Re: Clean the Drive

Tech-Archive recommends: Repair Windows Errors & Optimize Windows Performance

KillDisk will make several passes and write 1's and 0's each time to cover
any foresic traces...
~B

"Grok" <grok@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:uCJ897HRGHA.5908@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
JCO wrote:
| Not sure where to post this but was hoping I can get a answer from you
| guys. A friend wants to wipe a drive clean before giving her computer to
| Charity.
|
| I want to clean the drive... wipe it clean. I mean shred the HD so that
| personal information cannot be revived. I know Norton can do a Wipe, but
| to do that... I have to slave the HD onto another computer.
|
| Is there a Floppy type boot that can Wipe the drive clean?
| Can Norton Systemworks do this from a CD Boot.
|
| Thanks

Maxtor has a download that you can use to create a bootable utility floppy
disk that you can use to zero-fill harddrives. If you choose to do a full
zero fill - which literally can take hours - best done overnight - then
the
utility writes zeros to the entire drive. I don't know how D.O.D.
standards
complaint such a utility is, but is effective enough to keep any casual
snoops from finding anything. And because it zaps the first sectors, it
also
wipes out any harddrive virus that may have gotten on there.

Essentially the drive is rendered "clean" i.e. like new - all zeros - and
never used..

This is not to say that if a snoop were to send the harddrive to forensic
ananlysis data couldn't be recovered. Even if you set all bits to zero
there
is possible magnetic residue from past writes. If that is your worry and
to
cover those tracks you need a utility that doesn't just "clean" the drive,
rather writes bogus data to the drive several times over to hide any
magnetic etc. residue. Depends what you want. PGP has a utility you can
run
from Windows that does that. Run that first, then full zero-fill and the
drive should be A-OK.

Strategy for the whole works:

Plug drive in as second. Reformat. PGP wipe. Boot to Maxtor floppy. Run
full
zero fill on it. Like new.

Strategy to just clean:

Boot to Maxtor floppy. Run full zero fill on it. Like new.

---
Grok
Yes, there is more than one way to skin a cat.




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Relevant Pages

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