Wiping a hard drive

[Wayout]

 I have need to wipe clean an old hard drive.  It had financial data on it that I don't want the next owner to have access to. Could anyone recomend a free disk wiping utility that would make that deleted data unreadable.  Thanks.

[Strip]

I would recommend a 1/4 inch drill bit but I don't think the next owner would find it very useful.

 

Strip

[Hungry]

I use a program called Restoration ver 2..5.1.4 it restores deleted file and wipes deleted files

[BaldEagl]

I use Active@Killdisk.  With the free version you can only do a single 0 pass but I haven't been able to see nor restore anything after that even with a very good file recovery program that I have.  With the paid version you can run multiple passes conforming to the DoD standards.

Unless you're selling it to a spy it's not very likely the next owner will take the prohibitively expensive step of bringing it to a lab with a high-power electron microscope to get fragments of your financial data so I think your safe with the free version.

[gyrene81]

I use Active@Killdisk.  With the free version you can only do a single 0 pass but I haven't been able to see nor restore anything after that even with a very good file recovery program that I have.  With the paid version you can run multiple passes conforming to the DoD standards.

Unless you're selling it to a spy it's not very likely the next owner will take the prohibitively expensive step of bringing it to a lab with a high-power electron microscope to get fragments of your financial data so I think your safe with the free version.

Ditto...with the free version doing 3 passes manually will make that drive clean as a whistle.

[Wayout]

I use Active@Killdisk.  With the free version you can only do a single 0 pass but I haven't been able to see nor restore anything after that even with a very good file recovery program that I have.  With the paid version you can run multiple passes conforming to the DoD standards.

Thanky you, that's what I was looking for.

[gusman]

My brother in law has a HD that he wants to wipe but he does not want to install it in a computer.
what's the best way to physically disable/wipe a hard drive? I said we should just pound it to smithereens with a sledgehammer

Thanks,
gus

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Just take a microfiber cloth, dampen it and wipe.

[TilDeath]

My brother in law has a HD that he wants to wipe but he does not want to install it in a computer.
what's the best way to physically disable/wipe a hard drive? I said we should just pound it to smithereens with a sledgehammer

Thanks,
gus

As stated above... 1/4 or any size drill bit and drill two holes thru

[Bino]

As stated above... 1/4 or any size drill bit and drill two holes thru

Fast and effective.  I like it. 

Once, years back, when I worked for a small software company, one of the QA folks showed up at my desk, hopping nervously from one foot to the other.  Birdlike, she was.  She up held a 4mm data tape and declaimed in a serious voice that it contained Highly Sensitive Customer Data and that it must be erased Immediately.  I accepted the tape from her with both hands, like a sararymon receiving a business card.  I peered at it for a moment.  And then I dropped it on the floor and jumped up and down on it, stomping it to bits.  She backed away s-l-o-w-l-y, and never bothered me with trivial crap, ever again.  Go figure.   

[Ruler2]

My brother in law has a HD that he wants to wipe but he does not want to install it in a computer.
what's the best way to physically disable/wipe a hard drive? I said we should just pound it to smithereens with a sledgehammer

Thanks,
gus

Give it to your nearest preschooler for Christmas.

[Ghastly]

How sensitive the data on it is, and how likely is it that anyone is going to try to recover it and to what lengths they'd be prepared to go should determine the method used.  For truly sensitive information, TilDeath's method leaves a lot to be desired.  But if he just doesn't want any Schmuck who finds it in the trash from sticking it in a computer and browsing his vacation pictures, then it's probably going to do the job.

[TilDeath]

...TilDeath's method leaves a lot to be desired....

Really?  This is the prefered method of several Casino's I currently do work for.  Two holes at 180 from each other and the drive is worthless.  The platters become misaligned and the Read/Write head will not float anymore.  We have brought a drive to a recovery company (drive savers) and they we not able to recover the data.  Please explain how you someone (not the government) would recover data from a drilled drive.

TD

[Masherbrum]

Just take a microfiber cloth, dampen it and wipe.

 

[gyrene81]

For truly sensitive information, TilDeath's method leaves a lot to be desired. 

Now I'm curious as to how drilling holes through the platters in a drive "leaves a lot to be desired". Personally I use my manually operated analog super duper 3 pound drive wiper...lay the drive flat on something solid and hit it directly on the spindle with enough force to break rocks...the platters shatter.