how to wipe clean a hard drive

[xprince]

i need help..how do i erase my laptop so when i send it back for replacement no one can see my shit.....thanks

[xxxzz]

format it, just keep it simple

[Xon]

format doesn't get everything off... Look for a program that does a 7 pass zeroing.

Wait, is there anything incriminating?

[Worshipped]

get a copy of backtrack and use the shred volume option... or just load gparted and partition it to hell.

(a simple format should suffice, no company would delve into their customers data with the intention of prosecution, nor do they have the manpower to scan every returned drive for anything other than sector/platter/errors)

[Xon]

What he said...

[xDarryl]

Depends what you are hoping to hide and what this company will be doing to your laptop.

Why you might be asking?

Well a company can not legally look at your files. Not even Directory viewing, it is "illegal" for them to do so but if they find something you shouldn't have or that can get you done yes they can report you and get let off with looking through your files.

What I'd do?

Well get a external hard drive first off!
Back up everything
Wipe your harddrive either with a system restore software, reformatting your operating system.

Just back up your files and do a CCleaner scan through your computer, its fast, free, no stupid add ons you don't need.

CCleaner 2.24.1010



CCleaner is a freeware system optimization, privacy and cleaning tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. Additionally it contains a fully featured registry cleaner. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less than a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware! :)

Cleans the following:

* Internet Explorer
* Firefox
* Google Chrome
* Opera
* Safari
* Windows - Recycle Bin, Recent Documents, Temporary files and Log files.
* Registry cleaner
* Third-party applications
* 100% Spyware FREE

http://cache.filehippo.com/img/ex/955__CC2_1.png
http://cache.filehippo.com/img/ex/956__CC2_2.png
http://cache.filehippo.com/img/ex/957__CC2_3.png

Download link:
http://filehippo.com/download_ccleaner/download/e1c316a8136650f28febff7dd8971c88/

Then once you have completely got rid of everything through this, just go through and get rid of whatever else you need too.

[Xon]

wow... listen to worshiped, his way will actually clean your hard drive. Not clean off crap on your hard drive.

[Worshipped]

roflcopters.... theres a lot of things ccleaner is going to miss, like anything already "deleted" or taken out of the indexing (1 changed to a 0, so the memory location isn't protected) you need simple easy and effective shred \hda1\
beats everything else as far as convenience.

any apps etc that are run from the drive in question is useless... you can't edit partitions or ntfs volumes while the drive is mounted(there are sectors that your OS doesn't even see) live boot and audit the drive live.

[Xon]

exactly what he said ^

[xprince]

dam thanks for all the help....fuck the geek squad!!!!

[gheox]

lol another d/p boy ahahahahhaahhha

[xprince]

i wanna wipe it clean like if thr cops were going to look at it then what do i do? thanks for all your help........

[Xon]

you can format the hell out of it... like mass was saying..

[gheox]

u can t really wype clean a hard disk if u really want to destroy the data smash the hard , or use a really strong magnet

[Xon]

ha ha... yes, you can wipe a harddrive...

[sylvanarchy]

take a little moist towellete, and wipe it clean. dust builds up in desktops especially.

or just drill five or six holes in it...

or drop it off a b*****...

or open it, crack the platters, close...

[plotholez]

Im a network analysis for the navy and most of the forensic tools we use can find most of the shit on your hardrive, even the stuff in the slack space. the MOST surefire way to clean a hard drive is an electromagnet. simple huh?

[gheox]

wow xon what do u say about that ??
u got owned

[Xon]

wtf are you talking about gheox?

[plotholez]

.... lol i wasnt tring to be a dick

[Xon]

you weren't plotholez... I know what you are talking about... and I know how to erase a hard drive properly that will pass a DOD inspection. I used to have the same program the DOD used to wipe all their harddrives that had sensitive info on it...

But, i wasn't going to put that on here since there usually isn't anyone that knows those details...

[plotholez]

gottcha im tring to remember the program we use to actually see the information im haveing a brain fart haha

[Xon]

Hey man... you wouldn't have access to that program would you? I have a down harddrive that I need to get the info off of...

[plotholez]

depends, whats wrong with the harddrive? that and it will take me some effort to get it off the server its on becasue they have flashdrives and cd writing disabled, also they dont have the actual install file.... ill see waht i can do but i cant make any promises

[Xon]

ah... the harddrive has a problem starting using windows or linux. But both linux and windows are limited in what they can read. I just need a program that doesn't have these limitations.

If you can get it that would be awesome. What OS are they using?

[plotholez]

they usual use either 2000 or XP, the way ive used it before you actually need a machine to be able to load the program then you select the hardrive, cd, or some external memory. unfortunatly if the information is in the slack space it could be corrupt or only be partial information so idk if thats what your looking for. im not sure if it works on unix/linux machines becasue they use c0t0d0s0 and newer windows uses NTFS
(sry if my acryomyms are messed up)

[Xon]

Yeah, I usually run windows... so yeah...

I think it would work. I can see the device, but it has corrupt headers on the disk and therefore won't load for windows...

I was hoping your program would get past that...

[plotholez]

ill do some research and get back to you, at the very least i cant give you the name of the program if i can remeber it lol

[Xon]

Yeah, that should work...

Do you happen to know the navy's hard drive wipe system?

[plotholez]

we now use electromagnets liek stated before to degause the hard disk then we "demo" it if we are tring to upgrade or something (aka take a hammer to then burn)

[Xon]

I know what demo is. I am enlisted in the Guard and am an combat engineer.

So you never wipe them first?

[ScratchFive]

UBCD and UBCD4WIN both have DOD standard wiping progz on them. Simply boot and nuke :) I've always used this and it really wipes it!