How to shred hard drive using GParted
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Since no one else has brought it up, I'll mention SDelete[^], part of the SysInternals suite of utilities. It can be used to do a "Secure Delete" with a variety of options. Obligatory old fart war story: Back in the early 1980's I was the system manager on several VAX/VMS systems at our local Air Force base. I went to a seminar on how to securely decommission magnetic media. At the time, most hard drives used 300MB disk packs[^]. The decommission procedure went something like this: 1. Use operating system commands to delete all data from pack. 2. Dismount and then remount pack (ensures no data is cached in drive). 3. Write pattern of 0x00's, then 0xFF's, then random bytes so all addressable sectors on drive. 4. Repeat step #3 several times (I think they wanted at least 8 cycles). 5. Dismount pack from drive. 6. Disassemble pack so that individual platter surfaces are accessible. 7. Sand-blast platter surfaces, removing all recording material. 8. Crush platter. Most of us thought steps 5 through 8 were a tad... extreme. Dropping a pack from a height of a couple feet was usually enough to render it unusable.
Software Zen:
delete this;Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
Most of us thought steps 5 through 8 were a tad... extreme
Gary R. Wheeler wrote:
7. Sand-blast platter surfaces, removing all recording material. 8. Crush platter.
Sounds therapeutic. :)
"the debugger doesn't tell me anything because this code compiles just fine" - random QA comment "Facebook is where you tell lies to your friends. Twitter is where you tell the truth to strangers." - chriselst "I don't drink any more... then again, I don't drink any less." - Mike Mullikins uncle
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Since no one else has brought it up, I'll mention SDelete[^], part of the SysInternals suite of utilities. It can be used to do a "Secure Delete" with a variety of options. Obligatory old fart war story: Back in the early 1980's I was the system manager on several VAX/VMS systems at our local Air Force base. I went to a seminar on how to securely decommission magnetic media. At the time, most hard drives used 300MB disk packs[^]. The decommission procedure went something like this: 1. Use operating system commands to delete all data from pack. 2. Dismount and then remount pack (ensures no data is cached in drive). 3. Write pattern of 0x00's, then 0xFF's, then random bytes so all addressable sectors on drive. 4. Repeat step #3 several times (I think they wanted at least 8 cycles). 5. Dismount pack from drive. 6. Disassemble pack so that individual platter surfaces are accessible. 7. Sand-blast platter surfaces, removing all recording material. 8. Crush platter. Most of us thought steps 5 through 8 were a tad... extreme. Dropping a pack from a height of a couple feet was usually enough to render it unusable.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
If you're gonna go through steps 6-8, then the previous steps seem rather pointless to me...
Thermite. Done.
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Thermite. Done.
You've been hanging around with JSOP, haven't you? :-D
Software Zen:
delete this; -
If you're gonna go through steps 6-8, then the previous steps seem rather pointless to me...
As I recall, the explanation for it was to have multiple methods of decommissioning applied so that failures or omissions in any of the methods would be covered by the rest. Also, steps 1-5 were performed on the hardware where the pack was used. The final steps were actually performed by a single office on the base who had the tools and sand-blasting equipment. Supposedly they also did random spot checks on submitted media to ensure that the first steps were being performed. This was actually quite a concern, because in some cases it took a lot of time or special setup on the machine to do the wiping. People didn't like the time spent, or the machine being down, for something that seemed unnecessary. This was back during the Cold War, and espionage was a genuine concern at our base which ran a lot of R&D programs.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
I've done a repartition and format, but I understand that I should shred it as well. When I tried the command "shred", it said it didn't understand the command. :confused:
TMNT, you are not.
"One man's wage rise is another man's price increase." - Harold Wilson
"Fireproof doesn't mean the fire will never come. It means when the fire comes that you will be able to withstand it." - Michael Simmons
"You can easily judge the character of a man by how he treats those who can do nothing for him." - James D. Miles
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I've done a repartition and format, but I understand that I should shred it as well. When I tried the command "shred", it said it didn't understand the command. :confused:
To activate "Shred," you must first play any Metallica track at such high volume the neighbors call the cops. The doppler shifting pitch of the sirens will start "Shred."
«The mind is not a vessel to be filled but a fire to be kindled» Plutarch
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I've done a repartition and format, but I understand that I should shred it as well. When I tried the command "shred", it said it didn't understand the command. :confused:
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The only shredder you will ever trust [^]
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
This one is prettier for the office environment: Whitaker Hard Drive Cross Cut Shredder[^]
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The only shredder you will ever trust [^]
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
This is a candidate for a gimmick in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation[^]. Our intrepid investigators discover that vital data was on a hard drive that's been shredded, along with dozens of other drives. Fortunately the perp didn't empty the shredder output hopper. They recover the fragments, extract the platter bits (probably using a magnet :rolleyes: ), sort the bits into the correct platters and reassemble them. Then they find appropriate drive hardware in the CSI IT department's morgue (cue egregious pun in the dialogue), load up the drive, and discover an 8x16 pixel photo of said perpetrator. Click Enhance a few times, and you now have a high-resolution picture of the bad guy.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
This is a candidate for a gimmick in an episode of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation[^]. Our intrepid investigators discover that vital data was on a hard drive that's been shredded, along with dozens of other drives. Fortunately the perp didn't empty the shredder output hopper. They recover the fragments, extract the platter bits (probably using a magnet :rolleyes: ), sort the bits into the correct platters and reassemble them. Then they find appropriate drive hardware in the CSI IT department's morgue (cue egregious pun in the dialogue), load up the drive, and discover an 8x16 pixel photo of said perpetrator. Click Enhance a few times, and you now have a high-resolution picture of the bad guy.
Software Zen:
delete this; -
This one is prettier for the office environment: Whitaker Hard Drive Cross Cut Shredder[^]
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AFAIK, gparted does not have a shred option. There is a shred command available from the command line and you should be able to do
sudo shred -v /dev/sdX
. That will erase the whole drive. I've not tried it but I expect that
shed -v /dev/sdXPwould erase partition P. Check the docs on that. Note that this will erase the formatting, so you'll have to recreate the file system(s) for any partitions you shred. If you don't have shred installed, or can't install it for some reason, then you can use dddd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=4M
will overwrite the harddrive with all zeros. You might also use if=/dev/urandom, to write random-ish data over the drive before formatting.
Keep Calm and Carry On
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AFAIK, gparted does not have a shred option. There is a shred command available from the command line and you should be able to do
sudo shred -v /dev/sdX
. That will erase the whole drive. I've not tried it but I expect that
shed -v /dev/sdXPwould erase partition P. Check the docs on that. Note that this will erase the formatting, so you'll have to recreate the file system(s) for any partitions you shred. If you don't have shred installed, or can't install it for some reason, then you can use dddd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX bs=4M
will overwrite the harddrive with all zeros. You might also use if=/dev/urandom, to write random-ish data over the drive before formatting.
Keep Calm and Carry On
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I've done a repartition and format, but I understand that I should shred it as well. When I tried the command "shred", it said it didn't understand the command. :confused:
My preferred way to clean a disk: Connect the disk to computer. Open an elevated command prompt. Type Diskpart In Diskpart type list disk. Disks attached will be numbered 0, 1, 2, 3 to whatever. Make a CAREFUL note of the number of the disk to be cleaned. Do not choose the wrong disk! Type select disk n, where n is the number of the disk to be cleaned. Type clean all. Every sector on the disk will be set to zero, destroying all data on the disk and clearing all partitions. Afterwards, type convert mbr or convert gpt, depending whether you want an mbr or gpt disk. Now you can start creating partitions and formatting them. WARNING: Diskpart has no mercy. It has no "Are you sure?" prompts. Every command is immediately executed with no hesitation. Google Diskpart for a complete list of available commands.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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FOL - Falling over laughing
So old that I did my first coding in octal via switches on a DEC PDP 8
Did I mention the original 8x16 photo was monochrome, and the enhanced final photo in vibrant color?
Software Zen:
delete this;