OT: Can Reformatting A Hard Drive To ext3 Destroy All the Data On It?

Joe Kazura jnk at mickey.unh.edu
Tue Jun 16 13:07:43 UTC 2009


LOL - One would think, but it's not 'good enough' according to our  
University's Security Czar!


On Jun 9, 2009, at 11:05 PM, Markus Kesaromous wrote:

> Would using a powerful magnet also work?? :)
>
>
> > From: ehemdal at townisp.com
> > To: fedora-list at redhat.com
> > Date: Tue, 9 Jun 2009 22:58:05 -0400
> > Subject: Re: OT: Can Reformatting A Hard Drive To ext3 Destroy All  
> the Data On It?
> >
> >
> >
> > > Robert L Cochran wrote:
> > >> I have a hard drive that I need to destroy the data on. What is  
> the most
> > >> dependable way to do this? Can reformatting the drive as ext3  
> or ext4 or
> > >> some other filesystem effectively destroy the existing data?
> > >>
> > >> Is there free software that can write zeroes or some form of  
> nonsense to
> > >> every storage location?
> > >
> > >
> > > Overwriting the disc, even several times, is not enough to  
> guarantee
> > > that the data _cannot_ be recovered. If you truly need to make the
> > > data unrecoverable, then a hammer is all that's needed. To be  
> truly
> > > sure, open the case (also requires a screwdriver or nutdriver),
> > > and shatter each disc separately. They are usually ceramic these
> > > days, I think. Anyway, physical destruction is the only real  
> guarantee.
> > >
> > > Mike
> >
> > Much depends on how "destroyed" your data needs to be. You can  
> certainly
> > write zeros to a drive
> >
> > dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hda #or whatever device is your drive
> >
> > does the trick. But if you have any special partitions for  
> diagnostics, a
> > "recovery image", or you just have some space on the drive that  
> can't be
> > reached then this won't really destroy everything. Some drives have
> > reserved areas that aren't accessible through normal OS means.
> >
> > There are programs like Darik's Boot and Nuke (dban.org) that  
> claim to
> > destroy data by various means. I don't know if they can clean
> > manufacturer's reserved areas on the drive.
> >
> > If you have very sensitive data, then as Mike posted, shatter the  
> drive.
> > Break it so that no piece of the disk is larger than one disk  
> sector,
> > otherwise a piece might have a cleanly recoverable chunk of data  
> on it.
> >
> > This link might help:
> > http://www.stanford.edu/group/security/securecomputing/data_destruction_guidelines.html
> >
> > I know that there are a number of commercial services that offer  
> to destroy
> > disks, recycle what can be recovered, and provide you evidence of  
> "observed
> > destruction", although I don't have much experience with them.
> >
> > Erik
> >
> >
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