Zero Fill

new2me

new2me

Suspended / Banned
Messages
6,925
Edit My Images
Yes
I've been asked to restore a friend's PC to factory settings before he sells it, but wondered whether it was worth deleting all his stuff and filling it with junk to clear the sectors first :thinking:
I hadn't realised you can retrieve files from a formatted disc with some software, or have I misread something and getting in too deep :naughty:
 
Yes jut do a seven times overwrite with zero it out. That will clear it enough.
 
Cheers guys.
While waiting for him to get back to me, I thought i'd do similar with my old laptop - i had lots of work related stuff on there cos the gear supplied by my employer was unreliable. Am i right in thinking that filling the drives with .nef files from an external drive and then other harmless doc and notepad files to eat up the space will overwrite all these traces? I did this and then ran the factory reset disc last night, only took a couple of hours because the drive isn't that big.
 
As swissy suggested it is much easier to use and boot with dban and do it that way. It really needs to fill the disk and copying normal documents doesn't really do that.

Any linux boot disk can do it easily with the dd command, or if you had a mac it is built in disk utility...
 
Okay cheers, i'll check out dban (y)
 
neil_g said:
Or just use the windows format command with the passes switch. Will do for 99% or cases.
Click to expand...

From Vista onwards only, and then when creating a recovery disk with Windows 7 onwards...I'd just get a linux boot disk as suggested earlier, no faffing about and job done very quickly.
 
I don't sell on any personal equipment with a hard drive still in it so it is not something I tend to worry about.

All my old hard drives end up with loads of holes drilled trough them.
 
Keith W said:
I don't sell on any personal equipment with a hard drive still in it so it is not something I tend to worry about.

All my old hard drives end up with loads of holes drilled trough them.
Click to expand...

Can still get the data off :p But then again, have you got anything worthwhile the investment and the trouble to do that...I guess not...Its all about proportionate risk. If a multi-pass wipe is enough for CESG for IL2 level data then I think for personal stuff, not selling on a hard drive and drilling it is overkill. But hey each to their own...

Why not degauss them and then shred them :)
 
Last edited:
dejongj said:
Can still get the data off :p But then again, have you got anything worthwhile the investment and the trouble to do that...I guess not...
Click to expand...

No you wont be able to still get the data off, trust me on that
 
Keith W said:
No you wont be able to still get the data off, trust me on that
Click to expand...

Well the moment that method become a standard in the security world and CESG Assisted Product Service (CAPS) then I'll trust you (y)
 
Seriously, do you always talk like a know it all idjit?

Never assume others do not know what they are doing or talking about, big mistake to do that ;)
 
Keith W said:
Seriously, do you always talk like a know it all idjit?

Never assume others do not know what they are doing or talking about, big mistake to do that ;)
Click to expand...

Just chill and calm down, I'm not assuming anything here. Can't we have a normal discussion anymore before your throw you dummy out?

I'm merely highlighting that what you described is not an approved CAPS product/method. If you are a CLAS consultant you would know that. That is not to say, as I acknowledged, that it is not difficult or not worthwhile to do so for personal information. But then again neither is drilling the discs as I suggested and explained previously.
 
neil_g said:
Or just use the windows format command with the passes switch. Will do for 99% or cases.
Click to expand...

As a matter of interest, I have Vista on my laptop and the toshiba recovery disc, if I was to format with the passes switch, does the recovery disc contain enough data to recreate the original setup (ie does it contain the full vista package etc)?
 
new2me said:
As a matter of interest, I have Vista on my laptop and the toshiba recovery disc, if I was to format with the passes switch, does the recovery disc contain enough data to recreate the original setup (ie does it contain the full vista package etc)?
Click to expand...

You'd hope so, I'd double check by spending the extra what hour to ensure it does before wiping.
 
dejongj said:
Just chill and calm down, I'm not assuming anything here. Can't we have a normal discussion anymore before your throw you dummy out?

I'm merely highlighting that what you described is not an approved CAPS product/method. If you are a CLAS consultant you would know that. That is not to say, as I acknowledged, that it is not difficult or not worthwhile to do so for personal information. But then again neither is drilling the discs as I suggested and explained previously.
Click to expand...

Good luck getting meaningful data off a hard drive with a drilled platter!
 
dejongj said:
I'm merely highlighting that what you described is not an approved CAPS product/method.
Click to expand...

I'll bet that throwing a drive into the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor isn't an approved method either. But I'm damn sure it'd work.
 
hollis_f said:
I'll bet that throwing a drive into the fires of Mount Doom in Mordor isn't an approved method either. But I'm damn sure it'd work.
Click to expand...

LOL you do realise Tolkien writes fiction :)

Look I don't want to make a big argument about it. As I have already acknowledged the first time, a drilled through platter will be very hard to recover. And so will a 7x write :) it is about proportionality. Most people for personal use have nothing stored warranting those kind of destruction measures.

But the point is if they do, I'd recommend degaussing and shredding inline with gpg for data destruction of IL5 type data.

As a funny anecdote, well I think it is funny, a chap in my team had to destroy 480 disks (and many logic boards, routers, switches, cryptos that could have retained data). And the company utilised has broken two shredders in the process. Apparently the hard drives were too old and too hard ;) Maybe we should have drilled them first :p
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top