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Avoid Data Theft; Wipe Your Drive December 28, 2008

Posted by sandihath in Wiping a Hard Drive.
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 Requirements:

A Computer with Windows or Leopard
DBAN wiping software (http://www.dban.org/download)
USB Flash Drive (Installer) or a DVD-R/CD-R (Burnt ISO image)
[A USB Flash Drive is recommended]

Introduction:

When selling, donating, or recycling your computer it is imperative that you make sure you data are completely inaccessible to hackers. If you had not taken the time to wipe your computer you could be vulnerable to data theft and even identify theft. For instance, in 2003 two MIT students purchased 158 used disk drives from various locations and found more than 5,000 credit card numbers, medical reports, detailed personal and corporate financial information, and several gigabytes worth of personal e-mail…on those drives. That’s where this guide comes in. Through this guide I will take you through the steps of wiping your hard drive to protect your data. Most know that protecting your data is essential but not many people are aware that simply deleting your data with the delete key or right clicking and pressing ‘delete’ does not actually delete the data it just deletes its address making it invisible to most users. Tom Merritt of CNET.com once said that deleting data with the delete key is like enlisting your number; your number gets unlisted but you don’t disappear. This is important to understand especially when you want to sell your computer or recycle it. Many people might think that erasing their data and formatting their drive will be sufficient and their data that was previously on it would be secure. However this is completely incorrect. Since formatting deletes the address tables of your data which makes it somewhat difficult to recover it. However many programs and computer specialists still can recover that data the formatting deleted. That’s where a simple program like DBAN comes into play. DBAN, or Darik’s Boot and Nuke, allows the user to completely erase a hard drive with no chance of recovery. It uses the Department of Defense Standard Medium protocol for erasing a drive. http://www.webopedia.com/ explains that “The government standard (DoD 5220.22-M), considered a medium security level, specifies three iterations to completely overwrite a hard drive six times. Each iteration makes two write-passes over the entire drive; the first pass inscribes ones (1) over the drive surface and the second inscribes zeros (0) onto the surface. After the third iteration, a government designated code of 246 is written across the drive, then it is verified by a final pass that uses a read-verify process.” This, thusly, makes all the data on your drive unrecoverable allowing you peace of mind when donating, selling, or recycling.

Before The Wipe:

Before you begin the process of wiping your drive you must take some steps to prepare yourself and your computer. First, and I cannot stress this enough, please backup all your data onto a portable hard drive or a USB Flash drive. Make sure you backup all you documents, bookmarks, pictures, music, and videos to your preferred drive. If you’re moving to a new computer you can use a USB transfer cable like the Belkin Transfer Cable for Windows Vista. After you have made sure you got all the data off of it wait a couple of days to make sure you do not need anything else of that computer. Moreover referring http://www.dban.org/documentation and watching the video below to get a feel for DBAN is recommended before proceeding to wipe. However once all your data is safely moved and backed up you may proceed to wiping.

The Steps to Wipe:

First you would want to acquire a DVD-R/CD-R or a USB drive to actually put DBAN on it. Then go to http://www.dban.org/download and pick the file that corresponds to the device and OS type you will use for DBAN. If you’re using a USB download the file, press run and have the DBAN installer install all the files necessary onto the storage device. If you’re using a DVD-R or a CD-R download the file, and burn the ISO image to the disk. After, place the device that has DBAN installed on it into the computer you want to wipe to hard drive. But as a reminder please makes sure all the data you want is off that computer since this will completely erase the drive with no chance of recovery. Then when computer you can load into your computers bios. All computers require you to hit a key at the first part of the load up to access your bios. Consult http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm for your computers bios key. Once in your bios select which storage device you want to load from; if you’re loading from a USB choose the USB choose. After which DBAN will load up. If you have an itchy trigger finger you can type in ‘autonuke’ and DBAN will go to work automatically erasing data from your drive. But the recommended way would be to press the enter key to go into interactive mode. After interactive mode boots up you will see a list of all your disks and partitions of your hard drive. Press ‘SPACE’ to select the partitions you wish to wipe. Press ‘M’ after you selected everything you want to wipe to select the effectiveness of your wiping. I recommended using the DoD 5220.22-M. When you’re ready to wipe and you know that you don’t need any more data off the drive press ‘F10′. Now let your computer go to work wiping your drive. Finally, be patient it will take time for your computer to fully be wiped.

Post Wipe:

After the wiping process has finished, re-install the included Operating System [ex: Windows Vista or Mac OS X 10] that was bundled with your computer when you had originally bought it. After that you have many options to what to do with this computer. Selling, donating, or recycling this computer would be your best bet. And since you have wiped your data and installed your OS you have no need to worry about someone pulling up your information. If you are recycling there are many organizations that are willing to help you. Those of which are approved by the US government are found on http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm. Through this you have five chooses in your recycling program. You can even find local programs to help you get that old computer off your hands. Now that I have taken you through the detailed steps of wiping a hard drive you can relax in knowing that using this guide will effectively eliminate all chances of identity and data theft. Now you know everything there is to know about wiping a hard drive plus some. Use this information wisely and, as always, wipe responsibly.

References:

http://www.dban.org/
http://cnettv.cnet.com/2001-1_53-29470.html
http://www.webopedia.com/DidYouKnow/Computer_Science/2007/completely_erase_harddrive.asp
http://www.techsoup.org/learningcenter/software/page5724.cfm
http://www.labnol.org/software/tutorials/upgrading-moving-to-a-new-computer/1676/
http://www.epa.gov/epawaste/conserve/materials/ecycling/donate.htm
http://www.michaelstevenstech.com/bios_manufacturer.htm
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Transfer-Cable-Windows-Vista/dp/B000JJPZW0

DISCLAIMER:

***This was created to help the community and through the information included in the guide, provide the community with cautious steps to protect their data and their identity when choosing to sell, donate, or recycle their computer(s). This guide was intended to be followed completely and slowly to avoid mistakes. This guide is subject to changes. This was creating as an MYP project.***

-T.S. AHS

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