Full Disclosure mailing list archives
RE: Erasing a hard disk easily
From: Javier Liendo <javier () liendo net>
Date: Mon, 12 Jul 2004 20:59:16 -0700 (PDT)
hello i've read that physically removing the disk plates from a modern hard disk is more than enough to make the information contained there imposible to read. the servo information that is stored on each plate is very sensitive to the relative position of the disks themselves and the heads on the disk at the moment that the disk is build so if you phisically remove the disk plates from the spinddle it is almost imposible to correctly align all the plates in order to reconstruct the servo information needed in order to make the "hard disk" work correctly... saludos javier --- "Schmidt, Michael R." <Michael.Schmidt () T-Mobile com> wrote:
IDE drives are typically formatted "at the factory" so you may actually make the drives unusable if you use a magnet. Michael R. Schmidt -----Original Message----- From: full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com [mailto:full-disclosure-admin () lists netsys com]On Behalf Of amilabs Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 11:49 AM To: full-disclosure () lists netsys com Subject: [Full-disclosure] Erasing a hard disk easily I have a bunch of old computers I would like to donate. Old laptops with win 95/98 on them and some old tower desktops all circa 1995-2k. I would like to know if I can just use a magnet to completely wipe out the data for obvious security reasons. I have heard about the disk erasers like active kill and Perl utilities for this but with the ability of data ghosting etc. is this enough? Can I use a big magnet like a speaker magnet or something like a degasser to just wipe out the data without having to boot these old boxes and go through all the extra work. Thanks _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html _______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
_______________________________________________ Full-Disclosure - We believe in it. Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html
Current thread:
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily Peter B. Harvey (Information Security) (Jul 12)
- Re[2]: Erasing a hard disk easily Michael Gale (Jul 13)
- <Possible follow-ups>
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily Kiley, Patrick M. (IARC) (Jul 12)
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily Schmidt, Michael R. (Jul 12)
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily Javier Liendo (Jul 12)
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily Peter B. Harvey (Information Security) (Jul 12)
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily Jos Osborne (Jul 13)
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily Marek Isalski (Jul 13)
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily amilabs (Jul 13)
- Re: Erasing a hard disk easily Doug White (Jul 13)
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily amilabs (Jul 13)
- Re: Erasing a hard disk easily Denis McMahon (Jul 13)
- Re: Re: Erasing a hard disk easily Maarten (Jul 13)
- RE: Erasing a hard disk easily Jos Osborne (Jul 13)
- Re: Erasing a hard disk easily Aditya, ALD [ Aditya Lalit Deshmukh ] (Jul 13)
- Re: Erasing a hard disk easily Maarten (Jul 14)
- Re: Erasing a hard disk easily Aditya, ALD [ Aditya Lalit Deshmukh ] (Jul 13)
(Thread continues...)