Erasing a Hard Drive? Not so Fast... - Comments Page 1

If you do not care to use it again, you can just put it in the oven and bake it or burn it in the fireplace. It may be that boiling the drive in water will suffice but this needs testing.

I'm not even sure just encrypting the drive will be much better. Perhaps if you encrypt the drive so that you take up all the space with a fake file, or encrypt it and then copy your music/video collection to it a few times. Even then though there may be snippets of previous files on areas marked as bad.

Perhaps a variant on the linux shred where it creates a file of the disk size and then writes to it randomly a few times. The whole method is to ensure that all (or as much as possible) of the disk is overwritten. I know shred will work on a file; there is probably a command that will write a file of size X.

you might add this to my previous post:

creating a file of any size
stolen from the internet:
dd if=/dev/zero of=upload_test bs=file_size count=1

Where file_size is the size of your test file in bytes

then just 'shred upload_test'

Should work from Knoppix just fine.

Another way to obliterate old data on a USB stick or SS drive might be to first to "delete" all files, and then fill up the drive with multiple copies of some large but non-sensitive file. Keep re-copying files to the drive until zero bytes are available. I _think_ that would work.

I've got a propane weed burner I'm thinking will erase all the data on these drives.

Another pretty good way of destroying a hard drive is to drill holes through it, ...lots of holes, big holes if possible.

I would just burn them in my wood stove or on the terrace stove!

Any drive, storage devise, can be made safe with a propane torch. One minute burn should do the trick.

Another way to obliterate old data on a USB stick or SS drive might be to first to "delete" all files, and then fill up the drive with multiple copies of some large but non-sensitive file. Keep re-copying files to the drive until zero bytes are available. I _think_ that would work.

What about using CCleaner's Overwrite program? Is that useful enough to erase data for all but the most sophisticated retrieval attempts?

In reference to destroying data, would incineration of any kind destroy the drive enough to make it useless?

How about putting the offending SSD in the afore mentioned paper bag, and after applying an amount of charcoal lighter fluid to it you set it on fire? Of course you may want to do this in your driveway or charcoal grill rather than your kitchen. You may then place it in a large amount of used cat litter and send it merrily on it's way to the dump. Merely a suggestion, but I'll bet it works.

Mike

Bob.
I wonder if using a high output heat gun would render the SSD data un-recoverable

About the article "erasing a hard drive , not so fast".
As suggested encrypting an SSD or flash drive will be better protection of data but can you use the drive after that by doing a low level format or if this is not possible why not just apply a hammer to it and find a burial site and put the pieces in there

I wonder if the best way to make a flash drive or SSD totally unrecoverable would be to toss it into a really hot fire or even run a gas torch flame over it. Sounds pretty drastic I know, but surely that would be a guaranteed way to do it - - - wouldn't it Bob?

Bob, seriously - why not just nuke them on 'high' for a couple of minutes. Wouldn't the EM field of the microwave 'scramble' (if not destroy) the data on a flash or SSD drive? or is it way to weak?? would like an answer - I have a friend who destroys his simm cards by microwave and swears by it. Someone in our IT/comp engineering program suggested that to him so at least someone with an MS if not higher thought that would work . . .thanks, doc

EDITOR'S NOTE: I would not recommend putting any electronics in the microwave, oven, fireplace or indoor wood stove. You might be releasing toxic materials that you don't want you be breathing.

If you erase then fill the drive with country music, rap or Justin Beiber and appropriately label the drive ... nobody would ever care to even look at what else might be on it.

Just curious, what kind of super sensitive data is on these things that you want to completely destroy them? Why not just keep using them until they quit functioning?
In the case of smaller flash drives, just put them in the garbage (don't tell the environmental folk, though) to be buried. Even SSDs can be taken apart and disposed of in this way. Who will actually be looking through the garbage to see if there's a memory device in it?
Maybe it will be found by some archeologist in a million years, but so what? By then, no one will even know you existed. Also, someone would probably have to do a lot of research just to see what the thing is.

Unless one is completely neurotic about someone trying to resurrect their "secret" data and you know that your household trash goes to the incinerator, just put it in the garbage and let it be taken away.

Hello Mr. Rankin and my fellow Rankinites!

Hook up a regular external hard drive to your solid-state computer and when downloading material just send it DIRECTLY to your external hard drive where it will go directly into your TrueCrypt vault to be Securely and Safely stored!

I think this is SO Neat where the material never touches any of the Solid State drives.
(If I am wrong about this protocol then I stand corrected. Please let me know!)

. . . with an Open Mind,

TR