Vlad
Moderator
Recently a client of mine brought me a laptop that they wanted cleaned and reinstalled. Thinking about the cleaning part I remembered a few posts here about people wanting to rescue computers from recyclers and getting told they could not take them because of privacy concerns. So before you sell a computer vintage or non, its always a good idea to clean the hard drive, or "sanitize" if you need to comply to HIPPA or other laws.
I found this the other day while browsing a website. Darik's Boot and Nuke, or DBAN. I like it a lot better than the other stuff I've been using and its much more secure than the HD manufacturer's discs. It has quick clean, the method the RCMP uses, DoD Short, DoD 5220.22-M compliant, Gutmann, and PRNG*.
If you're going to sell a computer, the best one to pick would probably be PRNG or the DoD 5220.22-M ones. The DoD ones are the National Industrial Security Operating Manual compliant ones. Those are the ones government contractors use to destroy data. But by far the most secure would be the PRNG method. Do note that the Gutmann method is not recommended for modern hard drives. The Gutmann method was made for MFM and RLL, so its best for vintage machines if you don't want to blow the 2+ hours DoD short takes.
Some say the PRNG method will destroy data to the point not even a clean room team can recover it, same for the DoD ones so be VERY VERY careful with this kind of software because even one interrupted pass can be enough to cause data to be unrecoverable. (Which is kind of the point)
It doesn't have to be about hard core data destruction either, the quick clean method is good when its time to reinstall the OS or if you have a boot sector virus.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
A Public Service Announcement by Vlad
* PRNG = Pseudo Random Number Generator
I found this the other day while browsing a website. Darik's Boot and Nuke, or DBAN. I like it a lot better than the other stuff I've been using and its much more secure than the HD manufacturer's discs. It has quick clean, the method the RCMP uses, DoD Short, DoD 5220.22-M compliant, Gutmann, and PRNG*.
If you're going to sell a computer, the best one to pick would probably be PRNG or the DoD 5220.22-M ones. The DoD ones are the National Industrial Security Operating Manual compliant ones. Those are the ones government contractors use to destroy data. But by far the most secure would be the PRNG method. Do note that the Gutmann method is not recommended for modern hard drives. The Gutmann method was made for MFM and RLL, so its best for vintage machines if you don't want to blow the 2+ hours DoD short takes.
Some say the PRNG method will destroy data to the point not even a clean room team can recover it, same for the DoD ones so be VERY VERY careful with this kind of software because even one interrupted pass can be enough to cause data to be unrecoverable. (Which is kind of the point)
It doesn't have to be about hard core data destruction either, the quick clean method is good when its time to reinstall the OS or if you have a boot sector virus.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/
A Public Service Announcement by Vlad
* PRNG = Pseudo Random Number Generator