[ktvt] Fw: [accesscomp] Sunday's Tech Tip from dan
- From: "thao vy" <missyguide@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <ktvt@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 21 Mar 2010 13:40:34 -0400
----- Original Message -----
From: Bob Acosta
To: Bob Acosta
Sent: Sunday, March 21, 2010 11:23 AM
Subject: [accesscomp] Sunday's Tech Tip from dan
Dan's Tech Tips:
Leave No Trace: How To Completely Erase Your Hard Drives, SSDs and Thumb Drives
http://gizmodo.com/5489933/leave-no-trace-how-to-completely-erase-your-hard-drives-ssds-and-thumb-drives
With stories abounding of identity theft aided by information lifted from
discarded storage devices, you want devices you no longer plan to use to have
no usable information when they head out the door.
Here's how to wipe them clean.
http://gizmodo.com/tag/howto/
Why Erasing Files Is Not Enough
Sure, you could erase the contents of the drive, but keep this in mind: the act
of erasing a file does not remove it from a storage device.
When you erase/delete a file from your computer, it's not really gone until the
areas of the disk it used are overwritten by new information. If you use the
normal Windows delete function, the "deleted" file is sent to the Recycle Bin
until the space it uses is required by other files. If you use Shift-Delete to
bypass the Recycle Bin, the space occupied by the file is marked as available
for other files. However, the file could be recovered days or even weeks later
with third-party data recovery software.
As long as the operating system does not reuse the space occupied by a file
with another file, the "deleted" file can be recovered.
With SSDs, the erased file situation is even more complex. SSDs store data in
blocks rather than in sectors as with magnetic storage. Overwriting a block was
previously used involves copying the contents of the block to cache, wiping the
block's contents, delete the block to be overwritten from cache, writing the
new data to cache, and rewriting the block with the new data. As an SSD is used
with files that are deleted or changed frequently, the performance can drop
unless the drive (and operating system) support a technology called TRIM that
wipes out deleted data blocks as soon as the file using the blocks is deleted.
TRIM is supported by Windows 7 and by some late model SSDs, but not by older
Windows versions. So, disk wiping can be both a security feature and a
performance improvement strategy.
Data Wiping Versus File Erasure
http://gizmodo.com/tag/datawiping/
While erasing files simply marks file space as available for reuse, data wiping
overwrites all data space on a storage device, replacing useful data with
garbage data. Depending upon the method used, the overwrite data could be zeros
(also known as "zero-fill")
or could be various random patterns.
Products that can be used for wiping hard disks might not be suitable for
wiping other types of drives. In this article, we will look at methods for
securely wiping hard disks, USB flash memory devices, flash memory cards, and
SSDs.
Zero-Fill a Hard Disk
Time Needed: several hours (varies with size and speed of drive)
Software: Hard disk utility software from your drive vendor
Media: blank CD or floppy disk
Although writing zeroes across the entire hard disk surface (aka "zero-filling")
is not sufficient to meet government data sanitation (disk wiping) standards
such as DoD 5220.22-M or the more comprehensive Standards and Technologies
(NIST)
Special Publication 800-88,
http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/leave-no-trace-how-completely-erase-your-hard-drives-ssds-and-thumb-drives.htm
overwriting the entire hard disk prevents most types of data recovery from
being successful.
Here's where to get zero-fill software from hard disk vendors:
Hitachi
Drive Fitness Test (see website for specific models supported)
http://www.hitachigst.com/hdd/support/download.htm#DFT
Select the Erase Drive feature to zero-fill your hard disk
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/340x_drivefitnesstest_med.jpg
Samsung
HUtil (see website for specific models supported)
http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/support/utilities/Support_HUTIL.html
Use Tool, Erase HDD to zero-fill your hard disk
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/340x_samsunghutil_med.jpg
Seagate (including Maxtor)
SeaTools for DOS (see website for specific models supported)
http://www.seagate.com/www/en-us/support/downloads/seatools
Use Full Erase to zero-fill your hard disk
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/340x_seatools_med.jpg
Western Digital
Data Lifeguard Diagnostics (select drive model for specific version recommended)
http://support.wdc.com/product/download.asp?lang=en
Use Write Zeros to drive to zero-fill your hard disk
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/340x_datalifeguard_med.jpg
1. Determine the brand and model of hard disk you want to overwrite.
2. Download a CD ISO image or a floppy disk image (depending upon your
equipment) and use the image to create bootable media. The floppy disk image is
self-contained:
run it, insert a blank floppy disk when prompted, and the image is created on
the disk. You will need to use a CD burning program that works with ISO images
to convert the ISO image into a bootable CD.
Here is a link to some iso recognition cd burning programs.
"The Last CDDVD Burning guide You Will Ever Need"
http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/ultimate_cddvd_burning_guide
3. Restart your computer with the bootable media you created in Step 2.
4. Select the hard disk to zero-fill when prompted.
5. Choose the option to zero-fill the hard disk.
http://cache.gawkerassets.com/assets/images/4/2010/03/340x_wd_writezeros_med.jpg
6. When the program is finished, follow the on-screen instructions to shut down
or restart your computer.
7. Remove the wiped hard disk; you can now reuse or recycle the hard disk.
If you have any questions about the tips posted in Dan's Tech tips, please
contact Dan at the following email address:
dthompson5@xxxxxxxxx
_________________________
Robert Acosta
email: boacosta@xxxxxxxxxxx
www.helpinghands4theblind.org
You can help Helping Hands for the Blind by donating that no longer needed car,
boat, RV or truck and receive maximum legal tax deductions. For more
information click here (http://www.helpinghands4theblind.com/carprogram.html)
or call toll free (866) 244-8464. Be sure to designate Helping Hands for the
Blind when you call. Thank you.
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