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Thread: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

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    best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    now i appreciate i'm looking for 2 completely different ends of the spectrum here so i'll explain

    we'll soon be overhauling some of our systems at work & going for a major upgrade. as a result, about 50% of our PCs won't meet the minimum spec of what we're likely to introduce so will need to be replaced. this will leave us with something close to 1500 PCs that'll need to be scrapped.

    the costs for getting a 3rd party in to take them away are IMHO outrageous, and there's also the environmental impact since there's no telling they won't end up in landfill

    there's a dude at work who volunteers for a charity that'll happily take them away for free & put them to good use in africa, so i'm hoping to propose we securely wipe all the hard drives ourselves (hence the secure deletion software) & let the charity have them which will also help fulfil our environmental commitments (obviously, if i've thought of and implemented all this, its hardly going to harm my standing either!!)

    the data recovery software would be to prove that there's nothing recoverable, just to be certain (more to the point, to demonstrate to the non technical managers who'll make the decisions that there's no risk)

    so....anyone have any experience with either form of application?

    thanks in advance hexites
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    Not a good person scaryjim's Avatar
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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    As far as secure deletion goes DBAN is probably the best bet - random triple overwrite of the complete hard drive. I believe it also has certifications which should placate the bosses as long as you don't have any identifiable personal sensitive data on there - but do check that in advance.

    The only data recovery software that'd be worth using for *proving* that files have been deleted is going to be horribly expensive, and I don't think it's a worthwhile investment for that purpose. That level of data recovery is involved anbd time consuming. You should be able to find plenty of evidence online confirming or refuting the security of any deletion software: if that isn't enough to convince your managers then cut your losses.

    That shouldn't stop you donating the base units to charity though - if you can have just the hard drives destroyed the base units should still be useful. Sure, the charity would have to source hard drives for them but that's going to be a damn site cheaper than sourcing whole computers

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    the charity might offer to do a delete too, so if you run any simple wipedisc utility you should be fine. i doubt anyone would try and recover data from a computer that's been wiped with even a one pass unless they had an indication they would find something worthwhile on there. the charity will get loads of pc's and probably very few would have anything of real interest to nigerian scammers. the charity would normally probably stick linux or something on top, so if you wipe the disc, then they stick on OS on top, it's going to be pretty safe data wise

    if it's your HR/payroll/finance pc/server you might want a couple of sweeps for peace of mind but i would imagine you will be fine

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    As far as secure deletion goes DBAN is probably the best bet - random triple overwrite of the complete hard drive. I believe it also has certifications which should placate the bosses as long as you don't have any identifiable personal sensitive data on there - but do check that in advance.

    http://www.dban.org/node/51

    it doesn't. Believe me, I was amazed at this too but it essentially comes down to the fact that the certification process is hellishly expensive, and it's just not viable to provide it when you're giving your software away for free. One of the reasons that the companies offering to take them off your hands ofr a hidous fee charge so much is that they will provide a certificate of destrustion (at the very least of the data).

    That said your intentions are indeed noble - I did a similar thing a few years back (before they stopped taking electricals without a PAT test) and recycled a bunch of old desktops that were destined for landfill. The kit had a heavily locked down build (pretty much a thin client) on it when in use by the business, so there was no data on there to be concerned about, but I ran each desktop through DBAN then installed SuSE linux with a pretty decent desktop suite - the machines were still great for a spot of openoffice and websurfing. The machines then went to the local Shelter shop who sold all 20 of them the same afternoon (likely to a "recycling" firm who will have stripped and ebayed the parts, no doubt...) and I got to feel good karma for the weekend, and a bottle of Jack Daniels from my boss for my efforts (and saving the company a bucketload of cash).

    Essentially I suppose what you need to ask is how much and what kind of data will have been on the machines in the first place? If it's client data, personally identifiable information or commercially sensitive in any way then you'll probably end up eating the disposal company fees. If it's anything less than that then I'd say you can probably rest easy after running each disk through DBAN and then recycle the machines. It'd be a shame for it to end up in landfill

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Take any Linux disc you may have laying around, boot it, open a terminal and type:
    Code:
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=8M
    Leave that running, might take a few hours if it's a big slow disk, but your data will be 100% unrecoverable by software after it's done. Are you super paranoid about the gubberment buying your disk and doing deep magnetic field analysis on your platters?

    Run dd 10 more times, you can also use if=/dev/urandom to generate more erratic noise on the platters.
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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Following on from what aidanjt said if you get a copy of Ubuntu rescue remix here it ships with photorec as well. Despite the name it will recover a wide variety of files from disk (image files, office docs, zips etc.) details on their website.
    It should suffice for proving that data can't be trivially recovered after you've used your chosen wipe method.

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Quote Originally Posted by aidanjt View Post
    Take any Linux disc you may have laying around, boot it, open a terminal and type:
    Code:
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=8M
    Leave that running, might take a few hours if it's a big slow disk, but your data will be 100% unrecoverable by software after it's done. Are you super paranoid about the gubberment buying your disk and doing deep magnetic field analysis on your platters?

    Run dd 10 more times, you can also use if=/dev/urandom to generate more erratic noise on the platters.
    If you are going to use a linux live CD to wipe the discs, then there is a specific secure delete command you can use:
    Code:
    shred --iterations=<N> [--zero]
    Unless you are worried about someone well resourced trying to read your discs, who will pay for professional data recovery, then a single pass without zeroing should be fine.

    Having said that, If you look around there is a good chance that you will be able to find a single purpose Linux Live CD for scrubbing hard drives. Something which you boot the PC from, and after a minute or so you get a single menu option to securely scrub all had drives in the machine.

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Quote Originally Posted by chrestomanci View Post
    Having said that, If you look around there is a good chance that you will be able to find a single purpose Linux Live CD for scrubbing hard drives.
    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    As far as secure deletion goes DBAN is probably the best bet.
    Maybe I should have given more specific details! From the DBAN website (http://www.dban.org):

    Darik's Boot and Nuke ("DBAN") is a self-contained boot disk that securely wipes the hard disks of most computers.

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Quote Originally Posted by scaryjim View Post
    Maybe I should have given more specific details! From the DBAN website (http://www.dban.org):

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Personally I remove the drives then either put a power drill through the platters if I am in a hurry or I use a set of torx screw drivers and take the platters out of the drives and keep them as coasters. Using software to delete a large drive can take a very long time, destroying the drive you are 100% sure the job is done, and nothing slips through the net.
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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Quote Originally Posted by chrestomanci View Post
    If you are going to use a linux live CD to wipe the discs, then there is a specific secure delete command you can use:
    Code:
    shred --iterations=<N> [--zero]
    Unless you are worried about someone well resourced trying to read your discs, who will pay for professional data recovery, then a single pass without zeroing should be fine.

    Having said that, If you look around there is a good chance that you will be able to find a single purpose Linux Live CD for scrubbing hard drives. Something which you boot the PC from, and after a minute or so you get a single menu option to securely scrub all had drives in the machine.
    I suggested dd because it really is everywhere, and it does the same thing as shred, only purposely at the block level.
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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    The other solutions given are all excellent, but whenever I give/sell a pc/s to anyone, I tend to go OTT. I encrypt the hdd with Truecrypt (not sure if it is free for companies to use, so you should check) (though any encrypting sw should do), then use dban to wipe the hdd. I can't see anyone recovering data from that, though I should not say that they never could.

    Just going out to buy a new tinfoil hat.

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    Quote Originally Posted by chrestomanci View Post
    If you are going to use a linux live CD to wipe the discs, then there is a specific secure delete command you can use:
    Code:
    shred --iterations=<N> [--zero]
    Unless you are worried about someone well resourced trying to read your discs, who will pay for professional data recovery, then a single pass without zeroing should be fine.

    Having said that, If you look around there is a good chance that you will be able to find a single purpose Linux Live CD for scrubbing hard drives. Something which you boot the PC from, and after a minute or so you get a single menu option to securely scrub all had drives in the machine.
    It has been covered by the dban post, but for completeness

    shred -i N -u /dev/xxx where xxx is a device or partition. -u removes the partition or partition table on completion. (abd I used the -i abbreviation for iterations.

    There are limitations in using shred for a files, depending on the file system, but that is outside he scope of the thread. Google 'Man shred' for full details (the shred manual pages)
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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    i'd recommend Recuva for a good GUI recovery program that will show there's nothing on the disk, has deep scan etc. and is brilliant for recovery

    EDIT: oh and nice one for helping donate the computers to a good cause, infinitely better than landfill

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    Re: best secure deletion software and best file recovery software

    cheers for the info all. its much appreciated

    quick update - meeting no.1 of many was last week, i outlined the idea & we got a good amount of cautious nods of approval. now going to write up a full proposal & hopefully our slack period during january will be gainfully employed wiping machines


    Quote Originally Posted by Splash View Post
    http://www.dban.org/node/51 installed SuSE linux with a pretty decent desktop suite - the machines were still great for a spot of openoffice and websurfing.
    excellent idea splash. :thumb:
    if it ain't broke...fix it till it is


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