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When we say wipe it, we mean overwrite every bit of it. Don't just delete and think you're clear. If you're not sure what I'm talking about, here's a site that'll explain and help you through it.
NO. In fact, it doesn't even fully reset the OS and certain errors can persist.
I would never trust tools on the drive to erase a drive. By definition, it can't fully delete everything because it would otherwise delete itself. And even if file encryption was used, it's a good idea to overwrite everything before selling, especially if there's high-value data on the drive.
What I would do: Get DBAN and boot it from a USB stick. (only works with HDDs, not with SSDs), and then secure erase the entire drive with it. Afterwards, install Windows from a fresh installer stick, downloadable here: https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows10
I can't tell for sure but those switches look OOOOoooooollllld. A few of the desktops are probably good enough to toss on a workshop bench to browse the web or potentially host Plex with basic hardware transcoding. I'd suggest checking the ram configuration on the HPs (what models are they?) because they can be picky with what DIMMs go into what slots in what sizes. Once you know what works I'd just fill the nicest server up to max with the best drives you have on hand and sell all the rest. If you can get one working server and two working desktops out of the whole haul I'd say you are doing well.
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Before you sell anything you should do the right thing and WIPE THE DRIVES. I think DBAN is a popular and easy to use option: https://dban.org
Do it DoD style
Format in Windows
Download https://dban.org/
Boot using a usb or disc
Follow the prompts
Then take the disk or USB outside
Throw it directly onto concrete or uae pickaxe (what I use)
Burn it (optional)
Done!
Hire a lawyer now.
Read 18 U.S.C. § 1466A
The PROTECT Act criminalizes material that has "a visual depiction of any kind, including a drawing, cartoon, sculpture or painting", that "depicts a minor engaging in sexually explicit conduct and is "obscene" or "depicts an image that is, or appears to be, of a minor engaging in ... sexual intercourse".
Mere possession of said images is not a violation of the law unless it can be proven that they were transmitted through a common carrier, such as the mail or the internet, or transported across state lines. There is also an affirmative defense made for possession of no more than two images with "reasonable steps to destroy" the images or reporting and turning over the images to law enforcement.
Legal protections:
- Delete your collection
- Delete this thread
- Use drive shredding software like dban to permanently
- Contact a lawyer.
Unless it overwrote ever sector, yes.
Reformatting (usually) just writes the disk structures, not the data on the rest of the disk. So a curious attacker could certainly recover some data.
demo:
○ → dd if=/dev/zero of=test.img bs=1M count=8 8+0 records in 8+0 records out 8388608 bytes (8.4 MB, 8.0 MiB) copied, 0.00597579 s, 1.4 GB/s
○ → mkfs.vfat test.img mkfs.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)
○ → mcopy -i test.img /usr/share/dict/words ::
○ → mcopy -i test.img /usr/share/dict/words ::words1
○ → mcopy -i test.img /usr/share/dict/words ::words2
○ → mcopy -i test.img /usr/share/dict/words ::words3
○ → mdir -i test.img Volume in drive : has no label Volume Serial Number is DF5D-AA07 Directory for ::/
words 938848 2017-06-05 11:52 words1 938848 2017-06-05 11:52 words2 938848 2017-06-05 11:52 words3 938848 2017-06-05 11:52 4 files 3 755 392 bytes 4 591 616 bytes free
○ → mkfs.vfat test.img mkfs.fat 3.0.28 (2015-05-16)
○ → strings test.img
mkfs.fat
NO NAME FAT12
This is not a bootable disk. Please insert a bootable floppy and
press any key to try again ...
AA's
AB's
ABM's
AC's
…
zoom
zoom's
zoomed
zooming
zooms
zoos
zucchini
zucchini's
zucchinis
zwieback
zwieback's
zygote
…
So while not all the data is 100% recoverable, it's generally still there.
Next time you need to wipe a drive, use: DBAN.
This is how I would do it:
1) Run DBAN, so not even a techny new owner can retrieve your data.
2) Install F26, but DO NOT create a user during the installation and do not reboot the machine, but shut it down. This way when the new owner starts it, Gnome will guide him/her through a first time setup.
I'm a fan of DBAN for obliterating everything if you aren't able to actually physically destroy the media.
There is a free version, and licensed (if working in a business environment that requires recordkeeping for compliance)
Its writes the shit out of the drive, so may not be the best option on an SSD that you plan to keep or re-use.
Yeah, that's my problem with it. I know she's 16 physically but she's very naive and innocent. Somebody had to explain to her what a blowjob was FFS! There's no way if it turned into a sexual relationship it'd be covered by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 Section 8 either, because she's totally of sound mind and has all of her faculties... she's just oblivious to sex, flirting, the works.
He's got her on Facebook and everything, he's wormed his way into every facet of her life from what I can gather.
And I know what you are saying - I found out my dad was into "dubiously aged pornography" shall we say - I wasn't around to see as I'd walked out of my house, but I plugged every external drive I could fit into a USB port, then DBAN'd his whole PC and collection of hard drives when he was at work then posted my key back through and left. I destroyed 20 odd years of his life including photos of holidays, the lot, even photos of my mum who died, but fuck him. Hindsight not the best idea legally but hey... it was 8 years ago and I was naive and innocent as well.
Apparently he was indescribably angry (keep in mind he's a domestic abuser, sociopath, alcoholic paedo nutter-fuckwit) but he knew exactly why I'd done it as I'd left a post-it note basically explaining what I'd found and that he was lucky this was all I was going to do.
Plus tuo laitteiden takavarikointi on siitä turhaa koska ei tarvitse olla kummoinenkaan nörtti niin todisteet saa helposti poistettua. Tuohon päälle jokin VPN niin siinähän saavat vapaasti yrittää markkinaoikeudessa todistaa asioita.
What do you mean you were unable to erase it?
Use a tool like Darik's Boot and Nuke and you'll be secure. https://dban.org/
If you don't zero that drive, the owner will be able to access everything on it if they know how. It's better not to trust that people are stupid and even in some way will accidentally stumble into your data.
Use boot and nuke.
Yes, good reminder. It needs to have an operating system to boot though or they won't take it, so keep that in mind. If you are feeling lazy, doing the built in Reset function on Win10 or the factory reset using the recovery partition is probably good enough. If you want to be absolutely sure, download and run DBAN then just reinstall your OS.
Most data should be movable to the new drive - either by just copying it yourself or within the application (for example Steam allows you to create a new data folder on the new disk then migrate each game across). Wiping the old drive is best done outside of Windows in my experience - DBAN (https://dban.org/) is a simple to use disk wiping tool that will boot from USB. Just make sure that you select the right disk to wipe!
Pull drives and dban them separately in another PC.
Then reset the OS. That's it.
DBAN is pretty much the defacto standard. 'Autonuke' does 3 random pass wipes. I've never heard, even anecdotally in the dark corners of slashdot, that anyone's ever been able to recover anything intelligible after a single random pass wipe (let alone 3).
Physically destroy the drive if you need further assurance (drill a hole in it). I heard the US DoD does a 10 pass wipe, cuts the drive in half, and then sends each half to a recycle facility on each coast.
Definitively your best solution. Invest in a cheap portable hard drive and port any data you want to keep to this. Once done, locate your hard drive in your PC. Give it a good whack with a hammer. This makes it unusable. Another option is to use Dariks Boot and Nuke (https://dban.org/) but hammer is def. the way to go, if you're not tech savvy.
Next, locate your local genbrugsplads (Recycling center) . They have a container for used electronics. It's free to use for private people (companies needs to pay a fee) and you can ask any employee there, if you have any questions :)
Good luck!
I'm sure he wouldn't want you to be burdened with his out dated computer supplies.
Just like you wouldn't keep his food from his pantry after it expiration date, you have no obligation to do the same for his expired technology.
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I'd put everything on craigslist free or drop off at the waste place.
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Anything with a hard drive or a memory stick (or burned CD) should be wiped securely or otherwise destroyed.
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Something like boot and nuke can make security erasing many hard drive easy (but be careful you don't accidentally destroy your main computer!)
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See here for more info: https://dban.org
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Sorry for your loss.
I suppose then it would depend on the type of harddrive (magnetic storage or SSD) along with the tech-savvy and equipment of the intruder in question.
A gunshot will turn the magnetic storage drive unreadable in the non damaged parts to any means of trying to replace the magnetic disks in a working hard drive chassis (something that can be done by a decently skilled computer tech if they are careful enough), but that is not to say that someone with access to a computer forensics lab (with the skills to use it) can't, at least partially, recreate some of the contents on the drive using other methods of reading the stored information on the undamaged portions of the disks.
SSDs on the other hand I guess would become completely destroyed by the shot, but I'm not familiar enough with how the SSD stores information to say for sure if it can't be recreated. Maybe someone with a better grip on how SSD's handles data could pitch in with a better answer.
If your friend want's to truly nuke the information on the drive, I think something like dban might work, but even that is not guaranteed.
>Before you sell anything you should do the right thing and WIPE THE DRIVES. I think DBAN is a popular and easy to use option: https://dban.org
Or use the ATA secure erase that is built into drives..
The best option for wiping a drive is probably Darik's Boot and Nuke. If you want to securely delete particular files on Linux you can use "srm filename.txt" or "shred -uzn 35 filename.txt" in the command line. I think srm and shred work on Mac too. No idea how to do any of this on Windows though.
if you want to nuke the drive to make data unrecoverable then use
about the windows license. either connect it to a microsoft account or just reenter the key in a new computer and do the telephone activation
And SSDs with their write amplification can end up with data that was stored in mapped locations written intact to unmapped parts of the SSD chips. Things like DBAN might have erasure patterns to deal with that now, but a simple wipe won't.
Edit actually DBAN says it explicitly can't wipe SSDs properly
I would bring your laptop to FriendlyEarth in SODO. They will properly wipe your data, and destroy the hard drive and you can watch them do it too. It's also caught on camera too as a double.
You can run https://dban.org yourself to wipe your data prior to, but they will use it too; the most important part of what FriendlyEarth does is actually blast the hard drive with an EMP. It sounds like a gun going off.
> When I worked in government IT we used DBAN (https://dban.org) and drilled though them. Healthcare hard drives were only wiped and then resold/reused
DoD/NSA HDDs are folded in a pneumatic press after being wiped.
For low security drive destruction, sometimes we lay them out on the tarmac and take swings at them with a sledgehammer. Most of the time we toss them into the incinerator for good measure then shovel them out after. Spent many a good day throwing burnbags in the incinerator and smashing hard drives. Way more fun than document shredding.
> I sent an SSD for rma and ran DBAN on it. Good thing I did because apparently it was never even picked up from the UPS drop box. Where is it? No one knows.
Except that DBAN doesn't really work for SSDs. Flash memory, like in SSDs or USB flash drives, uses wear leveling to extend its service life. Every block of flash memory has a limited amount of write cycles before it fails. DBAN tries to overwrite every block of a HDD at least once, but you can't do that with flash memory, because the controller selects the block with the least amount of writes, so every block get's the same amount of usage.
I even says so on the website: https://dban.org/
> While DBAN is free to use, there’s no guarantee your data is completely sanitized across the entire drive. It cannot detect or erase SSDs and does not provide a certificate of data removal for auditing purposes or regulatory compliance
If you actually want to securely erase a SSD, use the manufacturer's tools for that. There are also some open source or generic tools that might work, but the SSD has to support it. I think most (quality) SSDs do, but I haven't had a USB flash drive, that did support secure erase.
Well if you're not going to answer me, let me leave you with this. It's time to download DBAN link and wipe out those 15 hard drives you have at home. Burn your SD cards too before the Feds come knocking too
If it's a mechanical hard drive, zero the disk using DBAN - link is in the top right corner, ignore the stuff about Blancco. It's a bootable utility that ignores things like the file system and partitions and just wipes the disk. Single run overwriting everything with zero will work just fine.
If it's an SSD, it will have something called ATA Secure Erase built in, which you can trigger using a bootable version of Linux on a USB stick or something. It does something similar to the above.
Another option is to encrypt the entire drive and then format it. Encryption without a decryption key is tantamount to erasure. There are plenty of tools that will let you do this.
That is how you can be absolutely sure.
This will leave you with a drive and absolutely nothing, so the Windows 10 ISO will not help unless you have a Windows 10 key. You can get one of those (an OEM license key) from your favourite online retailer for peanuts. Or if you have a Windows 8.1 key, you can install Windows 8.1 using a Windows 8.1 image and the Media Creation Tool (which you can obtain legitimately), then search the internet for "Windows 10 accessibility" like other say, it will take you to a Microsoft page where you can still upgrade to Windows 10 for free, no questions asked.
I've always used a program called DBAN; Darik's Boot and Nuke. It usually comes on those utility CDs like Ultimate Boot CD, or you can download an ISO of just that here. It basically writes multiple passes of random data to the hard drive a bunch of times to wipe it.
Wenn die Platte noch geht: https://dban.org/
Ansonsten, durchbohren oder mit dem Hammer zerdeppern.
Nach beiden wird sich keiner die Mühe machen, wenn du nicht grade vor Gereicht stehst für irgendwas, was Lebenslänglich einbringen könnte.
Use dban. It stands for Derek's boot and nuke. It will completely wipe a drive and rewrite the drive with nonsense data making it impossible to recover the data, and nothing will be installed on it anymore. You can download it from their website. You will need to use a computer to install dban on a USB drive (you can use the computer you are trying to erase). If you need instructions on how to install and use dban you can follow this guide. Hope this helps!
No they haven't. They've updated the commercial Blancco Drive Eraser, which requires an ~$20 license per drive you erase.
DBAN is a separate product - you can see the comparison here: https://dban.org#compare
if you want to wipe in terms of not being able to recover data then you can nuke it.
be careful to nuke the SSD though. youre pretty much wearing its life off because nuking means rewriting junk data on the drive so that it cant be recovered.
afterwards create a bootable windows 10 usb stick and install windows again.
here is a video turial
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbpqkiaO7q4&feature=youtu.be&t=13m9s
>The thought of degaussing it sounds expensive ($500), and why the fuck would anyone do that unless it's incredibly vital stuff inside.
A complete hard drive has more resale value than one that's been physically destroyed, even for recycling. When you're discarding tens of thousands of disks a year, that adds up. Degaussing is much faster than a secure erase.
>I have a harddrive sitting around that is unimportant (who cares if anyone finds them) that I was wondering if I should do something with it.
Use a tool like this to securely wipe it. Then you've not destroyed it and you could stick it on eBay or something.
DBAN https://dban.org/ Follow instructions for using it via USB and installing. NOTE: wiping the HDD will remove your recovery partition that most PCs come with. If you are doing this wipe to get rid of the device, this is the right method, or better one is drilling a hole through the drive and tossing it. I personally do not give any drive to anyone. I prefer destruction. If you are reinstalling the OS and reusing it again for yourself, this is overkill. On the DBAN options choose any DoD standard.
This is the right solution. However, if you already have data on it, you can try running nwipe or DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke) on it, to varying effect depending on the condition of the drive. nwipe is available in many Linux distro repositories.
Those aren't guaranteed to get everything, but if you can live with that, there you go. If not, it's time to get out the acid and drills, or maybe visit a nice volcano.
I strongly suggest DBAN-ing the hard drive before turning over your computer.
However, you might want to re-install an OS (Windows, Mac, Ubuntu) after you wipe it. Some people at /r/buildapcsales said they needed an OS to do the trade-in, some people said they didn't need an OS, depending on the sales person.
Could always change your answers on the trade-in page, to check if Ubuntu would be good enough.
as mentioned as raspberry pi zero could work, but would be slow. if you need this for any kind of volume work, at least go for a lower end rpi 4. anti-virus software is cpu hungry.
if this is for personal use, tbh the better way to do this would be to have a computer isolated from any networks that boots from a usb drive with whatever your preferred linux distro is, dban the drives and format.
if this is for work, although I'd always prefer people recycle, it might make more sense to buy new. your time and efforts are worth something, and you'll never have 100% certitude the antivirus didn't miss something.
Yea, it’s not good for the health of SSDs.
> While DBAN is free to use, there’s no guarantee your data is completely sanitized across the entire drive. It cannot detect or erase SSDs and does not provide a certificate of data removal for auditing purposes or regulatory compliance. Hardware support (e.g. no RAID dismantling), customer support and software updates are not available using DBAN. If you are an enterprise that needs to erase data from SSDs or requires a Certificate of Erasure for compliance purposes, request your free Blancco Drive Eraser Trial for Enterprise Organizations.
I'd say just write zero on the hdd with:
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdX
BE PATIENT, it will take a long time.
Obviously this is possible only if the hard-drive is physically detected by the system (it doesn't need to be mounted). But that may not be the case
Also, i've heard of some people using https://dban.org/ in this situations (which may or may not take less time, i have never used it).
Good luck.
Edit: typos
If you just want the HDD wiped, use Windows disk management and format the drive. If he is selling or discarding the drive, he should use a program like DBAN to ensure no data can be recovered.
If you're really worried about it, let DBAN (https://dban.org/) have a crack at it. It'll wipe out every byte of data on the drive. It's been around a long time and has a good reputation. I use it myself when replacing drives or getting new ones.
OP you can go 2 different ways on the PC, the first way is to use Darik's Boot and Nuke (DBAN), this will wipe everything off your HD, you will need to reinstall the OS. If you can not do that, you can use BleachBit to scrub the freespace on your HD. I use BleachBit myself, its a pain in the ass to use DBAN & reinstall the OS.
If this PC is going to be a TAILS only machine, wipe it & do not reinstall the OS, just boot Tails off the thumb drive when needed.
Hope this answers your question :-)
9000
I would do 3 overwrites at minimum since it came from an Enterprise environment and try to clear caches if possible. You could also reset the BIOS and Out Of Band management (if it has this feature) so that no other hostname/IPs/confidential info gets possible sold.
Darik's Boot and Nuke is the tool of choice I use for tasks like this: https://dban.org/
Wipe your computer with something like DBAN and reinstall your OS. Make sure you've got install media available to you (including something that boots) before you wipe.
If you've got banking information at risk, it may be cheaper/easier/faster to buy a new computer.
You could also consider running something like a LiveCD version of Ubuntu (see https://help.ubuntu.com/community/LiveCD/Persistence) for banking or other important things, especially if you can't/won't wipe/reinstall or buy a new computer. Chromebooks are also cheap and will get you on the Internet pretty securely.
By not selling the drive. A bank I use to work for use to mechanically destruct there drives to be extra safe.
Now if you want to sell it, another company I worked for would use DBAN (https://dban.org) and write over the drive 3 times. After that most people won't be able to recover any information.
Yeah someone could image the disk in the laptop then perform forensic analysis on it, this could reveal SSH keys, bitcoin wallets etc. There are a bunch of tools to do this.
Most wallets force the user to encrypt their wallet making it much more difficult to get at the coins.
Defence against this is pretty simple, boot into dban and run it for a few cycles over the disk you want to deadificate there are arguments as to how many is enough but anything more than 10 and you'll be fine.
Some pawnshops won't accept a laptop that doesn't boot into an OS so you may want to break out your win7 install media and throw that over the top of a freshly DBANd disk.
If you are going to sell them it is best practice to completely write over each sector of the drive. You would have to reinstall the OS but this insures that the drive is wiped and that no data could be restored.
You can do this with DISKPART but you have to use the clean all command. Just using clean will only overwrite the partition table leaving the actual data intact.
Other tools you could use are DBAN or WD Drive Utilites.
DBAN : https://dban.org/
Use a CD or USB key if you are that paranoid. Run it for a billion passes if super paranoid, but the reality is just boot it up, type : quick and it'll write 0's to every sector, verify it wrote a sector and go until its done.
Not the best to obscure data or anything, but should be plenty to prevent any sort of virus or anything from doing anything.
If you decide to do this, make sure to WIPE YOUR DATA FIRST. Keeping OS (slightly less secure) Clean wipe (but must install new OS after)
Just use something like this. It'll take a while for a bigger drive but if the DoD trusts it... Plus it's free.
Honestly it's probably even more secure than physical destruction, or a third party. In theory you could lift those bits off the pieces of drive with high tech magnetic imaging technology; and what's to stop anybody you drop it off with from just imaging the drive, formatting and reselling it?
If they just want the hardware use https://dban.org/. This will physically put every bit on the harddrive out of order or to 0 or whatever you want.
If they want it back with the OS on it I suggest you to get the license key, somehow get a win XP ISO and then reinstall windows XP (after you've run dban).
This is all absolutely overkill but will probably put your friend's mind at ease.
If you have sensitive data you definitely don't want in other people's hand, use dban to "nuke" the drive. Basically it overwrites the drive multiple times so it's virtually impossible retrieve data.
Plug in a USB. Download https://balena.io/etcher. Download https://dban.org. Use etcher to burn the dban ISO to your USB drive. Reboot and hold the Option key. Select the USB drive and select "go". Look up a guide on how to use dban.
Contrary to some comments, attempting to physically damage your HDD is both unnecessary and potentially still insecure if done insufficiently.
The standard procedure is to use https://dban.org/ (or similar software) to secure-erase your drive. You can specify the number of passes and the erasing method to your desired level of security, but the “three-pass DoD Short” is a perfectly secure option that won’t take too long to complete.
You can likely find some basic tutorial/explanatory videos or articles regarding using DBAN and similar softwares if you need the peace of mind of knowing it is indeed secure.
Practical advice once there is no legal requirement to maintain the data (HMRC, etc) I would recommend something like DBAN (https://dban.org) to nuke the laptops physical storage. Failing that remove the disks and find somewhere which does physical media destruction
To be honest I’d recommend this whether it’s this situation or a home PC
Glary Utilities - I don't know. They don't have it listed on their website.
If you need to securely wipe/format something - I suggest using DBAN - its free for personal use, open source and does the job.
Yes, that's how you perform full disk encryption.
If it's an actual HDD, run DBAN beforehand. If it's a SSD, perform a SATA Secure Erase or NVMe Secure Erase.
Formatting likely won't accomplish what your trying to to do.
If you are using windows check out https://dban.org/
If your using linux use this command but replace yourdisk with your disk path.
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/youdisk;dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/youdisk;dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/youdisk;dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/yourdisk;
Basically, you write 0's to the entire memory, followed by 1's, then repeat 7 times. See even a single overwrite still leaves traces (think of using a pencil/eraser, simply erasing doesn't make it unreadable, writing over it only once, you can still make it out with significant effort, but doing it multiple times just makes it impossible at some point).
Edit: You can also use strong magnets, as this is basically a forced set of the entire HDD to either 0 or 1 with so much power that any "history" becomes impossible to create (the black marker over the pencil writing if you want an example).
Data Removal: Darik's Boot and Nuke - DBAN
Put it on a flash drive and boot to it (or burn to CD, whichever). Do a "DoD short" operation. I guarantee the hard drive WILL be erased after that.
Generally speaking, formatting the drive doesn't erase the data. It just blanks the filesystem.
For erasing the data you can use DBAN. This tool will actually scramble the bits on the entire hard drive, making it near-impossible to get anything back from it.
Are you selling it to a friend or someone you trust?
If not, and you have or once had anything on the hard drive which you wouldn't want someone to see, I recommend you look into DBAN (https://dban.org/). (free for personal use).
When you delete something from your hard drive, or even format it. You aren't generally deleting the data as such. All it does is remove the indexing (the information to access the data easily in an operating system etc). A cheap and easily accessible data recovery program can access the "ghost" information even after formatting.
DBAN overwrites the data with random garbage to ensure the data isn't of any use. It can do different levels of erasing. (more passes = less recoverable data). More passes takes longer but is more secure. On a large mechanical hard drive, the process can take hours to days depending on how many passes and size of drive. It's well worth doing though to be safe.
TL:DR. If you don't trust where the hard drive will end up. DBAN the drive.
the software DBAN is designed to utterly delete, overwrite and shatter all data on a hard drive, leaving the drive in a "new" state. it can be used, but everything on it will be gone, for sure, forever.
from my experiments there is no-one on earth who can undo the most thorough setting DBAN can use.
i doubt major intelligence agencies can undo this stuff.
there are other wiper-wares out there.
i am certain this is answer to your worries, or a similar 'ware for other Operating Systems.
feel free to message me for guidance on doing this.
you will just need his password for his PC/laptop.
To be honest what I would do is use Dban to wipe the drive normally. Windows xp is so old it's pretty much useless except in certain applications where is only runs a specific software and is not connected to the internet. If you really do need xp you can always dual boot with no problems or just virtualize it. You can install Kali using the disk image and a usb drive.
dban the drive before installing the OS. https://dban.org/
Depending on what you are doing osint for, you should consider getting a laptop that you can run one vm of linux at a time on it. You don't want to cross contaminate osint investigations/projects.
Yeah it'll be fine. A full wipe is gonna remove any kind of serials and tracking they MAY have had on there. If it would serve to alleviate your paranoia a bit then nuke the system with DBAN: https://dban.org
DBAN will strip every single bit of data from the HDD, effectively making the drive "as new" in a sense.
The absolute safest thing to do is wipe the drive with DBAN, and re-install from scratch. A simplle reformat and re-install will probably be enough though. After taking subvert's advice first.
This can wipe the drive securely https://dban.org/
You can sell it blank or reload whatever OS OEM sticker is on the bottom.
If it works, you can get something for it.
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There are ways to do it with software, e.g. Dban, but this can take a long time to thoroughly scramble data on a hard drive, say, and even then some forensics tools might be able to recover it.
A sure(r)-fire and much quicker way would be to physically destroy the media. Some suggestions include destroying the platters of a hard drive with a hammer, or turning them to slag with thermite.
It has a 660Ti so it's likely pretty decent. Not all of the cables need to be plugged in if they are not used.
I would make sure it's dusted out really well and you should DBAN the hard drives that are on it. Yes, it might be tempting if there is "free" already installed software/OS, but there could also be virus/spyware or other malware. I can easily imagine a scam of dumping a free computer with a keylogger installed.
What you are looking for is DBAN https://dban.org
Now, this won't help with removing the backups your IT department has (any good sized IT department automatically backs up everything their end users put on their machines so they can rebuild/replace failed machines) but it will completely wipe your computer.
For HDDs, use DBAN. It's a minimal operating system that allows you to secure overwrite HDDs. (important: NEVER use it on SSDs, it damages them and is ineffective)
For the SSD, use the manufacturer toolkit to secure erase them. Overwriting does not work on SSDs since they are non-sequential and often store multiple copies of the same data for redundancy.
Obviously you'd need to do that step in another PC since you can't run an OS from a drive you're wiping.
>certificate of data destruction
? What the hell do you expect some lame picture saying "Yes your data has been destroyed" .
If you need compliance/auditing records fulfilled you send off to companies that destroy them for you.
Otherwise you use DBAN like a normal person. https://dban.org/
Use DBAN to nuke it. Keep in mind, nuking a hard drive is going to take time. Ideally let it overwrite the whole hard drive at least 7 times.
If you need it on a USB thumb drive, here's a guide:
https://www.pendrivelinux.com/install-dban-to-a-usb-flash-drive-using-windows/
Ok from this point I would nuke the drive again (use DBAN for this) as I suspect the drive has old partitions on it. You will lose ALL data if this is done but it will allow windows setup to correctly install what it needs to run.
> So, firstly, is it safe to have two missing standoff’s on the motherboard? I tried to make the two missing ones on opposite sides to even it out.
This is usually fine, assuming that those two extras aren't in a weird position grounding areas on the back of your board that aren't supposed to be grounded, or making the board flex.
> Secondly, how do I wipe a hard drive?
That's incredibly sketchy that he didn't wipe it himself, but okay. When you install Windows or Linux, one of the first steps is to set a primary disk drive. At this point, the installer will give you the option to "format" the drive, which will let you wipe the drive. A "full format" will completely overwrite the drive with zeros before starting the install (this takes a while). A "quick format" will just overwrite information as it goes, telling the drive to ignore any old information that's still on there. As a third option for the completely paranoid is to put DBAN on a flash drive and boot to it to completely erase the drive. DBAN will let you select what type of data wipe you wish to perform - all the way to Federal DoD standards if you really want to go crazy.
Yup - dban (Darik's Boot and Nuke) is great and does the business - can just run from CD or USB pen.
It's been standard fare since version zero and I've been using it for 15 years since verison 0.2 and it's done the business every time.
First, use the following link to build a bootable usb for windows OS.
https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/windows-usb-dvd-download-tool
You should wipe all of your drives using disk management and/or another bootable usb with DBAN (https://dban.org). I SAY and or because i dont believe you can wipe an SSD with DBAN.
After the wipe and fresh OS install, immediately grab any vital updates for Windows and drivers for your devices. Lastly I'd recommend heading over to ninite.com to save some time on program download and installation.
Yes, it's called DBAN and it destroys all data, so be sure you don't have any extra thumbdrivers. Ignore the Blancco ads--they purchased DBAN as a started-level project but it's existed for years and years before that and is completely secure.
You only really have to do a single pass of either random data or zeros (or ones, if you want to be a rebel). On modern hard drives that's enough, but feel free to do a triple pass if you have the time. (On an SSD, all you have to do is a single pass of zeroes.)
Como te comentaron ya, El instalador de windows 10 te da la opcion de formatear por defecto. Si por cualquier razon queres hacer un borrado seguro podes usar DBAN https://dban.org/ la version free comun, Con eso booteas y limpia TODOS los discos conectados, Usalo con cuidado desconectando lo que no queres borrar.
If you want to wipe I would suggest dban, then install linux, then [install windows] 10(https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/software-download/windows10). You may want to follow that last link and set up the bootable drive now, while you still have the old windows running.
In terms of software, I would suggest getting the drivers that sound good to you directly from Lenovo's support site. It's all organized by model numbers. This covers things like trackpoint settings, updating bios, changing boot image, etc. There are also a lot of Linux tools, people seem to be big fans (heh) of temperature control options.
You shouldn't have to worry about any physical maintenance on such a new laptop, but cleaning the fans can help if it was in a especially dirty environment or something.
There was a post a little bit ago here about someone who had a similar issue to yours, and it ended up being drive failure IIRC. How long have you had your SSD/How much was it being used? SSDs tend to be more worn by lots of read/write cycles and being filled up, so if your SSD is old it might be that.
Other than that, are you installing from a USB 2.0 drive on a USB 2.0 port? Even if you have UEFI boot/secure boot off, USB 3.0 on either the USB drive or port can cause issues with Windows installations (make sure you always do installations on the motherboard ports, not case ports). Also clear your CMOS just in case you have a setting that Windows doesn't like.
EDIT: If you've already backed up important data, you can try Darik's Boot and Nuke off of a USB drive if nothing else works. This will completely erase every single thing on each drive you have and leave the space unallocated, which means you can format the boot disk straight from the installer (hopefully) without issues.
EDIT 2: It seems that you have an OEM version of Windows. While the license is tied to the motherboard, reinstalling shouldn't have licensing issues, but may be worth making sure.
I stopped downloading anything from sourceforge a few years ago.
If you want to completely erase your entire drive, use DBAN. If you want to erase only the portions which are empty but from which data can be retrieved by data recovery tools, use CCleaner.
No need to look at any other utility. Both are free for personal use.
Darik's Boot and Nuke, dban has been around a while. I see it's been bought and an upgraded version is being sold now ~$20. You can still get the original dban though and there seems to be several forks of the original available if you want to see the source.
You have to boot the machine for it to work.
What you need to do:
Download Windows Media Creation Tool from microsoft website;
Let it do its thing (it will burn Windows 10 ISO on the thumbdrive);
Download DBAN;
Let it do its thing;
Install Windows 10 — no need for activation, only restriction is that you won't be able to change background and colors.
You could try https://dban.org/ and wipe the crap out of the existing drive. Grab a 8GB USB drive first and create a WIN 10 Home Image for installation after you wipe the drive. You don't need a product key to install and use WIN 10, not sure if that helps you get there faster. You'll want to activate it eventually.
If you have a few spare bucks it can't hurt to just get a new SSD and install a copy of WIN 10 and then pull down whatever drivers Windows can't get for you.
If you're more into productivity than the project of trying to clean it, then cut your losses. Saving an OS installation that displays persistent malware is a problem that's generally not worth your time to solve. Worse, you'll never be sure you got it all.
Wipe the drive with DBAN. If you're really paranoid then purchase a new drive and flash the PC's mainboard firmware from known good media, set a bios/efi password, and then reinstall the OS from known good media. Bring the OS to current with (assuming it's Windows) WSUS Offline Update before it ever sees a network.
Accomplish any downloads on a different network and write them to brand new media, preferably onto write-once optical media. Check the hashes on the downloads. If the malware is coming back it might be a home network device or storage media that is the vector of persistence. Update your router as well as soon as possible from your newly-reinstalled OS and make sure to change any default passwords to something new.
If it still persists after all that, then be sure to speak directly into your webcam and say "You won", then set fire to your house and move to Nebraska.
Create a live CD for Dariks Boot and Nuke. Here are some instructions on how to use the software. It is a lot easier than it looks.
i suggest this https://dban.org/
this will overwrite your drive with random 0/1 and you can configure it to do it a couple of times. It is time consuming but should provide a peace of mind if you plan to sell or give your drive to someone else. Just formatting, no, thats easily recoverable.
If that doesn't work, then you could try using DBAN. You can install it onto a USB (if you have another computer) with a tool like rufus, then boot the surface to the USB (these steps might help if you don't know how to boot a surface to a USB). Then you can reinstall with the media creation tool.
Hope this helps, and if it doesn't, at least I tried to help.
Honestly, if you are giving this to a stranger, you should nuke the data and reinstall Windows.
1) Windows 10 bootable image.
2) Download DBAN to nuke the data.
3) Reinstall Windows.
4) Download SDI to update all drivers.
If you want to securely delete data on a whole physical drive I'd recommend DBAN rather than shred. Just make sure you run it against the right disk if you have more than one...
I've never specified the random source with shred, I just use the default. Generally in Linux there's two sources of randomness, /dev/random and /dev/urandom.
/dev/urandom is pseudo-random, but data is always available from it, so it never blocks. For most instances it's Good Enough™.
/dev/random is more truly random, but if there's not enough randomness, a read from it will block until there is enough. If you rand shred --random-source=/dev/random -u /dev/sdb (assuming /dev/sdb was the NTFS drive) it would take an extremely long time to complete.
For more detail on /dev/random and /dev/urandom see https://linux.die.net/man/4/random.
A simple format of the drive would let the new owner install whatever they want but if you want to properly erase and protect your data use something like dban to overwrite each bit.
If the drives are HDDs I would run dban on them to erase everything on them first. For SSDs I used ATA Secure Erase because dealing with HDDs is slightly different than SSDs.
https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/ATA_Secure_Erase
Once the drives are erased the risk of malware like you describe is essentially zero. Then you can install your operating systems. To that end I haven't tried to dual-boot since the 00s but I do remember that you needed to install Windows first and then Linux to let grub take over the boot process from whatever Windows uses as a bootloader. Honestly this whole process was so much of a hassle I stopped dual-booting and only run Windows in emergencies from a dedicated SSD or inside a VM.
Here's one I can vouch for: Just the day before garbage day, take your bike & go around neighborhoods. You may wanna go around on other days as well, as different neighborhoods may have different days they pick up garbage on.
You might only find things that will barely sell on the FB Marketplace, but are still worth at least $20-40. But, you may also find things that can get you enough cash to purchase a new smartphone!
I once found a TV that didn't appear damaged but didn't turn on. A quick bit of careful work with a cheap multimeter later, I found that the power supply board was 100% dead (specifically: no 5.3V standby on a 40" Philips TV), and a replacement for that board was only $30. Sold the TV for $80 to a friend after replacing that board.
Even better than that - I shit you not, someone once threw out fully working Dell PowerEdge servers. Not only that, with data still on them! They were too heavy for me to even dare to try to carry them home on my bike (as yes, I actually took the previously mentioned TV to my home using my bike), but I couldn't pass up on them & ended up calling my mom to get her car for me to take them home.
Both servers were just dirty/scratched up. I ran some free software to wipe all the data off of them, cleaned them up as best as I could, then sold both for $260. The only real challenge was convincing my parents to leave them running in the garage for 24 hours straight to wipe their data (despite how loud they were), then getting the buyers to actually meet on time.
Yes, I know, I was lucky as all hell to come across a free $260 on the curb. But nonetheless, it's absolutely possible to come across some high-value items which only need some cleaning & easy to do repairs - hell, if any repairs at all!
Buy a USB disk caddy from Amazon (almost all support ATA and SATA and "normal hard drive sizes" as well as laptop drives) and download/install Derriks Nuke and boot (its free) from here:
https://dban.org/
I was in a similar position not long ago. Although not 12Tb! (Holy gianormous porn stash Batman!). I destroyed my collection using a destructive algorithm developed for the US DoD. The tool can be downloaded here: https://dban.org/ Pull the trigger and be done with it. Fire and forget, onwards and upwards! :)
And if you in the future feel regret, you can always think about how you destroyed it, why you did it and if you're really going to waste more time building a new collection.
Just follow the OS "reset" functions and you'll be fine. No one is going to go to the trouble of performing low level data recovery when you can buy much more stolen personal data online for £5
If you are still concerned and are a little technically inclined then use something like DBAN and then reinstall the OS