Free low level format software?
Does anyone have a recommendation for free software for scrubbing HD's?
Comments
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brad-
Member Posts: 1,218
ya i googled it but i was hoping to hear from someone that has used a peice of software like this. rather go with something known than unknown. -
jibbajabba
Member Posts: 4,317 ■■■■■■■■□□
To be honest LLF is so old it is hardly done - and if then you normally could do that through the bios ...
If this is just a one time thing, maybe just download trials of PGP, TuneUp utilities etc. and use the "shredder" - or even better use programs such as TrueCrypt to encrypt the disk which also gives you the option to "wipe" the disk with up to 32 passes ...My own knowledge base made public: http://open902.com
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kalebksp
Member Posts: 1,033 ■■■■■□□□□□
Most people I know use DBAN to wipe drives: Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe
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drainey
Member Posts: 261
+1 for DBAN.The irony truly is strange that you're the only one you can change. -- Anthony Gomes
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tiersten
Member Posts: 4,505
Low level format isn't the same thing as doing secure deletion of files.
Years back before the advent of drives with a built in controller board aka IDE you would have a standalone controller card that connected to a mostly dumb drive. The controller card would be handling all the low level encoding and operation of the drive. Things like sectors and how a bit is actually encoded would need to be defined by the card itself. The drive didn't have a clue what a sector was.
If you changed the card and it wanted a different encoding method then you'd have to low level format the drive. You'd lose everything on the drive. You'd then follow this up with a regular format to actually write the filesystem metadata.
On very old drives, the positioning mechanisms used weren't that advanced. The affect of gravity on the disk head was actually important enough that if you changed the orientation of the drive from say vertical to horizontal you'd have to low level format it again.
Once IDE drives came into existence then low level formatting pretty much disappeared. You can't and shouldn't low level format a modern drive. It was all done at the factory as it the drive was permanently mated to its controller board. The positioning mechanisms were changed to compensate for changes in orientation. -
brad-
Member Posts: 1,218
Most people I know use DBAN to wipe drives: Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe
Thanks.
Ya I guess I used the wrong vocabulary technically - low level. I still hear it called that. -
arwes
Member Posts: 633 ■■■□□□□□□□
DBAN is good stuff. I used it quite a bit at my last job when we gave away old work PC's to employees.[size=-2]Started WGU - BS IT:NDM on 1/1/13, finished 12/31/14
Working on: Waiting on the mailman to bring me a diploma
What's left: Graduation![/size] -
120nm4n
Member Posts: 116
DBAN is good stuff. I used it quite a bit at my last job when we gave away old work PC's to employees.
That's what we used, too. I highly recommend DBAN.WIP: MCITP: EA
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snadam
Member Posts: 2,234 ■■■■□□□□□□
Thanks.
Ya I guess I used the wrong vocabulary technically - low level. I still hear it called that.
you know, I was going to say "use DBAN" when I first saw this; but then I did some research and realized it was'nt LLF and didnt post. But yes, +1 for DBAN. Just be advised that your looking at around 2hrs+ for formatting, at least in my experience.**** ARE FOR CHUMPS! Don't be a chump! Validate your material with certguard.com search engine
:study: Current 2015 Goals: JNCIP-SEC JNCIS-ENT CCNA-Security -
MCPWannabe
Member Posts: 194
So, here is a question for some of you who have kept current. Does low level formatting actually remove the files on a drive in a way that makes them unrecoverable, even with forensic methods?
Just wondering if I will have to destroy a hard drive physically every time that I give away an old computer. I've read different answers on this online.I've escaped call centers and so can you! Certification Trail and mean pay job offers for me: A+ == $14, Net+==$16, MCSA==$20-$22, MCAD==$25-$30, MCSD -- $40, MCT(Development), MCITP Business Intelligence, MCPD Enterprise Applications Developer -- $700 a Day -
tiersten
Member Posts: 4,505
It isn't low level formatting.MCPWannabe wrote: »So, here is a question for some of you who have kept current. Does low level formatting actually remove the files on a drive in a way that makes them unrecoverable, even with forensic methods?
Even with the overwrite x number of times method you can recover the data if you've got sufficient funding and time. People have managed it before with very sensitive read heads and a massive amount of number crunching. Highly unlikely anybody will go to that amount of effort however.
If you're passing on a personal machine to a friend or relative then a regular format will be good enough. If the machine contained sensitive customer data like from a bank then you should physically destroy the disk. -
kalebksp
Member Posts: 1,033 ■■■■■□□□□□
Even with the overwrite x number of times method you can recover the data if you've got sufficient funding and time.
I've heard that is becoming less the case with larger drives. The reasoning was that because the density of drives has increased it is becoming more and more difficult to distinguish between the bits. I'm no forensic expert so whether that's true or not, I couldn't say.
