How to destroy data on multiple harddrives.

[Turkey22]

We use ghost and a blank image. Probably recoverable, but I've never tried. Once the image is made it takes 5-10 seconds per machine.

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Turkey22
We use ghost and a blank image. Probably recoverable, but I've never tried. Once the image is made it takes 5-10 seconds per machine.

I don't think that's enough for this guy... 5-10 seconds isn't long enough to wipe out data... only to rewrite the FAT or MFT.

 

[cisco911]

Ok... thanks for the replys... i wont be checking back on the thread untill monday. Please post if you have any more ideas.

 

[xTYBALTx]

Toss all the computers into this and you're done!

 

[Sqube]

If I didn't know better, I'd call shens.

- The data has to be absolutely gone.
- The hard drives have to be kept in the machine; but it doesn't matter what happens to the computers?

If that's the state of affairs, burn the entire computer. Problem solved, apparently, since you don't need to keep the 2000 personal computers when you're done.

 

[sharkeeper]

Since you have so many machines that you are willing to destroy - what are the specs anyways?

You could remove all the hard drives, donate the machines to charity for a tax break.

Take the drives to a place of specialty and let them do their thing!

If the computers are not worth donating (P2 or entry P3 levels with <64MB) then give the whole thing to the shredder. Should not take long to process!

Carry On!

 

[BBock7271]

Originally posted by: Arcanedeath
HDD's use rare earth magnets as part of the heads so no using a magnet to erase them. My best suggestion would be to setup a network Ghost server w/ drive images that contain all zeros and push them out to all the PC's on the network that your getting rid of, thats prolly the most effective way to erase all the systems, if this isn't feasible then use some peice of software to write 0's to the drives on an indivdual basis, mabye hire a temp to erase all the systems.

I work for a fairly large lawfirm, so quite often we get cases where people either have or need to erase data very quickly High powered magnets indeed work. Has to be a magnet with a fairly large powersource though. There are companies that perform this, or you can spend 1000$+ on your own magnet.

Trust me through investigations we've seen, when a high powered magnet comes in proximity of a computer case, there is no recovery of data, and this is after investigators send the HDDs out for data recovery. I would say this is your best option for 2000 pcs. These companies usually get paid by PC, but I am sure you can get some by the hr, in which case it shouldnt take long if all the pcs are on the same site. Good luck

 

[Maximilian]

What YOU need!:

2000 people
Warehouse with 2000 electrical sockets
A Megaphone

What YOU do!:

Over the megaphone instruct the people to pick up a pc, carry it over to a socket and plug it in. Then have them insert a boot disk and restart. Typing in "FORMAT C:" in the dos prompt after the restart.

Or just hook up all the pc's on one big network and let loose a nasty pc destroying virus

 

[Cattlegod]

dump them into a body of water

 

[Jeff7181]

Originally posted by: Soviet
What YOU need!:

2000 people
Warehouse with 2000 electrical sockets
A Megaphone

What YOU do!:

Over the megaphone instruct the people to pick up a pc, carry it over to a socket and plug it in. Then have them insert a boot disk and restart. Typing in "FORMAT C:" in the dos prompt after the restart.

Or just hook up all the pc's on one big network and let loose a nasty pc destroying virus

Formatting doesn't erase data, it rewrites the FAT or MFT. The 1's and 0's of the files are still on the hard drive and the data can still be recovered. You can write 0's to the whole drive and the data can still be recovered. To make the data extremely difficult to recover, you either have to physically destroy the platters, or write over the data so many times that it can't be recovered. Since he's got 2000 computers, physically destroying them would be very labor intense and could cause personal injury if you have people with sledge hammers pounding on metal and glass objects. Using a tool like Kill Disk is a safer way, but it's time consuming.

 

[fierydemise]

I would think some kind of strong acid could be used to dystroy the PSU while still in the case, it would also be faster then taking out the harddrives.

 

[Blazer]

pulse electromagnets positioned inside the case near the HD and the use of a remote controler at a single location would clear any need to destroy data at a given moment.

 

[sharkeeper]

quote:
Originally posted by: Turkey22
We use ghost and a blank image. Probably recoverable, but I've never tried. Once the image is made it takes 5-10 seconds per machine.



I don't think that's enough for this guy... 5-10 seconds isn't long enough to wipe out data... only to rewrite the FAT or MFT.

Not so shore about this.

I've created fake images (GHO files) and restored them to disks and it looked like it was gone for good. I should have someone in the states try this to see if it's for real. Anyhow, still takes too long for 2000 pieces. Shredder time!

 

[corkyg]

This is a management problem. If you have 2000 PCs, you must have 200 users. Assign each one the task of cleaning his/her HDD, and then have it verified by their supervisor. Stay in control!

 

[phisrow]

If you can run large numbers of them, ideally on a network, at the same time(e.g. each one at its desk over the weekend, or something) then DBAN is probably your best bet.For that many machines, you might want to set up PXE boot or similar(which should be doable enough, as DBAN is a fairly standard Linux distro, at least when it comes to booting. If you pass the "autonuke" argument on boot that should wipe all the disks it can see.

If you have no good way of powering them all up, you'll probably need to use one of the physical or magnetic methods. Properly deleting data is not something that a harddrive can do to itself very quickly.

 

[Joepublic2]

Originally posted by: sharkeeper
Since you have so many machines that you are willing to destroy - what are the specs anyways?

You could remove all the hard drives, donate the machines to charity for a tax break.

Take the drives to a place of specialty and let them do their thing!

If the computers are not worth donating (P2 or entry P3 levels with <64MB) then give the whole thing to the shredder. Should not take long to process!

Carry On!

:laugh: You made my Pentium 3 desktops cry!

Are these all the same model computers? If they are, just open one up, open up the drive, and see where the platters on the hard drive are, and just drill though the drives through the cases with a long drill bit. You might want to make a wooden tempelate to ensure you're going though the platters every time. It shouldn't take that long, since you don't have to open the cases. I'm sure you could hire some people that would be more than willing to help you.

 

[cy7878]

no go.

 

[mettleh3d]

whats the data?

 

[cisco911]

I think i should have made my self clearer. The pc's cannot be destroyed. they have to be returned to compaq for a lease agreement.

 

[Sqube]

So how did you end up resolving the situation?

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: RichUK

Originally posted by: Oyeve

Originally posted by: cisco911
Someone told me that a strong magent would work. Anybody know?

No, as some of the worlds strongest magnets are already IN hard drives. Use DBAN.

i second that, the magnet is used for the movement of the arm accross the platters .. back in my college days we took one apart .. and o my god i had to pick the magnet off with a screw driver and some real force that thing was solid.. i have never seen somthing that powerfull (well magnet wise anyway) before ..

True, there is a magnet right in there near the platters. However, those of you who have played around with these magnets may know that the magnetic field from them is very strong only when you are very close to only the flat faces of the magnets. The fields to the sides are practically nonexistant - and that's where the platters lie. So the field never reaches the platters in any appreciable amount.

Hold one of these very same magnets directly over the platters, and you'll not be getting any more use out of the drive.


Now then, the options for erasing the drive without destroying it:
If doing this from Windows, use Eraser.
Eraser also allows you to make a DBAN boot disk, for drive wiping from a command prompt.
Note that REALLY securely erasing data can take days, as the most secure method, the Gutmann Method, involves 35 passes over the entire disc. I'll usually just do a pass of pseudorandom data, followed by a zero-write pass.
Of course, I'm just now reading at the DBAN FAQ some new information:

Q: Is the Gutmann method the best method?

A: No.

Most of the passes in the Gutmann wipe are designed to flip the bits in MFM/RLL encoded disks, which is an encoding that modern hard disks do not use.

In a followup to his paper, Gutmann said that it is unnecessary to run those passes because you cannot be reasonably certain about how a modern hard disk stores data on the platter. If the encoding is unknown, then writing random patterns is your best strategy.

In particular, Gutmann says that "in the time since this paper was published, some people have treated the 35-pass overwrite technique described in it more as a kind of voodoo incantation to banish evil spirits than the result of a technical analysis of drive encoding techniques. As a result, they advocate applying the voodoo to PRML and EPRML drives even though it will have no more effect than a simple scrubbing with random data... For any modern PRML/EPRML drive, a few passes of random scrubbing is the best you can do".


I can't say I know what any of those acronyms mean, but it sounds like the 2-pass way I described might be adequate for modern drives.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Let us know how it goes