Securely formatting hard drives

Published by in apple, edtech on April 8th, 2006

One of my tasks this weekend was to format 2 Dell Windows XP computers that a friend has replaced at their business, and wants erased so data cannot be recovered from either one. She also wanted an older iMac running OS 9 completely erased.

Thanks to the guru of technology, Miguel Guhlin, I was able to find and use Darik’s Boot and Nuke for the Windows computers. It is a a free program, and I was able to download a CD disk image (ISO file) and then use Roxio Toast (on another Mac OS X computer) to create a bootable CD that worked on the Dell and let me securely erase all data on both hard drives. They each had 80 GB drives, and it took about 45 minutes each to securely erase them. I suppose the FBI could likely recover data from them, but more than likely no one else would be able to. Miguel recommended Darik’s Boot and Nuke in his 2005 article, “Download a la Mode, Part 3: Free Tools to Ease Data Loss/Theft Concerns.” I first tried the free version of KillDisk, but for some reason it wouldn’t work. The free version just did 1 pass of data overwriting, which is not very secure (their business model is obviously to get you to buy the full version for $30.) I found Darik’s Boot and Nuke a cinch to use, and highly recommend it. I also appreciated being able to burn a bootable CD so readily (even on a Macintosh) since our home has been purged of floppy disks for several years– and I was not sure where I was going to find one if I had to make a bootable floppy! :-)

For the Macintosh secure hard drive format, I chose to use an older version of Norton Utilities I have for OS 9, that includes the application “Wipe Disk.” Again the process was fast and painless. A Macintosh PowerPC (iMac compatible) version of Derik’s Boot and Nuke is also available for free, but since I already had the CD made for OS 9 Norton Utilities I just used that. I could have also used the disk utility included on the Mac OS 10.3 (Panther) installation CD, but since this was an older computer I just stuck with the OS 9 Norton Utilities option. The Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) install CD wouldn’t boot on the iMac even though it has a DVD-ROM drive, because it is too old and not compatible with Tiger.

On this day..

3 Comments »
  • http://www.mguhlin.net/blog Miguel Guhlin

    Too kind…I learned about it from someone else…and so the sharing continues….btw, by popular request, this article on free tools to ease data theft concerns will be appearing as a multi-part podcast! Probably next friday or something.

    Take care and thanks for the link,
    Miguel Guhlin
    http://www.mguhlin.net/blog

  • Bob

    Every thing was working fine until the last time i restarted my computer, then it would go though the bios and then to the windows loading screen but then it would restart on its own. I found out that if i disconnected one of my hard drives, which only contains data files, the computer would boot up all the way. But i still need the data on this hard drive. I tried to connect the hard drive while the computer was booted up, but the hard drive isn’t recognized in device manager. I think the hard still powers up, by that i mean when i plug it in the hard drive starts making a humming sound but not much more then that.

    Is there some way I cane retrieve the files on this hard drive still, even though I can’t see it in my computer?

  • http://www.wesfryer.com Wesley Fryer

    There is generally always a way to recover files on a hard drive, but the question is often how much you’re willing to spend. I’d recommend givingspin right a try, it is relatively inexpensive compared to other alternatives (especially drive recovery services) and might to the trick, at least for some of your data.

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