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Single Drive Wipe Protects Data
ALF-nl writes "A forensics expert claims that wiping your hard drives with just one pass already makes it next to impossible to recover the data with an electron microscope." But that's not accounting for the super secret machines that the government has, man.
One wipe is never enough.
Didn't your mommy teach you anything?
Especially true after Taco Bell.
I thought a few weeks ago we were supposed to drill holes in the drive platters and fill the case with thermite, then drop the whole computer into the fires of mount doom.
This week, a one pass wipe is enough.
Myhtbusters need to look at this. Then they should do a wipe that would really suit their style - a shock wave through the drive will raise the temperature at the wave front above that where the material is magenetic (curie temperature). In other words - explosives!
I found that taking the disk platter out and using it as a coaster helps too.
Sadly, it's best just to physically destroy the drive after use. I suggest a two-year old child just after its nap ought to do the trick.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
Last month my grandma asked for a new laptop and prior to putting her old HP on ebay I wiped it via Gutmann 35-Pass method, way above DoD and NATO standards, so her ultra-secret vanilla cake recipe could remain a household secret.
Yep. They'll never get my data. It's all encrypted with the superior ROT13 encryption method. Twice just to be sure.
My blog
I've found one pass of a sledgehammer makes it next to impossible to recover data from a disk. Even read-only media!
What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.
Just let someone's 13-year-old daughter have it for a few hours. They'll surely destroy your entire computer that will become irretrievable.
[I]t's best just to physically destroy the drive after use. I suggest a two-year old child just after its nap
Armed with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!
Today's Sesame Street was brought to you by the number e.
I dismantle mine and make those cool clocks out of them for xmas gifts. A couple have it where the platters are mounted on a spindle also over a mirror, and move counter-clockwise. So far, only two epileptics have succumbed to the effects.
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I hear writing random numbers like 2s and 9s to the drive works REALLY well
"One up, one down, one to polish."
Dave Lister
You sure dismantling two-year olds is entierly legal? Not to mention making clocks out of the remains.
... making it easier for the government to control your mind ... just so you know.
> Anyone who posts on /. has, by definition, no data the NSA, KGB, Gestapo or any other such entity could possibly be interested in.
I am Osama Bin Laden, you insensitive clCARRIER LOST
I prefer wiping the drive eleven times with cryptographically-sound random data, then grinding the entire computer to a fine talcum-powder consistency, mixing it thoroughly with twenty pounds of dry powdered cement, then stir in the water and gravel to make concrete. When it starts to get thick, start stirring in the ten pounds of small rare-earth magnets, one at a time. Let it set, then dip it repeatedly in molten steel. Finally, use a high-powered electromagnet to lift and drop the resulting brick into the hot part of an active volcano, then push the planet it's on into the nearest star.
I suppose an attacker *might* not be able to recover the data if you skipped the last step, but why take chances?
Cut that out, or I will ship you to Norilsk in a box.
Your brother in law got wiped by a magnetic fish tank cleaner?
To do something right, you often have to roll up your sleeves and get busy.
Whatever.
There's nothing on my hard drive important enough to steal (I keep all my records in a safe). Unless somebody has a strong desire for 50 gigs of women riding sybians or playing with vibrators?!? I'm not sure why you'd want to steal that which you can get for free via bittorent.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Incomplete procedure! ....the nearest start that is about to go supernova next to a supermassive black hole that wormholes to an antimatter universe.
Get it right, damn it!
Submission as evidence constitutes plaintiff and/or prosecutorial misconduct.
Johnny "magnetic fish tank" Staccone, a cleaner for the Gambino family
The problem there is occasionally the drive wins or claims a draw by destroying the child as well.
Part of most if not all HDDs fall well under the "choking hazard" category.
Problem? I really don't see a down-side here...
Bow-ties are cool.
That's all right, you may not have to worry if it's a 1TB Seagate drive. They self-brick.
---- Teach Peace. It's Cheaper Than War.
I used to be a blacksmith too, but then I switched to jewelcrafting.
I used to do that, but it's a weak procedure. People can infer what you've been up to by the lengths to which you will go to wipe your drive. Once you push the planet into a star, there are only a few possibilities for what was on your drive. (Shame on you.)
My solution: Iron(III)oxide and aluminium (or magnesium for increased effect and ease of ignition).
Ehh, JC's good for the cash, but engineering is the best way to carry a joke too far.
At which point the NSA turns it over to the CIA who have devised a powerful tool for data extraction, waterboarding. Fortunately for you the technique will be outlawed tomorrow.