Thread: truely Cleaning a hard disk

  1. #16
    Refugee face_master's Avatar
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    I have also seen a rather amazing case where a guy in the US was convicted of murder and one of the key peices of evidence used was a floppy disk that contained a letter to a man who was hired to kill his wife. They were able to reconstruct the data from a floppy that was formatted then cut up into tiny peices with serrated scissors.
    I would have done the same thing, but burnt it (but then again, im not dumb enough to place incimidating evidence on a piece of digital media. A piece of paper burns pretty well

    As you can tell I like to burn things. My mum is still hassling me about the absence of grass in our backyard

  2. #17
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    I heard that filling the drive with random data 7 times, anything less than that can be considered recoverable.

  3. #18
    Redundantly Redundant RoD's Avatar
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    The only way to remove everything, is to destroy it, period.

  4. #19
    PC Fixer-Upper Waldo2k2's Avatar
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    write 2's to the entire hdd 13 times and then the gremlins will come out and destroy the computer of anyone who tries to recover the data.
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  5. #20
    In The Light
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    howdy,
    years ago i read that the US government used "A"'s and "8"'s they would first fill the entire disk with A's then fill the entire disk with 8's

    M.R.
    I don't like you very much. Please post a lot less.
    Cheez
    *and then*
    No, I know you were joking. My point still stands.

  6. #21
    Unregistered Leeman_s's Avatar
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    Just so you guys know......


    When you format a hard disk, you are not really erasing the information at all. You are making the hard drive THINK that there is nothing there. Then it's able to be overwritten easily as the HD is saying there is no information on it.

    Think of it like a flag that says "ooh we've got some stuff over here, over here, etc". You just make it say "ok we're all clean", but really isn't

  7. #22
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    when you say "write A's then 8's" how would you do that, you cant exactly go into memory and go, ok you are now a and you are now 8??? ... or am i wrong?
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

  8. #23
    PC Fixer-Upper Waldo2k2's Avatar
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    Originally posted by dP munky
    when you say "write A's then 8's" how would you do that, you cant exactly go into memory and go, ok you are now a and you are now 8??? ... or am i wrong?
    Im assuming he means write the bitcode version of A and 8 (which is how it's saved on a hard drive in the first place)
    8 in bitcode:
    00010000
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  9. #24
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    so youre saying open up notepad and in binary do one of these 1000
    1000
    1000
    1000
    1000
    1000????



    * i know this doesnt really matter, but i've heard this question a few times and seriously wonder how you would do that
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

  10. #25
    PC Fixer-Upper Waldo2k2's Avatar
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    not quite
    first of all, the text file adds organization to the drive, as well as an entry in the MFT...which is self destructive to the fact that you're trying to format the thing "for good".
    You would write a program that's run from a floppy, it uses a for loop to sequentially write the bit code for 8 and A in your case to each sequential block until the end of the disk is reached.
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  11. #26
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    gotcha! that makes a lot of sense. but i still insist the only way to truly get rid of the information is to burn that mutha....i just think that if it was that easy to do, the fbi wouldnt find stuff on pplz computers
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

  12. #27
    PC Fixer-Upper Waldo2k2's Avatar
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    >>burn that mutha....

    i completely agree
    i had a hdd about a month ago, it got quick formatted (no biggy) then converted to ntfs, then fully formatted to fat32....still got data back
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  13. #28
    Has a Masters in B.S.
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    >but i still insist the only way to truly get rid of the information is to burn that mutha

    you only wish it was that easy... people pay to have the data recovered after the HDD has been burned and it can be done, even when the drive is burned so bad the casing has peeled open from the heat.

    hey did you know they can see whats on your monitor from across the street?!!

    The only, and i mean only way to keep them out of your private data is not to have it.

    now go eat some cookies or something.
    ADVISORY: This users posts are rated CP-MA, for Mature Audiences only.

  14. #29
    In The Light
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    howdy,
    THEY can see my CRT from accross the street, THEY can recover data from burnt HDD's, THEY can listen to what i say....

    i don't know who THEY are but THEY are starting to ........ me off

    ::itld reaches for his tin foil hat and dark glasses, closes all o fhte window shades::

    M.R.
    I don't like you very much. Please post a lot less.
    Cheez
    *and then*
    No, I know you were joking. My point still stands.

  15. #30
    cereal killer dP munky's Avatar
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    "even when the drive is burned so bad the casing has peeled open from the heat."
    If im gunna burn it, im gunna take the case off separate it and burn it and bury the ashes in different locations.

    it doesnt really matter though if they wanna find out what you got they'll get it, but im gunna make it as hard as possible.

    now YOU go eat some cookies or something.
    guns dont kill people, abortion clinics kill people.

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