Posted on 03/11/2009 1:29:17 PM PDT by LibWhacker
Very Interesting.
However, data recovery is 100% impossible on a hard disk shattered by a 5.56 round then burned... :)
I take the default in DBAN, it is good enough for me.
Flipping between 1 and Zer0 a few times couldn’t hurt. The computer can do the work while you sleep. Where’s the problem here?
Or, you can be less dramatic and use scissors.
A lot depends on what equipment you have to read the data with. I double wipe all my customer drives, random patterns, every bit, every sector, every track, every cylinder.
No exceptions.
If the drive is broke, I really break it ... into pieces, then make sure to bend the platters completely.
I used to design and manufacture hard disk drives. You might be surprised what can be recovered. I take the side of the software manufacturers, I think they are doing it safe.
My understanding is that spin rotation of magnetic molecules can be derived from as many as eight past magnetic impulses. This is only true for the most extremely expensive recovery techniques, though.
Odds are, those are never used with you or me.
HA!
One Gig ain't old.
You want old? I remember when a 10Meg hard drive was the Cat's Ass.
Personally, I’m a little suspicious that this comes out just as Leon Panetta is taking over at the CIA!
Full height 5MB for me. Seems weird even typing that since I have a 1TB drive that cost about $100.
It's comforting to know I did the right thing. I guess.
Backup! (Talking to self, here.)
more interesting as I understand it using a wand or handheld device may not introduce enough current to fool a forensic reader. Enough Magnetism may be present to read it. You need to wipe with the same or more current to eliminate the data.
It's worth noting that the only 'approved' decommissioning technique for hard drives which contained classified data remains physically melting the drive. That's good enough for me. :)
BUT!!!
Okay, so you are working on a very secret document in MS Word. you then close the document, copy it to a jump drive and securely delete the original. Done! Right?
No, because MS Office (among others) will write (seemingly hidden “temp” files to disk that can esaily be recovered in plain form to be read by the offending app. There are any number of free appliations that can find and ressurect such files.
Wiping a file is not nearly enough, one must wipe the drive.
Correction: Wipe the free space of the drive
I think the author is correct, however like all superstitions and myth’s, it’ll die hard, and people will keep spending money. I shred drives when I’m done with them, which is, I guess, best practice, and more practical than any other method considering the fact that I dispose of 10-20 a week sometimes, all with critical info on them.
Geeze, you guys must be babies... our first home computer didn't even have a hard drive.. everything was on 5.25 inch floppies. :-)
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