fellas did you know your HDD has a built-in way of securely erasing your data?

[vazel]

Yea this is awesome too bad the feature isn't built into Windows like it is with Mac. http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=129

[Crisler]

Not sure it should be built in as the average user has enough ways to lose their data, they do not need one more.

[Shadowless]

I don't use BitLocker, why would I find a use for this?

And i fully agree with crisler.

[Jas420221]

OFN (though not a repost)...

This should be available to the consumer. It just needs a warning screen before you 'erase' the data. Thats all the cpmany needs to cover its arse and inform their customer.

[Crisler]

Originally Posted by Jas420221

OFN (though not a repost)...

This should be available to the consumer. It just needs a warning screen before you 'erase' the data. Thats all the cpmany needs to cover its arse and inform their customer.

You really think the warnings matter? Look at smoking for YEARS we have been told that it will kill you, yet millions smoke and then turn around and want to blame the companies. Speed limit signs are posted everywhere and yet people speed and then get mad at the cop for the ticket and state for the speed limit sign.

People are STUPID for the most part unless it is something they place a high priority on. For us that is computing so to us this seems an excellent idea. however the majority of the people out there, warning or not will mess up thier system then blame the computer maker.

[Jas420221]

Originally Posted by Crisler

You really think the warnings matter? Look at smoking for YEARS we have been told that it will kill you, yet millions smoke and then turn around and want to blame the companies. Speed limit signs are posted everywhere and yet people speed and then get mad at the cop for the ticket and state for the speed limit sign.

People are STUPID for the most part unless it is something they place a high priority on. For us that is computing so to us this seems an excellent idea. however the majority of the people out there, warning or not will mess up thier system then blame the computer maker.

No but it covers the companies liability which is all that would matter to me in this case. Im not an uneducated user. I make my money off them...

[CornPopz]

OFN x2. Secure erase takes so much longer than normal erasing on my MBP, and I'm never really deleting anything sensitive so its not of much use for me. There's also some freeware programs that just write zeroes to the disk where your files used to be...which is pretty much what he's talking about there.

[DaJMasta]

Originally Posted by vazel

Yea this is awesome too bad the feature isn't built into Windows like it is with Mac. http://blogs.zdnet.com/storage/?p=129

But why would you need too? If you really have such incriminating stuff on your drive I think you should have it found.


But regardless, it says in the article that there's a free program, boot and nuke, which will do this. There's really no advantage of it being packaged with the OS.

[moshpit]

Originally Posted by DaJMasta

But why would you need too? If you really have such incriminating stuff on your drive I think you should have it found.


But regardless, it says in the article that there's a free program, boot and nuke, which will do this. There's really no advantage of it being packaged with the OS.

It's not a matter of incrimination, your totally viewing this from the wrong angle. It's about NDA's and not wanting an old hard drive you let go of to expose company or business secrets. Those kind of secrets make or break a company. It has nothing to do with criminal behavior, it has to do with corporate security.

[lumpyhed]

Not to mention identity theft. Thats why i keep and run anything with personal data within truecrypt containers so that a thief/disk buyer couldnt access my stuff even if they found the files.

[SteadVéx]

i'm sure just making a paging file the size of hte drive then leaving 2 weights on your keyboard, one on the windows key, and one on the e key would eventually write enough data to hte harddrive to get rid of any previously deleted data..., i mean you don't need special software for that!

and don't bios's still offer the low level format option?

[moshpit]

Originally Posted by SteadVéx

i'm sure just making a paging file the size of hte drive then leaving 2 weights on your keyboard, one on the windows key, and one on the e key would eventually write enough data to hte harddrive to get rid of any previously deleted data..., i mean you don't need special software for that!

and don't bios's still offer the low level format option?

Nope. Low level format should never have been in the end users hands to begin with and manufacturers have realized that finally. No new motherboards come with that anymore.

[cbsboyer]

Originally Posted by moshpit

Nope. Low level format should never have been in the end users hands to begin with and manufacturers have realized that finally. No new motherboards come with that anymore.

Agreed, the BIOS low level format was only for MFM/RLL drives and did it badly anyway. IDE drives just ignore the BIOS low level format commands anyway (they just do a clear on the sectors and don't rewrite the format).

I have to laugh at the reference to the NSA - the article claims that they say a single zero overwrite at the drive level is enough to be secure, but I know that at least three overwrites by functionally identical software are required as per the spec. In all honesty, one zero pass over all sectors is enough to prevent any data recovery regardless of where the command is issued...period.

cbsboyer