Thread: Wiping data from an old drive - best way?

https://dban.org/ is what I would use if this was a problem I was concerned about

Thanks poundy. Well I guess that's the thing - should I be concerned? Or should I just delete the files (in the usual way) and take the thing to the recycle centre at the tip? Thoughts of Russian criminals stealing my clients' identities, showing up at the front door etc....

Just noticed this on that website "It cannot detect or erase SSDs" (it has an SSD).

Interesting concept: if that software is run, how can it finish the job? Wouldn't it be like HAL in 2001 "My mind is going Dave, I can feel it" What I mean is the software would need disk space to run.....

How easy is it to just initialise the drive through DOS?

Hammer.

I found this online for doing it with diskpart through command prompt, so I think I'll have a go with that.
https://www.easeus.com/partition-mas...nd-prompt.html

Nah, doesn't work. Says I need that drive for the computer to work. Apparently it doesn't want to lose its mind. Bloody thing.

Another site said type systemreset -factoryreset but systemreset is not a valid command apparently.

ah, SSD
The common tool recommended by 9 out of 10 CNET reviewers is Parted Magic, https://partedmagic.com/secure-erase/.

I ended up doing what this guy suggests which is to create a new user account, delete the old account and check "delete files". That'll do - it's an antique that I doubt anyone would be interested in anyway.

Originally Posted by FenceFurniture

(it's an early Solid State Drive from ~2007).

Originally Posted by poundy

ah, SSD

Yeah, and I only just mentioned that at the last minute....just in case it made a difference, and apparently it does.

back when I was working I had access to some truly massive image files -- 20 to 30 GB each.
deleting the exiting files, compacting the disc and then writing a few of the image files onto the drive
then repeating the process a couple of times was a pretty surefire way of erasing previous data.

Originally Posted by ian

back when I was working I had access to some truly massive image files -- 20 to 30 GB each.
deleting the exiting files, compacting the disc and then writing a few of the image files onto the drive
then repeating the process a couple of times was a pretty surefire way of erasing previous data.

One of the things I read or watched suggested exactly that. I'm cleaning up and compacting the disk right now. I could copy my MP3 music folder onto it (it's 32Gb) and it's only a 32Gb disk.

Copying the MP3 folder from this Toshiba is quick (USB 3 ports and Flashdrive with USB 3) - maybe 9 minutes, but going onto the old Dell will be a little different......

Deleting a file does not erase the data. There are software that wipes the disk, by literally writing and rewriting random bits many times. That's the only sure way to wipe files permanently.

PGP (The encryption company) had a free software where it would overwrite the drive with random binary, then repeat it a number of times as chosen by the user. It's not impossible to recover, but very difficult.

Saying that, after wiping I'd still put a hammer drill through it a number of times.

Originally Posted by justonething

Deleting a file does not erase the data. There are software that wipes the disk, by literally writing and rewriting random bits many times. That's the only sure way to wipe files permanently.

But surely overwriting all available space with music files (or whatever) will mean no previous data can be retrieved? My intention is to delete the music files anyway (even though they won't really be deleted).

I mean, if the previous data was still available underneath the music then I would have found a way to increase the storage capacity of the disk.....

Originally Posted by Fuzzie

Hammer.

This.