Episode 74 - Stop Scammers: Nuke, Grind or Melt Your Hard Drive [Discussion]

[bitejr138]

One of the advantages of working in the imaging department at a hospital is the access to a 1.5 Tesla superconductive magnet...you know, the type used for MRI. I've wiped a few HD's in there quickly and for free!

[evogage]

Good episode! For some reason I found this episode quite funny to watch.

Good to see Roger back on screen as well.

[davmoo]

Okay, this brings up a question I've seen in a couple of other places, with no real answer. So I'll put it here too.

Obviously merely deleting files or reformatting a hard drive is not enough.

But does anyone have any actual and non-anecdotal evidence that anyone can recover a drive that's been completely overwritten with data at least once?

As for what I do, I take the simple way out. Once my personal data goes on a hard drive, that hard drive is never released from my possession without being physically destroyed (I disassemble them and introduce the platters to Mr. Acetylene Torch, the motors and magnets go in to the project parts pile, and any remaining bits of metal go in to the scrapyard-bound pile). I keep a stash of drives that have only contained Other People's Data (and even those get dbaned first) that I put in computers that I sell or give away.

[bani-banan]

^ Recover an entire disc is almost impossible.

However, you could use spinrite to recover some data. Even with a drive that is formatted. I've tried it and the results were that I crapped my pants.

[skywise]

There was an article on slashdot recently about a fellow that is challenging the big data recover firms to recover a drive that has had /dev/null written over the entire drive.
None are willing to touch the drive and say it's lost forever.
He's posted a $500 challenge to anyone who can get the data back from a drive that has had just a single zero pass written to it.
http://16systems.com/zero/index.html

Now, maybe the NSA or such could manage to recover your ebay auctions off a zeroed drive, but by the looks of it they would be the only one and even if someone got your drive off Ebay, they couldn't even pay to get the data back.

Good episode though, but you didn't show any glass platter drives blowing up (like Leo did by accident when he tried it back in techTV days, his expression was classic

[barrywoods]

Originally Posted by skywise

There was an article on slashdot recently about a fellow that is challenging the big data recover firms to recover a drive that has had /dev/null written over the entire drive.
None are willing to touch the drive and say it's lost forever.
He's posted a $500 challenge to anyone who can get the data back from a drive that has had just a single zero pass written to it.
http://16systems.com/zero/index.html

Now, maybe the NSA or such could manage to recover your ebay auctions off a zeroed drive, but by the looks of it they would be the only one and even if someone got your drive off Ebay, they couldn't even pay to get the data back.

Good episode though, but you didn't show any glass platter drives blowing up (like Leo did by accident when he tried it back in techTV days, his expression was classic

Given the price of data recovery, it's not worth it. Last time we checked into it prices started at $8000 US and went up from there depending on type of drive damage.

[davmoo]

Originally Posted by skywise

None are willing to touch the drive and say it's lost forever.

I'd be willing to bet that its not simply a matter of "none are willing to touch the drive and say its lost forever", but more a matter of none are willing to touch the drive for a contest that only awards a paltry little $500 prize. And his original prize, a laughable $40 and the winner gets to keep the drive, was totally pathetic.

Now, if he offered a $10,000 or $100,000 prize and no one touched it, then we'd learn something.

[fritze2]

I recently had a chance to use Dariks Boot and Nuke, my wifes HD got infected to the point that I decided to do a reinstall.

Not only that but I just got her another HD instead and worked with the old HD on secondary computer. What I attempted to do was use a IDE to USB adapter to see if I could run the program on it from there.

But alas I was not able to get Boot and Nuke to see the USB attached drive, maybe I was just doing something wrong. It would be really nice if Boot and Nuke could be run on a USB attached drive, I wonder if Darik would ever consider adding this feature.

I ended up running it through the normal IDE cable, meaning cracking the case and disconnecting the other drives. I geuss I could just build a wiping computer with pull out HD, but a USB adapter or docking station would be so much a sweeter solution.

Fritze Out.

Update.

Looks like the 2.0 beta "might" be able to accomplish the task, will give it a go and see.

***************************

Well so far so good, it worked through mainboards usb hub and then through an external Dynex hub. We will see how well it worked, 14 hours from now, lol.

Mersenne, DoD Short

Now I can take my stack of old HDs and wipe them out via USB, Coolio!!!

[barrywoods]

Originally Posted by Fritze2

I recently had a chance to use Dariks Boot and Nuke, my wifes HD got infected to the point that I decided to do a reinstall.

Not only that but I just got her another HD instead and worked with the old HD on secondary computer. What I attempted to do was use a IDE to USB adapter to see if I could run the program on it from there.

But alas I was not able to get Boot and Nuke to see the USB attached drive, maybe I was just doing something wrong. It would be really nice if Boot and Nuke could be run on a USB attached drive, I wonder if Darik would ever consider adding this feature.

I ended up running it through the normal IDE cable, meaning cracking the case and disconnecting the other drives. I geuss I could just build a wiping computer with pull out HD, but a USB adapter or docking station would be so much a sweeter solution.

Fritze Out.

Update.

Looks like the 2.0 beta "might" be able to accomplish the task, will give it a go and see.

***************************

Well so far so good, it worked through mainboards usb hub and then through an external Dynex hub. We will see how well it worked, 14 hours from now, lol.

Mersenne, DoD Short

Now I can take my stack of old HDs and wipe them out via USB, Coolio!!!

Hey, that's good to know! My last job I set up an older Dell just for wiping drives. Pulled the side off and the pci extension board thingy. Left it sitting up on a shelf with just the ide cables hanging out. I also had a couple laptop drive adapters sitting in it. With the dban floppy set to autostart the autonuke. I'd just throw in four drives and power it up.

[raoulrod]

Here is a link to the best/most fun I have had destroying a Hard Drive:

www.allrod.com/hd_destroy_large.wmv

Enjoy.