Re: Permanent data removal

From: nemo outis (outis_at_erewhon.com)
Date: 03/18/05 

Date: Fri, 18 Mar 2005 03:48:47 GMT

In article <wYGdnb7-ZKvreaXfRVn-uA@rogers.com>, "Mike"
<Undisclosed> wrote:
>I will be either selling or donating my old computer and that's why I'm
>looking for a solution to removing data.
>I have been tracking for instance my credit cards (numbers, expiry dates
>etc.) I don't really want to donate this information along with the
>computer.

If you are determined to take the risk, then here's what I
recommend. It's tedious and still less than ideal but will
thwart almost all amateurs and many pros.

1. Do a **low-level** erase with the **HD manufacturer's**
program including any bad or remapped sectors (e.g., the latest
version of WDDIAG or Lifeguard tools for Western Digital drives,
MAXLLF or LLFUTIL for Maxtor, etc.) and do a full erase &
low-level format on the drive, including restoring all "bad"
sectors if you can (in order to erase them).
 
2. Erase the disk with a good multi-pass eraser (I like
BCWipe but Tolvanen's Eraser or something similar would also do).
I suggest not fewer than 7 overwrite passes; more is better, but
life is short :-)

3. **Essential!** Attempt data recovery with one or more
tools as a QA check of your erasing! (File Scavenger is the best
for - former - NTFS volumes; a number of programs will do for
various flavours of FAT). If you can recover *anything* consider
abandoning the erasing policy and revert to my (recommended)
destruction policy.

Regards,

PS Paranoids will go for even more elaborate schemes, such
as (in terms of the above steps): 2 - 3 - 1 - 3

PPS It may be necessary to reformat the drive (high-level)
beween steps 1 & 2 for your multipass eraser of choice to work
(some require this, some don't).

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