Howto: Cleaning /Wipping Hard Disk/Files

[pylkko]

If the data is only encrypted, then it sound like that such a "secure erase" will render the data unusable for normal users but not governments.

My Samsung drives use AES256 which I don't believe any government can crack...

Fine. But don't you have any reservations about presuming that cracking the encryption is a requirement in this scenario?

[cpoakes]

^Point taken. But I'm concerned about new users when I resell/redistribute old drives, not government agencies using encryption/manufacturer backdoors to snoop on my used equipment. If my acivities generate government interest, I think they are more likely to get a warrant and sieze my equipment, or seize my equipment at a border crossing than wait for me to post it for sale on craigslist.

[pylkko]

the command that you posted varied slightly from the one I posted a few posts earlier in this thread and I was wondering why. I searched a bit and found nothing fully explanatory. But this:

If your drive supports enhanced erase, you may want to substitute security-erase-enhanced for security-erase. The difference, according to the HDDerase.exe FAQ:
Secure erase overwrites all user data areas with binary zeroes. Enhanced secure erase writes predetermined data patterns (set by the manufacturer) to all user data areas, including sectors that are no longer in use due to reallocation.

[bester69]

Ok, so what about:

Code: Select all

hdparm --user-master u --security-erase-enhanced password /dev/device name

Will resetting the cells of an SSD leave anything that can be recovered?

hdparam, messed all my computer, i lost my table partiton and i couldnt recover my windows installation, i also lost a virtual XP installation ,
please, dont post dangerous linux virus. (hehe, i was sure there wasn't virus for linux, obviously i was pretty wrong )

At least, you should warn people about the dangerousing of this command line.. i think.

hopefully i could use testdisk and my skills to be able to recover my linux installation and other NTFS partitions, It wasn't easy at all, i had to apply some tricks of my own cos table partition become a really disaster.

[bester69]

At least, you should warn people about the dangerousing of this command line.. i think.

No disrespect, bester- but there's a really good reason you shouldn't run things as root unless you understand what impact it will have.

You're probably not gonna be able to recover data off that drive; a security erase is *designed* to make the data unrecoverable.

Measure twice, cut once

I used swap partition just in case to see what happend, and then it came into swappening, i got terrified and shut down inmediattly my computer, then it all was gone

[dasein]

Edit: For the benefit of those too farqing lazy to search for it: viewtopic.php?f=10&t=82461&start=15#p446550

All respect to you, but read it a couple years ago and dismissed it.

Why? Glad you asked

1. It's ten years old.

2. It's unclassified.

Yeah, and the Principia hasn't been updated in over 300 years, so I guess force no longer equals mass x acceleration.

I have no direct knowledge that the information in that NIST doc is incorrect but...

But ungrounded, baseless speculation is simply too shiny to resist.