Hard disk Shredding

[QRM]

Dear all IT gurus,

I am selling my sony laptop, but before I stick it on ebay, dont want my migets in marmalade surfing habits and all my banking details to surface.


Deleting will only hide the info and it can easily be accessed I need to shred the info on the hard disk.

Ideally it should be a shareware, that can just shred the deleted portions. I dont want it to delete all the operating systems as that means having to load it all up again.

I have googled and theres a 101 software claiming to be effective any ideas?

thanks

[sierra2469alpha]

QRM - PGP Disk shredder - I have a copy - if you can arrange to get the HDD to me I also have a cable to connect it into one of our machines and you can watch it wipe..we'll just wipe the freespace so you'll be fine...Cheers, mr. P

Oh, alternatively, plenty of so-called ones at shareware.com, but PGP is certified by DSD in Australia so that's why I use it.

[Edit: added freespace wipe]

[QRM]

QRM - PGP Disk shredder - I have a copy - if you can arrange to get the HDD to me I also have a cable to connect it into one of our machines and you can watch it wipe..we'll just wipe the freespace so you'll be fine...Cheers, mr. P

Oh, alternatively, plenty of so-called ones at shareware.com, but PGP is certified by DSD in Australia so that's why I use it.

[Edit: added freespace wipe]

Thanks for that when you say get the HD to you you mean have to take the laptop apart or can it just be done via some sort of laplink cable?

[sierra2469alpha]

We'll just unscrew the HDD once you bring the lappy over. Then connect it to one of our machines, run the shred, and put it back. Easy peasy (assuming it's a fairly standard lappy).

[Strong Eagle]

You might want to take a look here:

http://www.12ghosts.com/download/index.htm

[sierra2469alpha]

Strong Eagle - have you used any of those apps? One is of particular interest to me, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Mr. P

[QRM]

We'll just unscrew the HDD once you bring the lappy over. Then connect it to one of our machines, run the shred, and put it back. Easy peasy (assuming it's a fairly standard lappy).

Over the years what I found with sony laptops nothing is standard!! I have downloaded steganos shredder trial version, I assume after the trial period the info doesn't pop again?

See if that works if not might take you up on the offer, Thanks

[sierra2469alpha]

QRM - sure at least you'll know it's then done to US and AUS DoD levels. FYI it takes a while so we might have to let it run overnight and you pick it up the next day or so. That's only logistics, though! Once it's running it's a set and forget.

Alternatively, if you are concerned about removing the HDD (which IMHO you shouldn't be), I just checked my licencing and I can run it on another machine as long as it's not running on one of my current ones. So, theoretically, we could install it on yours, run it, then as long as it is deleted then that could be an option. Again, that's logistics too.

Cheers, Mr. P

[Strong Eagle]

Strong Eagle - have you used any of those apps? One is of particular interest to me, so any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance, Mr. P

I've used the Shredder tool. Can't say that I know for sure it works (files are gone but totally erased? - I don't know).

[sierra2469alpha]

Thanks StrongEagle - was looking at one of the other apps anyway

@QRM, let me know what you decide. FYI I'm free SAT morning if that helps.

[AngMoKio]

You best bet is the Boot and Nuke cd (DBAN)

Pop it in the drive and it will go to town. If you need a copy, you can download the iso and burn it or borrow mine.

Anything that will shred the disk while the OS is still running by definition won't shred the disk.

[sundaymorningstaple]

Y
Anything that will shred the disk while the OS is still running by definition won't shred the disk.

If you will go back and read the OP's request you will find that He doesn't want to shred the entire disk or operating system.

[durain]

http://www.ccleaner.com/ should clean up any contacts you had with gary glitter. http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysi ... 97443.aspx will erase any trace of edison chen private collection.

[rattlesnake]

Just wiping the free space is a good start, but if you are selling it, you should hose all the data properly and reload windows otherwise a skilled operator can still recover bits and pieces including but not limited to:

- you deleted your resume (microsoft word) but the auto recover file which you didn't know about still remains hidden within the depths of your program files folder;
- those auto complete passwords that make surfing the net real easy are stored within the windows registry. If you don't hose windows, they can easily be recovered;
- not to mention other personal stuff that can be found in the registry like email information, surfing habits etc;
- how about someone using the windows media library database to check out whether you have been watching skin flicks and how many times you watched each one; and finally
- ever noticed that thumbs.db file in folders that have photos in them? You can delete the photos but someone can still get the thumbnails from the thumbs.db file. Those fun shots with the wife when you were drunk all of a sudden end up being laughed at as the do the rounds on the internet.

I know I am making light of it, but seriously, just wiping free space does a lot, but not quite enough. If I were you I would go for the boot and nuke, a linux boot disk or put it on the mrt track and let the train do the rest.

[QRM]

Just wiping the free space is a good start, but if you are selling it, you should hose all the data properly and reload windows otherwise a skilled operator can still recover bits and pieces including but not limited to:

- you deleted your resume (microsoft word) but the auto recover file which you didn't know about still remains hidden within the depths of your program files folder;
- those auto complete passwords that make surfing the net real easy are stored within the windows registry. If you don't hose windows, they can easily be recovered;
- not to mention other personal stuff that can be found in the registry like email information, surfing habits etc;
- how about someone using the windows media library database to check out whether you have been watching skin flicks and how many times you watched each one; and finally
- ever noticed that thumbs.db file in folders that have photos in them? You can delete the photos but someone can still get the thumbnails from the thumbs.db file. Those fun shots with the wife when you were drunk all of a sudden end up being laughed at as the do the rounds on the internet.

I know I am making light of it, but seriously, just wiping free space does a lot, but not quite enough. If I were you I would go for the boot and nuke, a linux boot disk or put it on the mrt track and let the train do the rest.

You are right, I did delete ms office software etc. and used the CClean which does the triple wipe to DOD standard, but when I do a search for *.pdf, doc, jpg I find images and scan docs are still stored in obscure files like mediaplayer /art/cache.

In the end I rather be safe than sorry as nowadays our whole life are on these machines, I formatted the disk reloaded the original recovery disk and selected the option to wipe clean the disk and reload the software so the machine was back to factory default and then used the CCleaner to do a triple pass on the empty areas. That should do the trick?

On a bit of a tangent I just got the new Sony P laptop for the misses, it cheeses me off when you start it up most of the HD has already been used up by software. When they quote HD sizes they should also quote how much of that is free sapce.