Free low level format software?

brad-

Does anyone have a recommendation for free software for scrubbing HD's?

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jibbajabba

Let me google that for you

brad-

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

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 ...

kalebksp

Most people I know use DBAN to wipe drives: Darik's Boot And Nuke | Hard Drive Disk Wipe

drainey

+1 for DBAN.

tiersten

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.

WanBoy67

+1 for truecrypt

brad-

kalebksp wrote: »

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

DBAN is good stuff. I used it quite a bit at my last job when we gave away old work PC's to employees.

120nm4n

arwes wrote: »

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.

snadam

brad- wrote: »

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.

MCPWannabe

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.

tiersten

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?

It isn't low level formatting.

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

tiersten wrote: »

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.