Single Drive Wipe Protects Data

ALF-nl writes "A forensics expert claims that wiping your hard drives with just one pass already makes it next to impossible to recover the data with an electron microscope." But that's not accounting for the super secret machines that the government has, man.

One wipe is not enough.

[htnmmo]

One wipe is never enough.

Didn't your mommy teach you anything?

Especially true after Taco Bell.

Data destruction advice of the week

[sakdoctor]

I thought a few weeks ago we were supposed to drill holes in the drive platters and fill the case with thermite, then drop the whole computer into the fires of mount doom.

This week, a one pass wipe is enough.

We need mythbusters!

[dbIII]

Myhtbusters need to look at this. Then they should do a wipe that would really suit their style - a shock wave through the drive will raise the temperature at the wave front above that where the material is magenetic (curie temperature). In other words - explosives!

Re:Data destruction advice of the week

[Anonymous Coward]

Next week they'll discover a new alien technology and the security experts will be advising us to nuke the drive from orbit. It's the only way to be sure...

Also

[DetpackJump]

I found that taking the disk platter out and using it as a coaster helps too.

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[postbigbang]

Sadly, it's best just to physically destroy the drive after use. I suggest a two-year old child just after its nap ought to do the trick.

Re:We need mythbusters!

[Drakkenmensch]

*cue the super slow-motion shot of Buster holding a hard drive being blown up with a hundred pounds of C4, followed by Jamie picking up a blackened twisted shred of metal casing*

"Well there's your problem!"

Lies

[Renderer of Evil]

Last month my grandma asked for a new laptop and prior to putting her old HP on ebay I wiped it via Gutmann 35-Pass method, way above DoD and NATO standards, so her ultra-secret vanilla cake recipe could remain a household secret.

Re:Data destruction advice of the week

[necro81]

The thermite isn't necessary for wiping out your data, it's just there because it's freakin' AWESOME!

Re:One wipe is not enough.

[craagz]

This guy here [bash.org] will need 30 bullets to wipe his hard drives.

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[morgan_greywolf]

Yep. They'll never get my data. It's all encrypted with the superior ROT13 encryption method. Twice just to be sure.

Simpler approach

[bunratty]

I've found one pass of a sledgehammer makes it next to impossible to recover data from a disk. Even read-only media!

Why bother...

[Anonymous Coward]

Just let someone's 13-year-old daughter have it for a few hours. They'll surely destroy your entire computer that will become irretrievable.

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[Zordak]

[I]t's best just to physically destroy the drive after use. I suggest a two-year old child just after its nap

Armed with a peanut butter and jelly sandwich!

Re:Lies

[paeanblack]

Using a Gutmann 35-pass wipe is like cleaning your sink with bleach, shampoo, baby wipes, ammonia, laundry detergent, insecticide, paint remover, furniture polish, glass cleaner, body wash, whiteboard cleaner, and gasoline.

Using full Gutmann suite is a waste of time. You only ever need the 1 or 2 runs that were designed for your drive.

Essentially, you did the computing equivalent of trying to clean a barbecue grill with saline solution.

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[zappepcs]

I dismantle mine and make those cool clocks out of them for xmas gifts. A couple have it where the platters are mounted on a spindle also over a mirror, and move counter-clockwise. So far, only two epileptics have succumbed to the effects.

Re:Just one layer of paint

[Piranhaa]

I hear writing random numbers like 2s and 9s to the drive works REALLY well

Learned it on "Red Dwarf"

[Anonymous Coward]

"One up, one down, one to polish."

Dave Lister

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[Hinhule]

You sure dismantling two-year olds is entierly legal? Not to mention making clocks out of the remains.

Tin foil hats focus mind control rays.

[spaceturtle]

... making it easier for the government to control your mind ... just so you know.

Re:If it 'snot good enough for the feds...

[Anonymous Coward]

> Anyone who posts on /. has, by definition, no data the NSA, KGB, Gestapo or any other such entity could possibly be interested in.

I am Osama Bin Laden, you insensitive clCARRIER LOST

Re:Lies

[jimicus]

Using a Gutmann 35-pass wipe is like cleaning your sink with bleach, shampoo, baby wipes, ammonia, laundry detergent, insecticide, paint remover, furniture polish, glass cleaner, body wash, whiteboard cleaner, and gasoline.

Oh, so you've seen my sink?

Re:One wipe is not enough.

[Anonymous Coward]

I take my drive apart and then wipe the disk surfaces once with sandpaper. Was never able to read the disks afterward. So one wipe is enough.

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[jonadab]

I prefer wiping the drive eleven times with cryptographically-sound random data, then grinding the entire computer to a fine talcum-powder consistency, mixing it thoroughly with twenty pounds of dry powdered cement, then stir in the water and gravel to make concrete. When it starts to get thick, start stirring in the ten pounds of small rare-earth magnets, one at a time. Let it set, then dip it repeatedly in molten steel. Finally, use a high-powered electromagnet to lift and drop the resulting brick into the hot part of an active volcano, then push the planet it's on into the nearest star.

I suppose an attacker *might* not be able to recover the data if you skipped the last step, but why take chances?

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[hack slash]

Your brother in law got wiped by a magnetic fish tank cleaner?

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[commodore64_love]

Whatever.

There's nothing on my hard drive important enough to steal (I keep all my records in a safe). Unless somebody has a strong desire for 50 gigs of women riding sybians or playing with vibrators?!? I'm not sure why you'd want to steal that which you can get for free via bittorent.

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[KudyardRipling]

Incomplete procedure! ....the nearest start that is about to go supernova next to a supermassive black hole that wormholes to an antimatter universe.

Get it right, damn it!

Re:One wipe is not enough.

[rubycodez]

and both female slashdotters should remember to always wipe front to back

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[bgerlich]

Johnny "magnetic fish tank" Staccone, a cleaner for the Gambino family

Child kills drive, drive kills child...

[Tetsujin]

The problem there is occasionally the drive wins or claims a draw by destroying the child as well.

Part of most if not all HDDs fall well under the "choking hazard" category.

Problem? I really don't see a down-side here...

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[postbigbang]

That's all right, you may not have to worry if it's a 1TB Seagate drive. They self-brick.

Re:One wipe is not enough.

[Sinning]

if (drive == unusable) then BashWithSledge();

Re:My wipe is better :-)

[Baton Rogue]

I used to be a blacksmith too, but then I switched to jewelcrafting.

Re:Why are we still discussing this?!

[drfireman]

I used to do that, but it's a weak procedure. People can infer what you've been up to by the lengths to which you will go to wipe your drive. Once you push the planet into a star, there are only a few possibilities for what was on your drive. (Shame on you.)

Re:My wipe is better :-)

[timroerstroem]

My solution: Iron(III)oxide and aluminium [wikipedia.org] (or magnesium for increased effect and ease of ignition).

Re:My wipe is better :-)

[lenester]

Ehh, JC's good for the cash, but engineering is the best way to carry a joke too far.

Re:My wipe is better :-)

[burnin1965]

that mother would defeat the most earnest efforts of the NSA

At which point the NSA turns it over to the CIA who have devised a powerful tool for data extraction, waterboarding. Fortunately for you the technique will be outlawed tomorrow.

Re:One wipe is not enough.

[Meski]

The taco bell in my city doesn't have one, but it is right next to the only hotel without roaches so you can use their free one.

The wifi killed all the roaches.

Re:One wipe is not enough.

[EdIII]

I used a script to sanitize drives used in forensic collection. First pass writes from /dev/urandom, second pass writes from /dev/zero.

I use a script that writes random files from a 6TB collection of porn. That way, when somebody does find the drive it will be impossible for them to argue that I overwrote it with porn.

Why is this drive filled with 2TB of porn? Answer: Why NOT?

Why do you have to 10 drives filled with the same porn? Answer: My backup policies force me to protect data relative to it's importance. Next.

Did these drives always have porn on them? Answer: Absolutely.

Most juries would buy those answers in a second.