Author Topic: Recommendations Destroying Storage Media?? (Read 29,170 times)

tinjaw · « **on:** December 23, 2007, 06:01 PM »

I am moving in the next few days. I am throwing away everything I can bare to throw away so I need no move it. This will include several Compact Flash, USB memory sticks, and hard drives. I will be physically destroying all of them, but I still want to wipe them first. I was looking at Eraser. Has anybody used it? There is plenty of freeware and open source programs of this type, so I don't want to pay for anything. What do you recomment?

mouser · « **Reply #1 on:** December 23, 2007, 06:07 PM »

Eraser is very good.

hollowlife1987 · « **Reply #2 on:** December 23, 2007, 06:23 PM »

DBAN is also supposed to be very good and it its a bootable floppy
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

Also as a side note it is sad to see hardware go to waste, maybe you should think bout donating it somewhere.

tinjaw · « **Reply #3 on:** December 23, 2007, 06:29 PM »

Quote from: hollowlife1987 on December 23, 2007, 06:23 PM

Also as a side note it is sad to see hardware go to waste, maybe you should think bout donating it somewhere.

We are talking completely useless stuff that has been sitting in my garage. Stuff like a 4 MEGAbyte CF card. An 8 MEGAbyte USB stick. This is all stuff you can't even buy anymore.

hollowlife1987 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 23, 2007, 06:42 PM »

Ah i see, i hate to go off topic but i know some children museums and PC recycling plants will gladly take the stuff

housetier · « **Reply #5 on:** December 23, 2007, 07:18 PM »

Fire is free and high temperatures will definitely destroy the data. Just melt the stuff in a furnace

Veign · « **Reply #6 on:** December 23, 2007, 09:32 PM »

Might want to check out this post of mine:
http://www.veign.com/blog/2007/11/top-5-free-tools-to-destroy-your-hard.html

(I used the first one on a laptop before giving it away)

Another one:
http://www.veign.com/blog/2007/01/howto-clean-your-hard-drvie-before.html

nosh · « **Reply #7 on:** December 24, 2007, 08:05 AM »

Encrypt --> Erase --> Destroy/Donate.

Edit: Or did I just demonstrate my ignorance here? That's what I do anyway

f0dder · « **Reply #8 on:** December 24, 2007, 09:09 AM »

No point in wasting CPU cycles encrypting a drive, just use a multi-pass wiper...

tinjaw · « **Reply #9 on:** December 24, 2007, 11:14 AM »

I have been using Eraser and I like it. The UI is a bit odd. It doesn't, I don't know, It doesn't "flow".

But it does the trick.

f0dder · « **Reply #10 on:** December 25, 2007, 02:28 PM »

Quote from: tinjaw on December 24, 2007, 11:14 AM

I have been using Eraser and I like it. The UI is a bit odd. It doesn't, I don't know, It doesn't "flow". But it does the trick.

Can eraser handle full partition/disk wipes? Iirc I gave it a quick spin a while ago, but as far as I could tell it could only wipe files...

f0dder · « **Reply #11 on:** December 26, 2007, 12:19 AM »

Thermite? You don't need a few kilos of thermite... not even 100g. Easy to make as well, although you should never try making magnesium filings/powder yourself - buy it in powder form or don't mess with it at all.

Lashiec · « **Reply #12 on:** December 26, 2007, 12:42 AM »

Thermite?

. Do you want to emulate Nicholas Cage saving San Francisco from Alcatraz?

nosh · « **Reply #13 on:** December 26, 2007, 08:57 AM »

Quote from: f0dder on December 25, 2007, 02:28 PM

Can eraser handle full partition/disk wipes? Iirc I gave it a quick spin a while ago, but as far as I could tell it could only wipe files...

It comes bundled with Darik's Boot and Nuke

Quote

Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot floppy that securely
wipes the hard disks of most computers. DBAN will automatically and completely
delete the contents of any hard disk that it can detect, which makes it an
appropriate utility for bulk or emergency data destruction.

More like an OMFG-the-cops-are-coming!!!! utility

f0dder · « **Reply #14 on:** December 26, 2007, 01:38 PM »

I don't feel like using DBAN and leaving Windows just to wipe an external drive clean... and I don't have a floppy drive in my computer anyway. And does it handle external (USB, FireWire) drives, and drives on RAID controllers?

Lashiec · « **Reply #15 on:** December 26, 2007, 04:46 PM »

You can create a bootable CD or DVD, or even a flash drive if you wish. DBAN is more appropriate for the kind of task that tinjaw asked about (I experienced this recently), than for what you inquire, but I think Eraser can be configured to wipe a disk from Windows, if it handles empty space wiping, it should handle the other task as well, it's a matter of installing it

Anyway, DBAN doesn't support drives on RAID controllers:

Quote

Q: Why doesn't DBAN detect the SCSI disks attached to my RAID controller?

A: RAID controllers are unsupported. Only regular SCSI host adapters are supported.

jdmarch · « **Reply #16 on:** December 27, 2007, 02:20 AM »

On-topic but off-question:

A few seconds in a microwave works wonders on a CD-R. Need to watch really closely though and hit stop as soon as the lightning starts to flicker on the CD's surface.

See more info and disclaimer at:
http://www.cdrfaq.org/faq07.html#S7-8

"Disclaimer: I'm not recommending you put a CD into a microwave. CDs may contain metals that will cause your microwave to arc, destroying the microwave emitter (see cautions about metal objects in the manual for your microwave). Don't try this at home. Better yet, don't try this at all."

PhilB66 · « **Reply #17 on:** December 27, 2007, 02:49 AM »

How to REALLY erase a hard drive - the article shows how you can securely wipe a drive using a little-known feature built into many hard drives. (found via Gizmo's Support Alert Newsletter)

lanux128 · « **Reply #18 on:** December 27, 2007, 02:50 AM »

another link from Gizmo's newsletter: How to REALLY erase a hard drive.

[attach=#]
• Source: http://techsupportalert.com/members/Issues/al_current.htm

PhilB66 · « **Reply #19 on:** December 27, 2007, 02:52 AM »

my magic fingers were slightly faster this time lanux128

lanux128 · « **Reply #20 on:** December 27, 2007, 02:58 AM »

true enough, i was just about to post that my twitchy fingers got in the way when i saw your post.. again!

f0dder · « **Reply #21 on:** December 27, 2007, 08:09 AM »

Quote from: jdmarch on December 27, 2007, 02:20 AM

A few seconds in a microwave works wonders on a CD-R. Need to watch really closely though and hit stop as soon as the lightning starts to flicker on the CD's surface.

I did this once, and it was freaking scary. The blue lightning across the surface looked cool, but the noise... the noise creeped me out. The result? Look for yourself:
[attachthumb=#]

vegas · « **Reply #22 on:** December 27, 2007, 11:55 AM »

Quote from: tinjaw on December 23, 2007, 06:01 PM

I am moving in the next few days. I am throwing away everything I can bare to throw away so I need no move it. This will include several Compact Flash, USB memory sticks, and hard drives. I will be physically destroying all of them, but I still want to wipe them first. I was looking at Eraser. Has anybody used it? There is plenty of freeware and open source programs of this type, so I don't want to pay for anything. What do you recomment?

My personal favorite <a href="http://www.dominopower.com/issues/issue200603/00001737001.html">How to destroy a hard drive (on purpose)</a> (includes disassembling). I did this with all of my old drives. Just lovely, and some great fridge magnets when you're done.

Nod5 · « **Reply #23 on:** December 27, 2007, 12:35 PM »

re: CD-r destruction. The microwave solution sounds risky to say the least. Which non-micro mode of CD destruction do you think is best? I wrap the disc in a newspaper, hold it inside a plastic bag and then bend the wrapped disc until it breaks twice. The bag prevents small shards of the disc from falling on the floor. This works but would be tiresome if I needed to destroy many discs since some are tough to break. I wonder if there is some handy tool (some wrench perhaps) that does a better job at CD destruction (with less strain and more rapidly). Any ideas?

f0dder · « **Reply #24 on:** December 27, 2007, 12:40 PM »

Good advice to wrap CDs in newspaper/whatever before breaking, you wouldn't want to get splinters in your eyes. Non-microwave destruction? Burn them. Nasty smoke, though.