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Disk wiping software that can be used within Windows 7?


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Hey All,

Ive got to erase some data of a few hard drives and i would like to do this within Windows using my computer.

I looked at dban but as far as i can see its a boot disk utility, when i would like a Windows program.

I hear Blancco is good but expensive,

Does anyone know of any free / opensource alternatives?

Thank You!

x

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Because its relatively easy for someone to recover data from a formatted hard drive if they really tried.

Ill take a look at Eraser thank you :)

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Because its relatively easy for someone to recover data from a formatted hard drive if they really tried.

I could be wrong, but...how? If you wipe a drive so that it's all zeros, that's it. The data no longer exists and there surely can't be software that can tell the difference between a zero that used to be a one and a zero that is just a zero?

A quick format isn't safe, but a format that zeros the drive should be good enough, shouldn't it?

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Im not sure of the difference between a quick and full to be honest with you.

All i know is you have companies such as Blancco that recommend not using the normal format tools for wiping drives as it doesnt meet some international standard.

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Im not sure of the difference between a quick and full to be honest with you.

All i know is you have companies such as Blancco that recommend not using the normal format tools for wiping drives as it doesnt meet some international standard.

If I remember correctly, a HDD comes with a "header" (might not be the right word) that is basically a table of contents for the system and lets it know if the next section of the drive can be written over or not. Doing a quick format just makes all the headers on the drive say "you can write on the next section" but it doesn't reset the sections, meaning that the data is still there. Doing a full format in Windows 7 (if lcg is correct above) means that the headers get reset, but all the sections of the drive get turned to 0 as well, meaning that there is no longer any data there.

Just because it doesn't meet an International Standard doesn't mean that it isn't a usable method of formatting. I didn't even know there was an International standard...and go figure that a company would use that argument so that you felt inclined to buy their software...

A normal format should be fine as long as you are zeroing the drive, as far as I know. I'd be happy to hear other opinions though.

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Full format just means the disc gets checked like with check disc, data can still be recovered ive had t do it before when i formatted the wrong drive doh!

@op http://www.ultimatebootcd.com/ there is a few on there including the one mentioned above (eraiser) but maybe one of them is better tbh you would have to read up on them all to find out which is "the best" at defending your data or ask someone to do it with a paid program i use to use one but i can not remember the name of it.

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I believe Intrinsica is right.

Full format just means the disc gets checked like with check disc, data can still be recovered ive had t do it before when i formatted the wrong drive doh!

That was the case with Windows XP, but not since Windows Vista: Change in the behavior of the format command in Windows Vista.

The format command behavior has changed in Windows Vista. By default in Windows Vista, the format command writes zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed. In Windows XP and in earlier versions of the Windows operating system, the format command does not write zeros to the whole disk when a full format is performed.
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I believe Intrinsica is right.

That was the case with Windows XP, but not since Windows Vista: Change in the behavior of the format command in Windows Vista.

I personally wouldn't trust windows format and go for something better and more secure. Recovery programs are not hard to get hold of these days even top of the line ones, id prefer to waste an extra hour or more for a decent job like i said windows format just dont do it for me. As far as im aware its 1 pass, other programs can do more and even write randoms 1s and 0s for added security, just remember what gets added over the years of use, pictures, bank details, passwords the lot id rather be safe than sorry with how today is.

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I personally wouldn't trust windows format and go for something better and more secure. Recovery programs are not hard to get hold of these days even top of the line ones, id prefer to waste an extra hour or more for a decent job like i said windows format just dont do it for me. As far as im aware its 1 pass, other programs can do more and even write randoms 1s and 0s for added security, just remember what gets added over the years of use, pictures, bank details, passwords the lot id rather be safe than sorry with how today is.

But this returns me to my original question: Is data really recoverable once you've zeroed a drive? How does that work? Each bit can either be a 1 or a 0. If you reset everything to 0, how can a program know what was once a 1 and what was always a 0?

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"In Windows 7 a full format writes zeros to the drive."

No it doesn't -- Where did you read that?

In theory it was possible to recover from written zero's -- but that was way back in the old school disks talking MFM and RRL! Now its just fud that will not die. Even if it was possible the cost of doing such a thing would be cost prohibitive. And again its not - its stuff you see in movies and shows like 24, etc.. Back in 2008 there was a zero challenge, that nobody ever took up. All you had to do was recover 2 files off the disk, etc.

I do believe NIST stated that disks after 2001 are no longer possible even in laboratory attack to be recovered in this way.

http://csrc.nist.gov...800-88_rev1.pdf

If you write zeros across then its gone! Plain and simple. If you overwrite the data with new data, old data is gone!

Now depending who your giving the disk too.. More than likely a format (no it doesn't freaking write zeros) and reinstall of the OS should all that is required. If you giving it to who knows who, selling on ebay, etc. And you have your tin foil hat on, then sure zero it - but once is enough!

Sure the sysinternals tool sdelete could do it in windows, or since like 2k you have had the cipher command right at your finger tips - just use it!

C:\Windows\system32>cipher /?

Displays or alters the encryption of directories [files] on NTFS partitions.

/W Removes data from available unused disk space on the entire

volume. If this option is chosen, all other options are ignored.

The directory specified can be anywhere in a local volume. If it

is a mount point or points to a directory in another volume, the

data on that volume will be removed.

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In theory it was possible to recover from written zero's -- but that was way back in the old school disks talking MFM and RRL! Now its just fud that will not die. Even if it was possible the cost of doing such a thing would be cost prohibitive. And again its not - its stuff you see in movies and shows like 24, etc.. Back in 2008 there was a zero challenge, that nobody ever took up. All you had to do was recover 2 files off the disk, etc.

If you write zeros across then its gone! Plain and simple. If you overwrite the data with new data, old data is gone!

Thanks for confirming that for me. I was pretty sure but it's good to hear someone else agree.

As for Windows 7's full format writing zeroes...well, I was going on lcg's info. Personally I didn't know as I haven't used Windows 7 all that much. :laugh: Good to know though, thanks!

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Now the theory went, I had a link to a white paper on it that you could detect if was zero or 1 before from strength of the zero or 1 currently there. Due to residual magnetic levels, etc.. So a 1 on a previous zero would be lower in strength then if it had been a 1 before. A zero would be higher then a zero if there was a 1 there before, etc..

Again I don't believe it was ever actually put into practice and tested? It was a theory and would of had to been done with some really costly equipment to detect the different levels, etc. I will see if I can dig up the paper.

But that was the OLD SCHOOL disks - not modern disks!

You change the data, old data is gone plain and simple..

edit: Well slap my ass and call me sally!! In w7 you can use

/P:passes Zero every sector on the volume passes times. This switch is

not valid with /Q

I'm not sure the install does this -- going to have to read more on this. But THANK YOU for supply of link - I notice lcg did supply the link as well but in my haste I missed it. But clearly it is possible with the format command and /P for sure to write zero's..

Again thanks for the link to source -- and clearly this is not how it was with xp. Well there you go -- all you need to do now is just a FULL format of the drive, not quick and your good! It does normally default to quick, so if you are worried about data recovery I would suggest you do FULL.

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I wrote an article about this a couple years ago. After researching the subject, I concluded that a single overwrite is all that's needed to permanently destroy data on modern hard disks. The reason is that modern hard disks have a much higher bit density (more bits are packed into a single platter) which makes it near impossible to recover any old data written to the drive. Another reason is that the same sector can be written to multiple times, without any way of discerning what bits were written there and in what order.

I'm glad to see that it's becoming common knowledge, but a couple years ago, it seemed like nobody was aware of this.

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