Would this work to randomize a hard disk

[Ziggurat]

Hi Members

I am in the process of deleting the data from my company's hard disk and I have read many different opinions on the best way to completely erase a hard disk.

One method that I thought of is to use an old Windows 98 boot disk with a CD that has a single 500Mb text file of random characters. The old Windows 98 boot disk has CD support so the file from the CD can be read.

Once the disk partitions have been deleted and the disk formatted using FDISK and FORMAT, use the dos command "COPY" with a incementing number for the copied file name in an endless loop batch file, to copy the 500Mb text file onto the formatted hard disk using the incremented file name until it can no longer fit anymore data on the disk.

Does this sound like a good idea or is there a way to recover the original data ?

Thanks for your responses in advance.


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Ziggurat

 

[stduc]

Some commercial data recovery agencies claim to be able to recover data after it has been over written. I did read somewhere once that it is theoretically possible to recover data after even 21 writes. So I guess how safe you feel depends on your level of paranoia. I think your proposal is a rather slow and tedious way to over write the data. Consider the following. Also it will not fill the complete drive.

1. An Fdisk, followed by a re-format (not a quick format) or today - better achieved by booting to - say - an XP Pro install CD and deleting all partitions, creating a new one and re-formatting - then aborting the install.

This will stop dead any casual search of the hard drive - but most data recovery software would find something to retrieve.

2. Step 1 followed by running the drive manufacturers 'zero fill' utility on the drive which should set every bit to a zero.

This will also stop most readily available data recovery software from finding anything on the disk.

3. Step 1, then step 2 then use a commercial drive scrubber (several companies sell them and there are some free ones).

This will prevent almost any attempt at data recovery apart from possibly by a government agency.

4. Hammer a few nails through the drive.

This stops all possibility of data recovery, but renders the drive unusable!

 

[LWComputingMVP]

I recommend using a disk wiping utility like Darik's Boot and Nuke - then you can run many automated passes writing random data to the disk.

the level of recovery depends on who is doing it. While TODAY it may be technically possible (though presumably extremely difficult) to recover data after 21 write passes, tomorrow a new method could be discovered that ups that number to 30 or 40 or 50 or more. The truly top secret stuff the government has is NEVER discarded.

http://dban.sourceforge.net/