Erasing Hard Drives Securely


Purchasing a newer and faster computer is always exciting, but always raises the issue of what to do with your old PC. Although many people hand their old system down to a friend or family member, donating or recycling these machines has become an increasingly popular option.

There's no denying that donating and recycling old systems are both more socially responsible options than throwing a computer away; however, it's critically important to ensure that you completely and securely erase the system's hard drive prior to going this route. In fact, you should securely erase the hard drive of any PC that you don't plan to use any more, regardless of where it ends up. Put simply, it's not worth taking the risk that someone will find or purchase the computer, and then have the capability to sift through your old personal files and settings. Even if you format the drive and delete its partitions, chances are good that any user can restore at least some of your old files by using an undelete utility.

Note 

If you're looking for some insight into the types of information that are commonly recovered from old hard disks and discarded PCs, visit http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,919827,00.asp and http://www.computing.co.uk/computing/news/2071523/confidential-left-old-pcs.

For both security and practical reasons, you cannot securely delete the contents of any hard drive while Windows Vista is running. In order to get this job done, you need to create and use a special bootable floppy disk or CD that includes a tool designed to securely erase drives. Eraser includes just the tool, known as Darik's Boot and Nuke.

In a nutshell, Darik's Boot and Nuke creates a bootable CD or floppy disk that enables you to boot into a command line environment and specify settings for erasing your computer's hard disk. This program enables you to specify how many times the disk should be overwritten, using settings similar to those that Eraser uses. Once the process is complete, recovering any data from the CD is next to impossible.

Caution 

Darik's Boot and Nuke is an exceptionally dangerous tool that can erase the contents of any hard drive permanently. Once you create this disk, be sure to label it appropriately and never leave it lying around or in your computer's disk drive. Because the disk can function without requiring Windows Vista to run, ensure that your computer is not configured to boot from a floppy disk or CD drive in your BIOS settings (as originally outlined in Chapter 2). If your computer can boot from these devices, any user can insert a nuke disk on your system and use it to securely erase the entire contents of your drive.

Follow these steps to create a bootable floppy disk containing Darik's Boot and Nuke:

  1. Select Start All Programs Eraser Create Nuke Boot Disk.

  2. When the WinImage Self Extractor window opens, select the drive letter for your floppy drive from the Floppy drop-down menu. Insert a blank floppy disk into the drive, and then click OK.

Follow these steps to securely erase the entire contents of your computer's hard drive using Darik's Boot and Nuke:

  1. Insert the boot floppy disk created in the previous activity in your floppy disk drive.

  2. Restart your computer to boot from the floppy disk. You may need to change the drive boot order in your BIOS settings first in order for this step to work.

  3. On the Darik's Boot and Nuke Warning Screen, type autonuke and press Enter. Alternatively, press just the Enter key to walk through the process step-by-step.

Note 

In cases where you need the entire contents of a hard drive to be 100 percent unrecoverable, the only effective option is to first securely erase the drive, and then literally destroy it via methods such as incinerating or pulverizing the physical drive. Although it may sound extreme, physical destruction is still the method that governments use to sanitize disks that contain classified information deemed top secret.



PC Magazine Windows Vista Security Solutions
PC Magazine Windows Vista Security Solutions
ISBN: 0470046562
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 135
Authors: Dan DiNicolo

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