RE: Suggestions on free XP hard drive wiping utilities?

[Patrick Debois <Patrick.Debois () sos be>]

I've heard on a radio show there was a study that the number of erases
should be 13 (based on the material of the drive). Nothing to recover only
with computers but rather with microscopes.

If anyone knows a pointer to that research....

On Wed, 12 Feb 2003, David Verty wrote:

> Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 03:10:58 +0000
> From: David Verty <verticalrave () hotmail com>
> To: security-basics () securityfocus com
> Subject: RE: Suggestions on free XP hard drive wiping utilities?
>
> There is a whole thread on ExtremeTech about this I believe...and it
> stretches on for a long run. You might find some useful information there,
> like DoD (Department of Defense) standards, and software that exceeds it for
> deletation of files.
>
> What the government does right now to permanently get rid of data is shred
> the disk in a metal shredder.
>
> Are there any programs for secure deletation? Never heard of any really that
> were extremely good.
>
> And i've heard of hard disks storing everything in so called 'layers' (you
> have to rewrite your disk three or four times+ with phony data to truly get
> rid of everything.) but the edge thing is something i've never heard about.
> Interesting. Somebody on ExtremeTech also mentioned that since the signals
> are theoretically magnetic, its possible to extract the strength of the
> previous magnetic signal (though weak) and rebuild the data from there.
> Whatever validity that has i'm not so sure.
>
>
>
>
>
> > From: "MacFerrin, Ken" <Ken_MacFerrin () csgsystems com>
> > To: <security-basics () securityfocus com>
> > Subject: RE: Suggestions on free XP hard drive wiping utilities?
> > Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2003 11:20:16 -0600
> >
> > There are dozens of tools that will "clean" your hard drive by overwriting
> > your data in various patterns and such and most any of those will give you
> > "decent" security, but.. none of those are going to make the data
> > irretrievable to someone with the right equipment.
> >
> > I'm no expert but the basics of being able to retrieve data stem from the
> > fact that when the HDD head overwrites the data it's never able to
> > perfectly write along the same track that it did when writing the original
> > data.  This leaves an "edge" of data that wasn't quite overwritten and that
> > "edge" is enough for someone with a basic setup (about 1500 USD) of
> > specific equipment to go back and pull the original 1's and 0's off the
> > disk..  The only way to truly "clean" the disk is using equipment
> > specifically designed to drive the head at a higher voltage to create a
> > wider write track and re-write random patterns many times.  From what I
> > understand though even these re-writes will leave some residue that could
> > be picked up by some high-end gear and a skilled operator.
> >
> > Essentially, if the data was really that sensitive, you need to physically
> > destroy the disk..
> > -Ken
> >
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Joris De Donder [mailto:joris () digitaldefense be]
> > Sent: Tuesday, February 11, 2003 6:21 AM
> > To: 'security-basics () securityfocus com'
> > Cc: Champion, Steve
> > Subject: Suggestions on free XP hard drive wiping utilities?
> >
> >
> >
> > > Would someone please throw out a URL and suggestions for free Windows
> > XP,
> > > hard drive wiping utility's?
> >
> > http://www.tolvanen.com/eraser/
> >
> > quote:
> >   "Eraser is a secure data removal tool, which allows you to remove
> >    sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it with carefully
> >    selected patterns.
> >
> >    The program is free software, which means that everyone has
> >    access to the source code,..."
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Joris De Donder
>
>
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