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It probably did, but for a forensics geek like me I would love to have tried. On occasion I buy peoples hard drives they are selling and then run tools on them to see what I can come up with. It can be interesting sometimes, but if I come up with someones personal data I give them the information that I find then properly take care of the hard drive. A lot of people don't realize that re-formating the drive doesn't mean that I can't retrieve the data or at least portions of it. I'm a Certified Ethical Hacker, yes there is such a thing (Certified Ethical Hacker (C|EH) Training Camp), so to keep within my ethical standards (also a CISSP) I insure that the persons data is returned and destroyed.
That is EXACTLY why I have two computers (and two more on its way) sittin' around the house. I don't want to donate b'c I'm afraid formatting will only "slow down" hackers. Any suggestions as to what to do?
That is EXACTLY why I have two computers (and two more on its way) sittin' around the house. I don't want to donate b'c I'm afraid formatting will only "slow down" hackers. Any suggestions as to what to do?
Drilling holes in the hard drive is a good way. I put mine up to my brothers Subwoofer magnet, formatted it, put in on the subwoofer magnet, formatted it again, the put it up to the subwoofer magnet... Then I got bored and opened it up took the read/write head and completely scratched the platters with it.
Oh dang! :P I keep my old hard drive just to release anger on! haha!
Well there is always just opening it up and ri... messing it up! :P
Otherwise you can format it as fat, then fat 32, then ntfs, then again as ext2 then ext3, and a few extra times as whatever you choose.
If you are just getting rid of the computer and whatnot, just take out the old hard drive and force them to get a new one. Or if it's a donation many many many many many formats with switching the file system each time.
Otherwise the best and most efficient way is to just destroy it.
If you DO want them destroyed send them my way! I always have a need to destroy computer parts! I've ALWAYS wanted to use a sledge hammer on one! muahahah!
I mean.... *puts hands like Mr. Burns* Excellent...
Reformatting a hard drive does not get rid of the data, there are overwrite tools you can use. BCWipe, SRM (Secure remove), WipeDrive or others. Also you just don't do a one time overwrite, a minimum of 7, but personally I do 32. So for those of you that have or are going to sell your old pc's ... make sure the data can not be retrieved, or sell the pc minus the hard drive. You can always tear the hard drive down to the platters, then degauss them or use high grit sand paper on them. Just a few suggestions ....
Here are overwriting tools you can use, but don't just overwrite once. No less than 7 is what I would recommend, but like I said I do 32.
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