Hard drive Recovery

My motherboard went out on my HP DV7 and I want to sell it for parts. it still turns on but the screen is blank and the caps lock light blinks.

I took out the hard drives and connected them with a Sata to usb enclosure to my desktop and formatted the drives. I was told Hard drive info can still be recovered somehow du to the magnetic strips.

I even hooked up the Laptop hard drives internally to my Desktop and used the darakes boot and nuke. the last time I put the disc in a laptop it took awhile to whipe it. this time it only took 3 secs. it said successful without any system fatal errors.
but then again I still see abunch of errors at the bottom of the page.

I want to get as much out of the Laptop as possible but i guess im a little paranoid of my info being recovered.

How do you know if a hard drive has recoverable info or not ?

 

You could try a program like recuvra and see if you can recover some of the data on it. It takes real motivation to go farther than that to try and get someone's data, something the average joe or script kiddy isn't likely to try.

 

If Boot and Nuke took three seconds, it didn't work. It should take several hours or even longer, as you expected. Formatting a drive doesn't delete the information, it just removes it from the index - programs like recuva read the data directly off the disk rather than looking at the index (I may be making up some terms here), so anything that hasn't been overwritten is easily recovered. Imagine flipping a bunch of switches on a wall in a certain pattern, then turning off the lights. Anyone who can feel the switches or turn the lights back on can discover your secret pattern.

Boot and Nuke essentially writes random zeroes and ones to the entire hard drive platter. Instead of just turning off the lights, you randomly flip the switches up and down so the pattern no longer exists in the switches on the wall and thus can no longer be discovered. However, since the head on the hard drive is designed to flip one switch at a time, this can't be achieved in three seconds.

Possibilities I would explore would be drive health - maybe they're failing - and whether or not Book and Nuke typically works on USB-attached drives like that.

 

any direct link recomendation to download it. I searched for it and popped up abunch of third party sites to download it. I wanna make sure Im downloading it from the right place.

 

Made a typo in the name, derp! Here's the link: Recuva - Undelete, Unerase, File and Disk Recovery - Free Download

 

ok thanks, Im using the recuva now and it looks like it found abunch of files. its still pulling them up, its gonna take a couple of hours. but after it completes, and I delete the files from there. does that gurantee them being non recoverable ? I know im getting ahead of myself but thought id ask while im waiting.

 

The safest option is definitely to use something like Boot and Nuke. I don't remember if deleting files in Recuva is supposed to do the same thing on a smaller scale, but it doesn't seem as reliable as a full-blown nuke. Can you try running it again and see if it works this time?

 

deleting the files with recuva will NOT make the files unrecoverable. if you are really paranoid then just stop it because everything you can do unless physically destroy the drive the information can still be recovered. you can even format it or zero fill several times. it can still be recovered.
sure it would take insane resources to do it but it would still be possible. Methods for recovering the data varies but usually NSA uses magnetic force microscopes. Most people don't have millions of dollars in those equipments lying around you known...
But imo who would dedicate so much time and money for recovering your data? just random fill several times and you'll be fine.

 

if I can download recuva for free and pull up my deleted files after ive formatted the drive and tried darakes boot and nuke. then anyone else can use that software as well on my drive.

 

In your case, Boot and Nuke didn't run properly. There may be other methods or software for nuking a drive like that as well, so if another attempt with darek's doesn't work, you should look around for other software that does the same job.

 

CCleaner can write zeros to the drive too as long as it's not your system drive. It's not as complete as DBan, but can get the job done for making sure erased data can't be recovered by the average Joe using something like recuva. Parted Magic also has wiping functions and you can make a bootable flash drive for that allowing to wipe from virtually anything that can boot from USB.

EDIT: Before someone corrects me, you can wipe free space on a system drive with CCleaner, you just can't wipe the whole drive since the OS is on it and running as well as CCleaner. Parted Magic will also allow you to secure erase a SSD for those who are looking for a way to perform a SE on theirs and they don't have access to a tool like the Intel SSD toolbox.

 

I can also recommend HD tune pro. It has several methods for sanitizing a drive.

 

Ok I got boot and nuke to work. I figured since ive used the disc afew times already since day one and hasnt work twice in a row on 2 different drives, might be time to burn the ISO again to a new disc and this time the process wen through 100%.

I used the Sata to usb 3.0 enclosure during the process. Tried pulling up the hard drive in my computer using the enclosure and even connected it inside using sata and sata power. but it doesnt pick up the drive anymore. can only pick up the drive in device manager. but i was trying to pull it up in computer so I can run recuva again and do a test. at this point im not worried about it. I just like to investigate things as you can tell lol.

about a year ago when i got boot and nuke to work the last time on a older laptop hard drive, it still pulled up afterwards in my computer after installing the OS over it again

 

One thing that just came to my attention, is replacing the cmos battery. Is it worth giving it a try or is the blank screen and caps lock light blinking, enough info to determine that its something else beyond personal repair?

 

Is this a hard drive question or is this about the motherboard now?

 

It involves the main issue from the start. My laptop does not give me a display. Read my 1st post.

 

Understood. All I'm saying is that your original post was to ask about erasing the hard drive, while the story about your motherboard issues was mere context mentioned in passing. Now you're asking a different question that relates to that story that you previously mentioned in passing. You might be best off starting a new thread to ask specifically about this issue since it's different from the issue in the thread title.

Here's what you did there:

Thread Title:
Replacing Laptop Keyboard

First Post:

Four days, thirteen posts, and one new keyboard later:

With my little experience with LCD failure, I would first recommend you try to start up the system and shine a flashlight at the screen at an angle. If there's no system drive installed, you should still get a boot screen if the motherboard's working. I've seen the LED lighting in laptop screens fail so that you could only see what the screen was displaying with an external light source. It's a fairly easy fix for a computer technician and you could do it yourself as long as you could find the replacement lights and a YouTube tutorial.

 

that makes absolutely no sense. I specifically stated the issue with my laptop and didnt think up front to ask regarding the CMOS. so I thought at the begening to sale it for parts but wanted to make the Hard drives non recoverable. thought id ask here instead of spamming the board and making a new thread just for a yes or no question.

il start from scratch, my HP DV7 powers on but no display at all. tried hooking it up to an external monitor and still no sucess. took out the cmos to reset the bios, that didnt work. Caps lock light is blinking when its powered on. some say its an issue with the board, some say processor. its 2 and a half years old. im leaning more towards a fried board.

but then again you still get a blank screen if there is no motherboard response correct, regardless what the issue is with the board. so could be a chance that the battery is bad.

the question is, is it worth giving it a shot ? or is the capslock light blinking enough info to determine that its something else beyond personal repair ?