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    Formatting Laptop Harddrive Before Selling On Ebay

    Discussion in 'Hardware Components and Aftermarket Upgrades' started by proview3r, Nov 15, 2009.

  1. proview3r

    proview3r Notebook Consultant

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    I know there are ways for people to recover deleted data on a harddrive, but what are the ways to reduce this? I'm planning to sell my laptop on ebay and would like some advice on this.
     
    proview3r, Nov 15, 2009
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  2. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Try googling DBAN.
     
    dtwn, Nov 15, 2009
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  3. calummackay81

    calummackay81 Notebook Enthusiast

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    dont include the HD if you are selling the laptop, just write a note on the page saying you are not due to security concerns. most people do this, I have sold two laptops myself and did this with both. it's just not worth the hastle of someone having access to a forensic data recovery tool.
     
    calummackay81, Nov 24, 2009
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  4. NiteWalker

    NiteWalker Notebook Evangelist

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    If you're against selling it without an HD you can always get a small cheap one and throw it in there and adjust cost accordingly.
     
    NiteWalker, Dec 7, 2009
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  5. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

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    DBAN. It's free. Or if you got Acronis.
     
    surfasb, Dec 7, 2009
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  6. Rorschach

    Rorschach Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    Whats the difference between wiping and formatting? I always thought formatting erased everything?
     
    Rorschach, Dec 7, 2009
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  7. surfasb

    surfasb Titles Shmm-itles

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    For practical purposes, wiping and formatting are similar. In this case, the ownership of the laptop is being transfered, so thus I assume the OP always wants a guarantee that the old data is unrecoverable by the new owner. In this case you gotta do more than wiping or formatting. You gotta overwrite the old data with new data.
     
    surfasb, Dec 7, 2009
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  8. Rorschach

    Rorschach Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    >.> Overwrite it with new data? Please elaborate on that, because that just makes it sound like reinstall the OS and it would be new data.
     
    Rorschach, Dec 8, 2009
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  9. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Wiki -

    Darik's Boot and Nuke (commonly known as DBAN) is an open source project hosted on SourceForge. The program is designed to securely erase a hard disk until data is permanently removed and no longer recoverable, which is achieved by overwriting the data with random numbers generated by Mersenne twister or ISAAC (a PRNG). The Gutmann method is included with DBAN.

    When you format the drive, the actual data is still there, it's just that the HDD is told to forget where the data is (or at least that's how I understand it), hence, certain data recovery methods can still locate and obtain that data.
     
    dtwn, Dec 8, 2009
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  10. Rorschach

    Rorschach Notebook Virtuoso NBR Reviewer

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    Hmm interesting. I did a quick google about these wipe tools and what came back was several people not being able to use the hdd after it was used. Seems a lot like a excessive process to me. I've never had any issues with just doing a format and selling the hdd with the laptop. Course every laptop I've sold has been to forum members here.
     
    Rorschach, Dec 8, 2009
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  11. dtwn

    dtwn C'thulhu fhtagn

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    Interesting, I've never heard complaints. I've used DBAN a few times, no issues so far. The 7X takes quite a while, and I can only imagine how long the 35X would take.
     
    dtwn, Dec 8, 2009
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  12. Gregory

    Gregory disassemble?

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    I don't know of any risks associated with secure wiping. It's simply doing the same thing a hard disk does in normal use, writing data to the drive. Can you link to any of the sites with this complaint?

    A secure wipe is truly necessary if you had any personal/sensitive data. It's very easy (and free) to recover files even after a format using PhotoRec and TestDisk. Doing one pass of zeros will prevent that and will only take 30-120 minutes depending on the drive. If you use the DBAN live cd it's incredibly simple.
     
    Gregory, Dec 8, 2009
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  13. dasie

    dasie Newbie

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    dasie, Dec 19, 2009
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