Jump to content

Should this be safe?

flibberdipper
By flibberdipper
in Storage Devices
 Share
Posted

My friend gave me his old hard drive to wipe so that he could sell it on eBay. He wanted it to be really secure, since he did have a lot of personal info on it (banking info, passwords, etc.). Should 3 passes have done the trick, or not (he wants it to be safe).

Main rig on profile

VAULT - File Server

Spoiler

Intel Core i5 11400 w/ Shadow Rock LP, 2x16GB SP GAMING 3200MHz CL16, ASUS PRIME Z590-A, 2x LSI 9211-8i, Fractal Define 7, 256GB Team MP33, 3x 6TB WD Red Pro (general storage), 3x 1TB Seagate Barracuda (dumping ground), 3x 8TB WD White-Label (Plex) (all 3 arrays in their respective Windows Parity storage spaces), Corsair RM750x, Windows 11 Education

Sleeper HP Pavilion A6137C

Spoiler

Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.4GHz, 4x8GB G.SKILL Ares 1800MHz CL10, ASUS Z170M-E D3, 128GB Team MP33, 1TB Seagate Barracuda, 320GB Samsung Spinpoint (for video capture), MSI GTX 970 100ME, EVGA 650G1, Windows 10 Pro

Mac Mini (Late 2020)

Spoiler

Apple M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB, macOS Sonoma

Consoles: Softmodded 1.4 Xbox w/ 500GB HDD, Xbox 360 Elite 120GB Falcon, XB1X w/2TB MX500, Xbox Series X, PS1 1001, PS2 Slim 70000 w/ FreeMcBoot, PS4 Pro 7015B 1TB (retired), PS5 Digital, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Wii RVL-001 (black)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

My friend gave me his old hard drive to wipe so that he could sell it on eBay. He wanted it to be really secure, since he did have a lot of personal info on it (banking info, passwords, etc.). Should 3 passes have done the trick, or not (he wants it to be safe).

I'd say go for one more, if you're uncertain, do it one more time just to feel better.  But 3 should've been enough to wipe all fragments.

QUOTE ME OR I PROBABLY WON'T SEE YOUR RESPONSE 

My Setup:

 

Desktop

Spoiler

CPU: Ryzen 9 3900X  CPU Cooler: Noctua NH-D15  Motherboard: Asus Prime X370-PRO  RAM: 32GB Corsair Vengeance LPX DDR4 @3200MHz  GPU: EVGA RTX 2080 FTW3 ULTRA (+50 core +400 memory)  Storage: 1050GB Crucial MX300, 1TB Crucial MX500  PSU: EVGA Supernova 750 P2  Chassis: NZXT Noctis 450 White/Blue OS: Windows 10 Professional  Displays: Asus MG279Q FreeSync OC, LG 27GL850-B

 

Main Laptop:

Spoiler

Laptop: Sager NP 8678-S  CPU: Intel Core i7 6820HK @ 2.7GHz  RAM: 32GB DDR4 @ 2133MHz  GPU: GTX 980m 8GB  Storage: 250GB Samsung 850 EVO M.2 + 1TB Samsung 850 Pro + 1TB 7200RPM HGST HDD  OS: Windows 10 Pro  Chassis: Clevo P670RG  Audio: HyperX Cloud II Gunmetal, Audio Technica ATH-M50s, JBL Creature II

 

Thinkpad T420:

Spoiler

CPU: i5 2520M  RAM: 8GB DDR3  Storage: 275GB Crucial MX30

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

My friend gave me his old hard drive to wipe so that he could sell it on eBay. He wanted it to be really secure, since he did have a lot of personal info on it (banking info, passwords, etc.). Should 3 passes have done the trick, or not (he wants it to be safe).

Another one would never hurt... But it seems like it is enough times.

Join the Linus Tech Tips Conglomerate in Star Citizen 

https://robertsspaceindustries.com/orgs/UOLTT

Enlist NOW to join the fleet!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

My friend gave me his old hard drive to wipe so that he could sell it on eBay. He wanted it to be really secure, since he did have a lot of personal info on it (banking info, passwords, etc.). Should 3 passes have done the trick, or not (he wants it to be safe).

You should be safe with 3 passes. Though just like everyone else is saying for one more if you want it to be secure.

 

I would suggest you try some free data recovery software once you wipe it and see if anything comes up. If you are still getting data from it, then just continue to wipe it. Try not to do anymore than 5-6 passes. After that some cheap drives start to slow down or see an impact on it's write / read speeds.

Connor Freebairn - ConnorFreebairn@newman.cumbria.sch.uk
IT Technician & Certified computer geek.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

3 is enough. You will need to use forensics to get anything off of it after 3 passes...

NEW PC build: Blank Heaven   minimalist white and black PC     Old S340 build log "White Heaven"        The "LIGHTCANON" flashlight build log        Project AntiRoll (prototype)        Custom speaker project

Spoiler

Ryzen 3950X | AMD Vega Frontier Edition | ASUS X570 Pro WS | Corsair Vengeance LPX 64GB | NZXT H500 | Seasonic Prime Fanless TX-700 | Custom loop | Coolermaster SK630 White | Logitech MX Master 2S | Samsung 980 Pro 1TB + 970 Pro 512GB | Samsung 58" 4k TV | Scarlett 2i4 | 2x AT2020

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

Don't sell it. The metal disk is a great coaster. 

Intel 4790k | Asus Z97 Maximus VII Impact | Corsair Vengeance Pro Series 16 GB 1866Mhz | Asus Strix GTX 980 | CoolerMaster G550 |Samsung Evo 250GB | Synology DS215j (NAS) | Logitech G502 |

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted
  • Author

Don't sell it. The metal disk is a great coaster. 

Not my hard drive. :( I would keep it if I could.

Main rig on profile

VAULT - File Server

Spoiler

Intel Core i5 11400 w/ Shadow Rock LP, 2x16GB SP GAMING 3200MHz CL16, ASUS PRIME Z590-A, 2x LSI 9211-8i, Fractal Define 7, 256GB Team MP33, 3x 6TB WD Red Pro (general storage), 3x 1TB Seagate Barracuda (dumping ground), 3x 8TB WD White-Label (Plex) (all 3 arrays in their respective Windows Parity storage spaces), Corsair RM750x, Windows 11 Education

Sleeper HP Pavilion A6137C

Spoiler

Intel Core i7 6700K @ 4.4GHz, 4x8GB G.SKILL Ares 1800MHz CL10, ASUS Z170M-E D3, 128GB Team MP33, 1TB Seagate Barracuda, 320GB Samsung Spinpoint (for video capture), MSI GTX 970 100ME, EVGA 650G1, Windows 10 Pro

Mac Mini (Late 2020)

Spoiler

Apple M1, 8GB RAM, 256GB, macOS Sonoma

Consoles: Softmodded 1.4 Xbox w/ 500GB HDD, Xbox 360 Elite 120GB Falcon, XB1X w/2TB MX500, Xbox Series X, PS1 1001, PS2 Slim 70000 w/ FreeMcBoot, PS4 Pro 7015B 1TB (retired), PS5 Digital, Nintendo Switch OLED, Nintendo Wii RVL-001 (black)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

You can verify the effectiveness of the wipe through Undelete360. If there's something left, it'll find it (but it does take a while to scan large drives).

Motherboard: MSI 770-C45 2606Mhz HT 200Mhz Bclk | CPU: AMD Phenom II x4 955 BE 3606Mhz | GPU: ASUS R9 270 DCU2 2GB 1125MHz Core 1500Mhz vRAM

RAM: HyperX Black PC3-12800 1600MHz 9-9-9-20 | Storage: HyperX 3K 120GB SSD SATA II + 570GB| PSU: EVGA 500B 500W              

                                                                                  

F@H Stats: 7,077,384pts x 576wu (08/14/2015)                                                                                                    green=stock setting     red=above spec     blue=below spec

System Name: Rocinante = "workhorse"                                                                                                                                           

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites
Posted

My normal routine is wipe fill the drive with say a notepad document of all A's or something  then wipe again... but 3 wipes should have a very similar result 

5820k4Ghz/16GB(4x4)DDR4/MSI X99 SLI+/Corsair H105/R9 Fury X/Corsair RM1000i/128GB SM951/512GB 850Evo/1+2TB Seagate Barracudas

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Link to post
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
 Share
Go to topic listing Storage Devices

×