to truly "eleminate evidence"
Hi
was just wondering if anybody has tried destroying evidence using hydrochloric acid.
I know that the fumes are strong enough to wipe out everything on a music tape,as i learned the hard way
titanmike: Yes, that would work. Oh, and:
Yup, thats the general point :)Quote:
there is nothing on a HDD that a good old fashion acetlyne torch wont erase. I think the point everyone is making is that only complete and utter destruction to the point of the platters not being recognizable is the only way to truly "eleminate evidence"
Well, why would you want to do it?
Actually much more common than you might think. A lot of computers have confidential business information, intellectual property and personal details on them. If you wish to sell or donate the machine, you need to be sure that this information is securely erased.
In the armaments industry machines on the secure network have their HDDs and RAM removed. It is wiped, crushed, pulverised then dissolved in acid or incinerated.
Is there anything left on the machine apart from on the HDD?................yes the RAM will have residual data in it which can (theoretically) be recovered.
Cheers
I think this thread is very amusing. Yes, I do understand the value of a secure delete. I am familar with the issue that arise when you do not securly delete the data. I think what comes down to is how much time and money does the party doing the recovery wish to spend?
If you have unlimited time and money then nothing is truley deleted. How many of us have unlimited time and money? I wish I did ;-)
Cheers,
-D
I like the idea that my porn is erased from a drive when I get done with it. :D
If your looking for a free (and reasonably secure solution) try Dariks boot and Nuke (http://dban.sourceforge.net/)
Well then, let's do this: you send me your HDD and I send it back to you after securely deleting whatever it has on it. After that you take it to the feds and tell'em you have evidence the hard-drive contains terrorist plans or whatever.Quote:
Originally posted here by dspeidel
I think this thread is very amusing. Yes, I do understand the value of a secure delete. I am familar with the issue that arise when you do not securly delete the data. I think what comes down to is how much time and money does the party doing the recovery wish to spend?
If you have unlimited time and money then nothing is truley deleted. How many of us have unlimited time and money? I wish I did ;-)
Cheers,
-D
You don't need a lot of money to properly destroy a HDD. You can find some very powerful solvents and substances at your local farm/construction outlet, but it won't be that easy to reverse the process without large funds.
Quote:
I like the idea that my porn is erased from a drive when I get done with it.
put your harddrive ontop of some Thermite and set it ablaze..... 3000 degrees should do the trick.........
now the stains on your keyboard, thats a diffrent story....
I've always prefered "goo off(TM)" :D
Why wipe a drive instead of physically destroying it...
Wiping allows for re-use. Why destroy when you can re-use?
DOD or Airforce standards require an electron microscope to recover data from. Do you have one? Or the clean room to use it in?
Shadow Data recovery costs begin at around 1 million dollars. Can you afford to recover data at that cost?
The only reason to destroy a disk is when it is being decomissioned, and then it is sent to a destruction facility.
If you can afford to destroy drives and buy new ones..have at it..more power to you..but
I wouldn't worry about your data being examined by the feds..unless you are doing something incredibly stupid, and in that case, you probably deserve what you get.
I wasnt actualy doing anything illegal or whatever myself, I was just wondering why so many people that have done bad things dont destroy the evidence completely
They don't understand computer security.
They think that deleting a file gets rid of it, that emptying the trashcan gets rid of it, that defragmenting gets rid of it. And better still, that a lot of this privacy crapware that is touted around actually works :)
You may notice that it is usually small fry who get caught................the big boys can afford to hire professionals ;)
Generally speaking...the people that are caught aren't aware that they are about to be caught.Quote:
Originally posted here by detachment2702
I wasnt actualy doing anything illegal or whatever myself, I was just wondering why so many people that have done bad things dont destroy the evidence completely
Generally speaking...they don't understand..as nihil said
Generally speaking...they aren't paranoid enough
Generally speaking...they are idiots.
:)
How to Erase a Hard Disk so data is not recoverable....
1. Use the Hard drive for target practice, misses do not count!!
2. Take apart the hard drive and trash the platters
3. Drop the hard drive off a 10 story building on to cement pavement road
(Do not hit cars or people...that does not count!)
4. (My Favorite!) Use a TV de-gousing Ring (commerical grade!)
and de-gouse or de-maginetise the hard drive.
powerful magnet or a microwave oven(dangerous if u don't know what u are doing!)
I prefer to live dangerously. I would just delete the incriminating data
and then sell the box to a retired IRS agent to surf the web with. Then they would
have the evidence right under their noses and never know it. Maybe a future historian
would eventually discover it in a church yard sale and write a pulitzer prize
winning book exposing my crimes, but ive been long dead by then and don't care.
:cool:
Check this guy out. The way the overwriting is done is important and how many times for a good format...
http://www.cs.auckland.ac.nz/~pgut001/
Hi,
degaussing your HD is the way to go... Thats what we did in the Gov when we had classified information. However, be warned, degaussers are very expensive.
Putting it in the microwave, as previously suggested, would be very dangerous (due to a possible leak of EM waves rebouncing off the metal components of the HD), plus, you could simply damage it (no more pizza pops for you!)
For floppies, we would break open the floppy, (after having thouroughly erased the content), take the medium , sandwich it between two pieces of paper and put it in a cross-shredder.
For cds, there are utilities and hardware to remove the first layer of a cd, removing the data it once had but again, its pricy.
hope this helps,
banshee