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| Thread ID: 22507 | 2002-07-23 04:40:00 | selling pc | Hugh Jarse (1169) | Press F1 |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 64462 | 2002-07-23 04:40:00 | Hi Guys Long hair no time. Im going to sell my pc and upgrade to a newy. I work for a security company {chubb} in Chch and have some delicate info on the hard drive [alarm codes etc] how can I rid the unit of these and make sure they're gone? Regards Hugh |
Hugh Jarse (1169) | ||
| 64463 | 2002-07-23 04:44:00 | Many people will tell you there is no safe way of removing the information of a hard disk entirely. Even if there is no utility at this point in time to be able to retrieve the information, who is to say what technology will be available in the future. There are different options you can take here. 1. Sell the computer as is and take the risk that no one will want to get access to the information. 2. Ask your clients to change the access codes. 3. Keep the hard drive and replace it with a new one - as they are relatively inexpensive these days. Hope this helps. |
kryten (1115) | ||
| 64464 | 2002-07-23 04:49:00 | just reformat the hdd using fdisk, this should wipe the hdd, but there is a 5% chance that the info will still be on the hdd, only random info is kept on the hdd. or if u have win2k or win xp use their boot cds to reformat the hdd, again same 5% chance. or just download some program from tucows (http://www.tucows.co.nz) that wipes ur hdd totally. cheers, v.K----------- :D |
vk_dre (195) | ||
| 64465 | 2002-07-23 04:56:00 | For someone to get the codes off your "erased" hard disk they first have to know what the codes are and where they are/were. They also have to know that there will be such codes on it. You can get an "acceptable" degree of deletion by formatting the disk, then copying, say, a CD, enough times onto it to fill it. Then format again, and it should be effectively "erased". If you work for a security company you will know that alarms and locks "slow honest people down". Dishonest people don't care how much they damage a locked door while opening it, or an alarm box while "turning off" the alarm. ;-) The US DoD used to require that disk drives be mangled by running over with a bulldozer, then burned. Burroughs, although they didn't really mind selling more disks, finally got them to accept something like writing random data to all sectors, about 7 times. But that was for paranoid users. |
Graham L (2) | ||
| 64466 | 2002-07-23 05:10:00 | www.heidi.ie The single greatest program I have ever used. I highly recommend you read through the basics at least, but if you think you know enough anyway then go ahead. I recommend this program to anyone who cares about security. But when deleting everything, just remember; Good things take time. ;) |
Naraku Kasai (1028) | ||
| 64467 | 2002-07-23 05:13:00 | it all depends on how far you want to go. a good way would be to fdisk the drive and then use a program to write random data all over it several times. this will stop about %99.99999 of people access any old info. even if the old data is overwritten its still possible to retreive the data if you have the tools, money and a huge amount of time. which i doubt anyone in this country has and it would cost an extreme amount. if the data is extremly valuable either keep the drive or destroy it phyically.(hardrive now are fairly cheap) |
tweak'e (174) | ||
| 64468 | 2002-07-23 05:43:00 | As you could have contingent liability in the unlikely event it was recovered, why not keep the HDD and add it as a second drive to your new one. Very useful to do a high speed copy over of mission critical data on a daily basis, in case of drive failure (just had one fail here after only 3 months, but 2nd HDD made it easy) |
godfather (25) | ||
| 64469 | 2002-07-23 07:18:00 | You guys have been very helpful I will whip out the hdd and get another from one of the local pc parts people. Thanks for your help and all power to you all Hugh Jarse |
Hugh Jarse (1169) | ||
| 64470 | 2002-07-24 00:58:00 | Really don't mean to be rude, but if I was your boss I would be most displeased to my company's ( a security company's) details of their procedures for critical stuff like codes broadcast on the internet. | mark c (247) | ||
| 64471 | 2002-07-24 02:23:00 | Well, so far all you know is that if you go and buy the guys PC you're gonna get nothing but a brand new HD, so I don't think it's a problem .... | Biggles (121) | ||
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