wipe hard drives

dreamster · July 13th, 2002, 12:39 PM

We've been offered a large quantity of computerss for our training program. The only stipulationn is that we wipe the ahrd drives. Is there any we can degause or demagnitize them without destroying the HD?

Formatting would take too long. I was thinking of a large electromagnet, but it occcured to me that it might destroy the bearings inside.

tobu · July 13th, 2002, 01:03 PM

Hmmmmm, I dont have a clue

Are they on a network? What you could do is setup one computer how you want it then ghost it to the rest of your machines.

I do remember using an electromagnet to wipe my old tape drives....

Theophylact · July 13th, 2002, 01:07 PM

I don't see the problem. If you're going to wipe them, you'll have to reformat them anyway before you can reuse them.

Jonty · July 13th, 2002, 01:09 PM

I may be totally wrong

but isn't some sort of low-level formatting done at the factory before the drives are shipped out?

Zapping with a magnet would destroy that and make the drive unusable??

no1_vern · July 13th, 2002, 01:09 PM

?? electromagnet?? NO No.

Do NOT! I REPEAT DO NOT let anyone near your hard drives with an ELECTROMAGNET!!

You will destroy the hard drive by zapping the electronics, destroying the formatting(its magnetically written too!!)

You will have several thousand dollars of junk afterwards!!

Ghosting them would be the best way if they are on a net. If not the next best way is the long way, formating.

WELCOME to TechIMO dreamster!

PresterJohn · July 13th, 2002, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Theophylact
I don't see the problem. If you're going to wipe them, you'll have to reformat them anyway before you can reuse them.

xactly?!

if the donator will not let the pc's leave the premises unless the data is erased first, ask em if they would be satisified if you deleted the partition table. that would take only minutes per machine using partitionMagic or some other util and then you can reformat them at your convenience.

no1_vern · July 13th, 2002, 01:25 PM

Hi PresterJohn,
I wouldnt, any diskreading utility can be used to retrieve the files even if you deleted the partition table.

no1_vern · July 13th, 2002, 01:42 PM

I do not recommend using Degaussers either.

"Degaussing is an acceptable and effective method - however, it is far more appropriate for tape, diskettes, or removable media than it is for fixed hard disk drives. Hard disk drive platters are mounted within a housing that in itself provide some amount of shielding to prevent a degaussing process from being totally effective. According to paper written by Peter Gutmann research has shown that the aluminum housings of most disk drives attenuate the degaussing field by only about 2 dB. The strength of any degaussing unit required to penetrate the Head Disk Assembly (H.D.A.) housing would probably cause considerable damage to any other diskette or magnetic media within several yards, so be very careful when using a degausser."

Go here:

http://www.oit.state.ar.us/Announce/Attach2.asp

For "Specifications for Sanitization of Hard Drives"

They say that degaussing may not be economical! Almost all the degaussers I have read about take 1 or 2 minutes on and 5 to 10 minutes OFF as thier duty cycle. A list of them are here:

http://www.datalinksales.com/degaussers/home.htm

Case study here:
The enterprise sent out a request for proposal to obtain quotes for the data sanitization of these 300 machines and received bids with prices ranging from $3,000 to $12,000. The employee responsible for reviewing the bids found the costs to be excessive. To save the enterprise money, he made a unilateral decision to sanitize the data himself. He purchased a degausser for $300 and then spent weekends at work, degaussing hard drives. Although the employee was diligent, he wasn't diligent enough. Somewhere along the line, a batch of drives wasn't degaussed and the equipment was sold to a used equipment dealer with sensitive data remaining. Fortunately for the enterprise, the used equipment dealer was reputable, discovered the error and wiped the data before resale. Sadly, the employee was not so fortunate. His employment was terminated.

Brainchild · July 13th, 2002, 01:45 PM

Could you use fdisk ( assuming they are windows machines) and delete all partitions?

Theophylact · July 13th, 2002, 01:47 PM

What seems like a long time ago, I was on a thread about this:

erase hard drive

Since then, other programs have become available, including one that sounds almost illegal: "EvidenceEliminator". I haven't followed it up.