>> I have some hard drives here that have sensitive business data that must
be completely erased and unrecoverable (even by forensic recovery). Will a
full reformat of the drives suffice?
No.
>> Or can data still be recoverable?
Yes.
>> If not, then does anyone know an easy (preferably free) utility for
doing this?
There's a utility called "boot and nuke". Search for it on Google or Source
Forge. It will most likely do a good enough job.
If you MUST be 100% sure, take the drive apart and sandblast the platters.
Certain acids work well.
Over the last 30 years, every time we _think_ we have deleted the data
beyond recovery, some method turns up that allows the data to be recovered.
Mind you, this might be something only a government might have, but you
don't mention how sensitive the data is. One of my buddies that deals with
such things says there is no way you can use the on-board heads to
completely remove all traces of data. 99.999% perhaps, but to achieve 100%
you must destroy the platters.
Ken Elliott
=====================
________________________________
From: slug@nks.net [mailto:slug@nks.net] On Behalf Of Possum
Sent: Sunday, July 16, 2006 8:13 AM
To: slug@nks.net
Subject: [SLUG] Fully Erase Data
I have some hard drives here that have sensitive business data that must be
completely erased and unrecoverable (even by forensic recovery). Will a
full reformat of the drives suffice? Or can data still be recoverable? If
not, then does anyone know an easy (preferably free) utility for doing this?
Thanks,
Possum
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
This list is provided as an unmoderated internet service by Networked
Knowledge Systems (NKS). Views and opinions expressed in messages
posted are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the
official policy or position of NKS or any of its employees.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Fri Aug 01 2014 - 14:40:13 EDT