Sanitizing x230 Hard Disk and Restoring to Factory State

Hi guys,

I am getting ready to sell my Thinkpad x230 and would like to "sanitize" the hard disk before putting it up for auction. I am planning to burn the restore disks, use Active@ KillDisk to securely erase the C:\ partition, then restore the machine to its factory state using the restore disks.

I previously owned a Dell laptop which had proprietary Dell diagnostic tools on a separate partition. When I reformatted/reinstalled Windows, the Dell bootloader which allowed me to access these tools no longer worked. I wanted to make sure this won't be a problem with the Thinkpad.

Any input regarding the best way to wipe my data and restore the Thinkpad to its factory state would be appreciated.

Thanks!

 

You don't need to do anything fancy to securely erase all your data on the drive. When you reinstall the operating system, just select to do a full format on the drive, which will write over all the existing data with zeros.

Although you can burn restore disks and install windows like that, installing a fresh copy of windows and then installing the drivers leads to a much cleaner install without all the bloatware. http://forum.notebookreview.com/win...-digitalriver-windows-7-sp1-13-languages.html

 

formatting is in no way secure.   data can be recovered from a simple windows format.   this might be ok if you're a home user with music and photos but should not be relied upon if you have company/business information on your system.

but, i digress.

lenovo SDD: http://support.lenovo.com/en_US/detail.page?LegacyDocID=tvan-sdd
or
disk wipe: http://www.diskwipe.org/

are two solid options for securely erasing an old HDD.

bitlocker or truecrypt might also be worth investigating since they'll keep your data secure in the event that the HDD/SSD fails and cannot be erased.

 

I didn't say a simple format. If you tick the box to do a FULL format, nothing can be recovered.

 

That's right. Starting from Windows Vista, a "full" format (as opposed to a "quick" format) writes zeros in addition to checking for bad sectors.

Related command reference:

format volume [...] [/Q] [ /P:passes]​

/Q : performs a quick format; overrides /P
/P : zeros every sector on the volume passes times; not valid with /Q​

 

the OP mentions wanting to securely erase the HDD, hence my suggestions.   writing zeros doesn't meet many corporate data disposal policies.

 

Corporate policies?

Data can be recovered? With a full format?

Don't know how "simple" it can be, but it appears that a bunch of all zeros mean a lot to certain people.

 

OP asked about sanitizing.   if you don't like the suggestion then feel free to use whatever method you feel comfortable using.

 

There is residue magnetization from the original data even when you zero the platter hdd once or twice. But the equipments required to read these magnetization would be cost prohibitive for individuals to buy and use. But if you have state secrets or Coca Cola's secret formula ( ) and someone wants the data off these simply formatted hdd, then it could still be done (albeit over maybe few weeks or months).

 

off-topic, why are you selling your x230? Out of curiosity...

I own one and couldn't be happier. It rocks with the IPS screen...


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AFAIK the practical possibility of recovering any reasonable amount of data from a zeroized magnetic disk ended somewhere around ST-412 hard drives. With modern densities, controllers and mechanics, it's possible to recover certain bits, with a very small probability, but not anything practical useful. Of course, with lives of many corporate policies, ST-412 is still a modern technology, and these policies will be in effect 20 years from now, when 2500TB memristors-based drives will be considered outdated

For others, "the change in track density and the related changes in the storage medium have created a situation where the acts of clearing and purging the media have converged. That is, for ATA disk drives manufactured after 2001 (over 15 GB) clearing by overwriting the media once is adequate to protect the media from both keyboard and laboratory attack."
http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-88/NISTSP800-88_with-errata.pdf

 

For some reason I wasn't getting email notifications. Thanks for all the helpful responses!

This is my personal machine

I needed an ultraportable for school and decided to give the x230 a try. It's a nice computer, but I prefer OS X so I'm going back to my Macbook Air.