secure data erasing

Sat Dec 10 01:19:38 PST 2005

If the drives were not to be re-used:
- DD 5-8 times(xor, 0, 1)
- Dismantle
- Melt platters or sand blast the coating off of the plates.
- Makes nice modern art, especially with the sanded bits used as glitter.

Wing.

On 12/9/05, Hans Jacobsen <hans.jacobsen at gmail.com> wrote:
> It sounds like re-using the drives is not the objective.
>
> Frankly, I gave a couple of drives to a very trusted employee.  He
> took them to a target range an shot them with a high-powered rifle.
> Not a handgun - not enough to go through...  A rifle went through - a
> few holes will give a good challenge to recovery.
>
> If that isn't enough:  dd first, de-gauss, then shoot - that should
> guarantee it can't ever be read again.
>
> -hej
>
>
> On 12/8/05, Wing Wong <wingedpower at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Huh.. original got munged:
> >
> > http://www.spectrumwest.com/Attach2.htm
> >
> > Degaussing risks not only wiping the track data, but also damaging the
> > perm magnets as well as the servo coils themselves. All of this risks
> > rendering the hard drive unusable. If the purpose is to reuse the hard
> > drives(as data devices), then degaussing is a bad idea.
> >
> > As others have noted, the hammer approach would do limited damage to
> > the actual platters. The disk won't be usable afterwards, but the data
> > can still be recovered, etc.
> >
> > Btw, has the decision maker decided where this degausser would operate
> > so that it won't damage/affect devices not slated for
> > wiping/destruction?
> >
> > Wing.
> >
> > > On 12/7/05, Alvin Oga <alvin at mail.linux-consulting.com> wrote:
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > hi ya jim
> > > >
> > > > On Wed, 7 Dec 2005, Jim Kavitsky wrote:
> > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi, Alvin. Are you going to be retaining possession of the disks, or do
> > > > > they have to go off site? I'm also curious as to why software erasure is
> > > > > not an option.
> > > >
> > > > not my choice ( yet )
> > > >
> > > > they want degaussing for whatever reason ... :-)
> > > >
> > > > > Is it a matter of being too labor intensive for the
> > > > > number of devices that you have? The DoD has published data erasure
> > > > > standards for classified hard drives that specify bit patterns and
> > > > > number of passes required to eliminate residual data traces. Several of
> > > > > the software vendors out there claim to be DoD compliant, including this
> > > > > one:
> > > > >
> > > > > http://www.eraseyourharddrive.com
> > > >
> > > > it doesn't need to be dod compliant
> > > >
> > > > and if i was using sw to erase it, i'd just use dd if=/dev/random and loop
> > > > it 10x or something
> > > >
> > > > c ya
> > > > alvin
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Wing Wong
> > > wingedpower at gmail.com
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > Wing Wong
> > wingedpower at gmail.com
> >
> >
>
>

--
Wing Wong
wingedpower at gmail.com