General Discussion

So i'm selling my old desktop to a friend of a friend (never met him in person).

I have some financial documents, favorites and perhaps some slightly *embarassing* videos and some personal stuff that i'de just rather not share with others. I deleted all temp files and used the disk cleanup. 

Are there any additional steps i can take short of reformatting (no XP disc) that will ensure my files are deleted? (he's not extremely computer savvy keep in mind)

Thanks MMORPG.

You could always keep the old hard drive, go out and buy a new cheap 30GB, and reinstall the OS on it.

The only way to prevent that information from being recovered is to actually destroy the  hard drive. and that includes taking off the cover and removing the inner disc to do that lol. Reformatting just writes information over the current information and they found at a study from MIT a few years back  that all the information that has ever been written on the hhard drive can be retrieved via magnet, no matter how many times it has been formatted. That is why the government no longer supports 0's formatting instead they incinerate the inner disc now lol.

 and BTW it doesn;t matter how savvy he is .. that hard drive may end up in the trash one day .. where anyone can get ahold of it lol.

Originally posted by deviliscious

The only way to prevent that information from being recovered is to actually destroy the  hard drive.

That's not true. Yes, if you format the drive this is the case, but if you write 0's to the drive, then no.

Use GWScan (search google, yes, it is on a Gateway site). Write 0's at least 7 times. Department of Defense is only a run of 3, but I haven't been able to pull anything after at least 7 (and I use Encase, the FBI's forensic software).

Originally posted by Dekron

Originally posted by deviliscious

The only way to prevent that information from being recovered is to actually destroy the  hard drive.

That's not true. Yes, if you format the drive this is the case, but if you write 0's to the drive, then no.

Use GWScan (search google, yes, it is on a Gateway site). Write 0's at least 7 times. Department of Defense is only a run of 3, but I haven't been able to pull anything after at least 7 (and I use Encase, the FBI's forensic software).

MIT has proven this incorrect. The very first information that was put on these hard drives they used in their study was able to be retrieved even from harddrives that had been entirely rewritten 15 times, they were able to pull each and every layer off a few years back, that was why they changed procedure on this lol.

This is an article on it, but I actually read the study when it was first released years ago .. lol

web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/diskdrives.html

This was about their initial study, they found later that you could retrieve all data even once it had been entirely formatted with additional testing. I am trying to find an article on that, but it was so old , I don't know if the government had it removed  for security reasons ( there was actually a detailed description on how they did it) lol.

Thats why you throw them for a loop, reformat, then fill the entire drive with porn.  Then 0 the drive.

Originally posted by deviliscious 

MIT has proven this incorrect. The very first information that was put on these hard drives they used in their study was able to be retrieved even from harddrives that had been entirely rewritten 15 times, they were able to pull each and every layer off a few years back, that was why they changed procedure on this lol.

This is an article on it, but I actually read the study when it was first released years ago .. lol

web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/diskdrives.html

This was about their initial study, they found later that you could retrieve all data even once it had been entirely formatted with additional testing. I am trying to find an article on that, but it was so old , I don't know if the government had it removed  for security reasons ( there was actually a detailed description on how they did it) lol.

 

Yes, what you are saying is true, but not entirely. If plainly formatted, then yes, it is quite easy. If 0's are written one, two, maybe three times, then yes, ghosted files can be retrieved.I wipe mine with a 3 + 7 + 3 wipe.

Below are the details:

A secure (but slower) 13 pass wipe method, exceeding the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) standards. The first 3 passes are with random patterns, the next 7 passes are the standard passes from the DoD standard and the last 3 passes are with random patterns. The last pass is checked. It can be used to wipe data on compressed drives.

As I said, I use the FBI cyber-forensics toolkit to check my drives and nothing can be retrieved. If, and I stress if, it were possible to pull and restructure data - I don't think the average buyer is going to be able to do so.

Originally posted by Dekron

Originally posted by deviliscious 

MIT has proven this incorrect. The very first information that was put on these hard drives they used in their study was able to be retrieved even from harddrives that had been entirely rewritten 15 times, they were able to pull each and every layer off a few years back, that was why they changed procedure on this lol.

This is an article on it, but I actually read the study when it was first released years ago .. lol

web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2003/diskdrives.html

This was about their initial study, they found later that you could retrieve all data even once it had been entirely formatted with additional testing. I am trying to find an article on that, but it was so old , I don't know if the government had it removed  for security reasons ( there was actually a detailed description on how they did it) lol.

 

Yes, what you are saying is true, but not entirely. If plainly formatted, then yes, it is quite easy. If 0's are written one, two, maybe three times, then yes, ghosted files can be retrieved.I wipe mine with a 3 + 7 + 3 wipe.

It is quite easy for it to be done that way yes, but it still can be done no matter how many times it is wiped by those that know what they are doing.

Below are the details:

A secure (but slower) 13 pass wipe method, exceeding the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) standards. The first 3 passes are with random patterns, the next 7 passes are the standard passes from the DoD standard and the last 3 passes are with random patterns. The last pass is checked. It can be used to wipe data on compressed drives.

As I said, I use the FBI cyber-forensics toolkit to check my drives and nothing can be retrieved. If, and I stress if, it were possible to pull and restructure data - I don't think the average buyer is going to be able to do so.

 It is not removed by normal means, it is done with a magnet from the inner disc, even if you destroy the outer casing the inner disc can still be read with the right equipment.

I was told by a Lieutenant Colonel in the US Army that they no longer support 0 formatting as proper , no they now must incinerate the inner disc due to the new findings.  I too used to manually 0 format  many passes( I was raised military) , but in light of the new data on this, that is still not absolute.