Wipe a hard drive?

[leco]

I have been merrily wiping laptops prior to disposal. However one machine refuses to be wiped, it's a Compal SW91. I am using Dban autonuke, which goes through the preliminaries starts to wipe then immediately brings up the DONE screen - with non-fatal errors. Nothing on the hard drive has been removed. Any ideas what's going on or another utility that I can use?

[LeMarchand]

http://trinities.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/hammer.jpg

[mac_shinobi]

kill disk

 

Active@ Kill Disk. Hard Drives Eraser. Free Download.

 

List of stuff in below link

 

Free Secure File / Disk Deletion Tools: Destructively delete or wipe data in files / hard disks (thefreecountry.com)

 

If you run an fdisk to make it one big partition and then run a chkdsk /r then try dban again ?

 

What about the below tool - drill a load of holes through the platters / pcb board etc

 

http://www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk/hammerdrill.jpg

[SYNACK]

Has the BIOS setup protection been set on that laptop, this would restrict access to the MBR of the disk and cause the wipe to fail.

[leco]

Thanks for the suggestions - I'd like to use the first one but, knowing my luck, I'd do more damage to myself than the drive. I'll take a look at the BIOS and follow the links. Thanks.

[mac_shinobi]

if you have another laptop you can fit it in or a hard drive kit you can wipe it that way and ditch that compaq laptop ref trying to format it on the compaq laptop

[dwhyte85]

http://trinities.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/hammer.jpg

 

It's the way forward in terms of data destruction

[mac_shinobi]

I thought companies that were certified to destroy hard drives were better and they use those cool looking hard drive shredders and you end up with tiny tiny pieces

[dwhyte85]

Yea, but you don't get to laugh manically while you batter the poop out of the hard drive.

 

Certified destruction is obviously better for your records, smashing the poop out of them for self satisfaction.

[jamesfed]

Maybe try running a USB/DVD drive bootable version of Linux then use Eraser to destory the hard drive?

I do like the hammer wau as well though

[leco]

Looked at the BIOS - nothing to set other than the boot sequence, so no joy there. Putting it into another laptop, one I've already flattened, thanks mac_shinobi, I also have an external caddy so might try that on another machine as well. If all else fails, (don't think audit would take to the hammer idea sadly) I'll have to call in a favour and get it shredded.

[mac_shinobi]

Looked at the BIOS - nothing to set other than the boot sequence, so no joy there. Putting it into another laptop, one I've already flattened, thanks mac_shinobi, I also have an external caddy so might try that on another machine as well. If all else fails, (don't think audit would take to the hammer idea sadly) I'll have to call in a favour and get it shredded.

 

no problem - if still a problem, you could maybe see if the design department could use some of there metal cutting tools / drills etc to ah, well completely obliterate it into tiny pieces - something to the effect of

 

"Will it blend"

[laserblazer]

It's important not to take half measures with data security.

 

http://www2.montana.edu/policy/student_trips/images/dynamite.jpg

[MichaelL]

DBAN is a great wiping tool. We run that on the system, drill a few holes on to the platter and then end up hammering a bit and then chucking out the disc. Hope that helps you

[elsiegee40]

I find that a teenage son and a set of tools is best for wiping HDDs. It keeps him amused for ages extracting the drives and then taking the drives to bits - the platters are definitely not readable once he's finished with them.

 

Got any bored pupils at the start of term?

[maestromasada]

. However one machine refuses to be wiped

 

lol, i love that sentence: I refuse to be wiped! that's machine taking over!

 

Have you tried Low Level format? Remove the Hdd to connected to another system as a slave, then format. This utility leaves no traces whatsoever!

[jimmy_2k]

DBAN Autonuke is very handy for securley wiping hard drives and also testing laptop hard drives which have failed due to being dropped by the user!

 

If the machine isn't letting you format or nuke the disk, go into BIOS and the MBR protection might be called virus protection. Turn that off and try again

[mjs_mjs]

Just ask science for their most powerful magnet, or hammer as mentioned, even better is burn the platters in a fume cupboard.

[Cools]

Gdisk (norton: look for old mother board CD with ghost on it you might find it there...) does DOD level wipe.. it takes ages...

[jimmy_2k]

Just ask science for their most powerful magnet, or hammer as mentioned, even better is burn the platters in a fume cupboard.

 

Yeh I had a Physics tech who used to brag that he could get a magnet to stick to a car travelling at 60MPH. Burn the platters? long as they don't set off the firealarm again!

[Arthur]

If DBAN doesn't work, you may want to try HDDErase. This uses the "Secure Erase" command built into the drives firmware which will erase the entire drive including bad sectors.

 

Q: What is secure erase?

A: The ANSI T-13 committee which oversees the ATA (also known as IDE) interface specification and the ANSI T-10 committee which governs the SCSI interface specification have incorporated into their standards a command feature known as Secure Erase (SE). Secure erase is a positive easy-to-use data destroy command, amounting to “electronic data shredding.” It completely erases all possible user data areas by overwriting, including the so-called g-lists that contain data in reallocated disk sectors (sectors that the drive no longer uses because they have hard errors in them). SE is a simple addition to the existing “format drive” command present in computer operating systems and storage system software and adds no cost to hard disk drives. Since the Secure Erase command is carried out within a hard disk drive it doesn’t require any additional software to implement.

[Arthur]

These will also work...

 

http://img440.imageshack.us/img440/7415/770fcuriouslystrongmagn.jpg

[Guest TheLibrarian]

I find that a teenage son and a set of tools is best for wiping HDDs. It keeps him amused for ages extracting the drives and then taking the drives to bits - the platters are definitely not readable once he's finished with them.

 

Got any bored pupils at the start of term?

 

Watch out for the drives with glass platters!

[BatchFile]

My approach has always been physical rather than electronic, shall we say, particularly for drives that have been in a server. Usually involves a 4lb lump hammer and a cold chisel - AFTER taking the cover off:evil_twisted:

[mdrabble]

The hammer approach is much better..... just think of all the frustration that could be vented :-)