Collection of old drives i need to format for disposal or sale

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gnfb

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#293252 9-Jan-2022 14:19

I have collected it seems a few Harddrives that I dont need. I just bought a hdd dock and I am looking to format them , so none of my stuff is on them.

Which method domestically is the best method? I s there a "Format your harddrive and make it safe to sell" windows program to use? I know enough that I can use the windows format drive device management thingy.

Suggestions?

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coffeebaron

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#2845643 9-Jan-2022 14:52

https://www.killdisk.com/eraser.html

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chevrolux

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#2845652 9-Jan-2022 15:16

Good ol' DBAN works well. But I'd imagine there are simpler "click and go" methods these days.

gnfb

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#2848132 12-Jan-2022 13:25

coffeebaron: https://www.killdisk.com/eraser.html

Just downloaded your suggestion thanks

Do you know if I use the "Disk Erase" will that leave the disc as reuseable, say to install windows on?

Just asking as I have heard some litally kill the disc so you can throw away with confidence

GRaham

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Darkstorm0x53

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#2849388 12-Jan-2022 16:40

gnfb:

coffeebaron: https://www.killdisk.com/eraser.html

Just downloaded your suggestion thanks

Do you know if I use the "Disk Erase" will that leave the disc as reuseable, say to install windows on?

Just asking as I have heard some litally kill the disc so you can throw away with confidence

GRaham

Hi gnfb

I Have been using the active@killdisk suite for about 7 or so years now.
The "Disk-Erase" option only erases data from the drive, the physical disk remains intact, so the disks will be reusable after the operation completes.
you will need to "initialize" the disks upon erasure for detection via any OS environment, be it for storage or OS installation.

I recommend at least the 3-pass DoD method for anything general, 5+ passes for anything sensitive such as disks used in a medical environment.
this procedure will take awhile depending on the disk capacity, (typically 1H per pass for a 500GB disk) assuming the disk is in good working condition.

Also: 1 pass for SSD's should be sufficient, any more than that compromises the life of the drive.

Good luck,
D

PolicyGuy

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#2849415 12-Jan-2022 17:12

Darkstorm0x53:
Also: 1 pass for SSD's should be sufficient, any more than that compromises the life of the drive.

An SSD cannot be completely safely sanitised.
If you are sufficiently paranoid (or a government agency with Classified Information) and there is information on an SSD that you really can't afford ever to get out, then you must destroy the SSD either by high-temperature incineration or by mechanically destroying it (i.e. whack it with a hammer until only grain-of-rice bits left)

The reason an SSD can't be safely sanitised is that the on-device controller circuitry does 'wear leveling' so that when you say to it "write zeroes on sector 123456", it actually simply marks sector 123456 as 'available' and writes zeroes on the least-used sector - there is always undeclared 'spare' capacity on an SSD to allow this.
This means there is always a risk that the sector with, e.g. your PGP Private Key on it, never actually gets overwritten and a sufficiently well resourced threat actor could recover it.

Reference: GSCB NZ Information Secuity Manual Section 13.4

13.4.6.

Hybrid hard drives, solid state drives and flash memory devices are difficult or impossible to sanitise effectively. In most cases safe disposal will require destruction

1101

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#2852076 17-Jan-2022 11:54

OLD hard drives have little resale value.
So, best method is to drill a hole through them. The platter will often shatter

Honestly , unless its a newish drive , 1Tb or bigger, its not worth the effort to safe erase . Faster to just destroy them .

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mkissin

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#2852126 17-Jan-2022 12:02

Assuming they're mechanical, if you just take them apart they have some pretty strong magnets in them which can be handy to salvage.