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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Wiping old HDD's for sale....
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9630 |
Hello all.  I have built up a bit of a collection of old HDD's, varying in flavour from IDE to SATA, from 80GB up to around 1TB or so. The >1TB drives I can still find a use for, but the older lower-capacity ones I don't really need anymore. HDD's of any flavour <=250GB have been destroyed physically, so it is only the larger type that remain. Rather then destroying them and throwing them in the skip, I was thinking of flattening them and selling them off for $1 reserve each, however, I need to be sure that they have been totally erased. A quick format is not suitable for this. MiniTool Partition Wizard has a tool called WIPE DISK, and you can select from a few different options including fill with zeros, fill with one's, fill with alternate zeros and ones, 3-pass wipe and 7-pass wipe.  Which one would the members here suggest? I am thinking of the simple fill with zeros(quick) option. Not really worried about each one maybe taking several hours to complete - I will just do one per night, and leave it wiping the drive while I sleep.  There is nothing absolutely mission-critical on any of the drives - they are just old system drives, and many of them are just old media storage drives from various server builds over the years. NASA or CIA/FBI levels of data destruction are not required. Thoughts? Comments? Suggestions? Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| JohnS Guru  Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4068 |
The multi-wipes are a waste of time - completely unnecessary unless you expect the security services are after your data. Yes go for the zeros (or one or any pattern) :) John |
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| matherp Guru Joined: 11/12/2012 Location: United KingdomPosts: 10379 |
Depends how you value your time. 500Gb and less have pretty much zero value and don't even justify the shipping cost. I find a lump hammer is the quickest method to erase before dropping in the local electronics re-cycling works best |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9630 |
@ JohnS - ta, that's kinda what I thought. @ Peter - yes, that's what I have done with all the smaller HDD's. I have several 500GB drives in both IDE and SATA, so I was thinking about wiping those, along with a couple of 750GB SATA's. As to value my time, time is irrelevant. I will be wiping these while I am sleeping - set them going, and they have all night to churn through and wipe. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4068 |
Maybe a charity would like them. The hammer seems a waste! John |
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twofingers Guru Joined: 02/06/2014 Location: GermanyPosts: 1621 |
After erasing, I unscrew it and remove the super-strong magnets. Then I bend the disks and give the rest for recycling. Michael causality ≠ correlation ≠ coincidence |
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Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8043 |
Ah.... DBAN is your friend. :) Not a boot CD or USB stick to be left where your enenmies can find it though. Multiple wipes move the head between track accesses. That way, because the head doesn't always get the track *exactly*, it wipes almost all the area between the tracks, not just on the track centre lines. Very good for secure wipes. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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| JohnS Guru Joined: 18/11/2011 Location: United KingdomPosts: 4068 |
Maybe... but who needs that security (even if it's true)? Who would put in the effort to try to recover the data (even if it's there)? Why? I'm sure it's nothing I have!! John Edited 2022-12-29 22:43 by JohnS |
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| Mixtel90 Guru Joined: 05/10/2019 Location: United KingdomPosts: 8043 |
Not many people need it. :) I've been given works PCs in the past providing I can assure them that the HDD is wiped. A read of the DBAN info and leaving it to run overnight has been easily enough to convince the accounts department that their data has gone (even though there's no actual guarantee with DBAN). There's no undelete after that - it's basically a brand new HDD so it has to be formatted from scratch. Mick Zilog Inside! nascom.info for Nascom & Gemini Preliminary MMBasic docs & my PCB designs |
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Martin H. Guru Joined: 04/06/2022 Location: GermanyPosts: 1270 |
"Simple Overwrite (1 pass)" overwrite method writing 0s or random data does the Job. 'no comment |
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