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    Secure wipe passes?

    Discussion in 'Windows OS and Software' started by RugbyPlayer, Feb 15, 2012.

  1. RugbyPlayer

    RugbyPlayer Notebook Consultant

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    Hey everyone im going to be purchasing a p180, and traded in my Macbook pro to best buy (4-5 years old and i get about $550 credit still :D ) my question is, i have a disk i created a while back that securely wipes drives. It a pass or 1's and 0's from what i understand. What im wondering is how many passes is considered enough? i believe it offers up to 24 but 24 passes takes days to complete.

    Also there is some other option, i forget exactly what its called but is something pattern.

    Also that being said i can no longer find my disk, i know it was a program downloaded off of Freeware Files - Free Software Downloads

    Does anyone have a tool the recommend or consider to be the best?
     
    RugbyPlayer, Feb 15, 2012
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  2. ntheo

    ntheo Notebook Consultant

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    I use kill disk if I need to dispose or give away hard drive.

    The 1 zero pass works fine. If you're really worried, I'd quick format, then fill up the hard drive with random data and kill disk it.

    KillDisk
     
    ntheo, Feb 15, 2012
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  3. RugbyPlayer

    RugbyPlayer Notebook Consultant

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    do you think kill disk is better than copywipe?

    another question i have is when im using copywipe it asks about if i want bios to run it or some other options like keyboard timing? im not sure what that even means

    (edit) i just looked it up in the manual and its Entropy source, either system or keyboard

    theres also options for: Source Hard drive:
    BIOS HD
    BIOS HD (direct)
    USB2 Hard drive
    and IEEE1394 HD. i think i should be using bios HD but im not sure
     
    RugbyPlayer, Feb 15, 2012
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  4. Hungry Man

    Hungry Man Notebook Virtuoso

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    A single pass is enough for almost everything. Two if you want to be sure.

    If you're paranoid and holding gov't secrets you can use more. It would take serious equipment (software and hardware) to try to find data in a disk that's been wiped more than even once.
     
    Hungry Man, Feb 15, 2012
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  5. tijo

    tijo Sacred Blame

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    You could use dban too: DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke.

    I actually tried wiping only the free space on a drive just to see if i could get the files back once and one pass was enough to make the data unrecoverable. If you feel unsafe, give it a good two passes and call it a day.
     
    tijo, Feb 15, 2012
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  6. ntheo

    ntheo Notebook Consultant

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    DBAN is another good program also. I've used both and both get the job done.

    I do like KillDisk a bit better since you can write either in pre Window environment or you can run it in windows to wipe an external drive.


    I don't use copywipe so I'm not sure what you are referring to.

    Hope that helps.
     
    ntheo, Feb 15, 2012
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