Zeroing half of 500?

cormie

Hi
Not a maths question, but I have a 500gb ext hard drive which has a few GB of private data, and then about 400GB of non private data. Is there any program that will allow me to securely delete all the private data and leave the 400gb without me having to do a full format on the drive and replace the 400gb (which would take over a day on usb2). Preferably freeware and very lite on resources and no hidden google/yahoo toolbars etc

Any feedback appreciated

Thomas_S_Hunterson

sdelete
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb897443.aspx

Runs from command line

cormie

Thanks, do you mean it runs from MS Dos? Hmmm, I wouldn't be too confident using something from DOS at all, I prefer simple pictures and instructions, would it be advanced users only I wonder?

Thomas_S_Hunterson

cormie wrote: »

Thanks, do you mean it runs from MS Dos? Hmmm, I wouldn't be too confident using something from DOS at all, I prefer simple pictures and instructions, would it be advanced users only I wonder?

It's not all that complicated, just copy it to your windows/system32 folder then navigate to the drive with the files on it and use

sdelete filename
or
sdelete -s foldername

for each file or folder respectively.

If you really not comfortable then don't, a stray wildcard could do a lot of damage. I can't recommend anything else on windows tbh as i've no real experience with anything else, but perhaps someone else can help.

Thomas_S_Hunterson

Actually I do remember that Spybot Search & Destroy has a secure deletion thingy in it

cormie

Thanks again

I'll give it a while and see if there's any more suggestions and go with whatever gets the most recommended for what I need it for

Capt'n Midnight

if the drive is E:
then open a command prompt ( run cmd )
E:
sdelete -z
the -z wipes unused space, in case you've defraged the drive or private files were saved over in the past

empty the recycle bin
and turn off system restore on the drive
yip it's best to wipe all the free space to be on the safe side



www.heidi.ie/eraser/ if you want a GUI

Eraser is an advanced security tool (for Windows), which allows you to completely remove sensitive data from your hard drive by overwriting it several times with carefully selected patterns. Works with Windows 95, 98, ME, NT, 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 2003 Server and DOS.
Eraser is Free software and its source code is released under GNU

rubadub

I know this is not the cleanest, and more just a theory question, but what if you were to lash a 8.4gb dvd rip ISO file on the drive and copy and paste it, then highlight both and copy and paste again, keep doubling them up to fill it to the brim, would this always stick it on that partition?

Jonathan

rubadub wrote: »

I know this is not the cleanest, and more just a theory question, but what if you were to lash a 8.4gb dvd rip ISO file on the drive and copy and paste it, then highlight both and copy and paste again, keep doubling them up to fill it to the brim, would this always stick it on that partition?

Until you write over that part of the drive, yes.

rubadub

When you format a drive you usually get the option of quick format, I thought if you did not check this then it wiped it completely, i.e. zeroes. If not what is the difference between quick and normal formatting then?

Jonathan

rubadub wrote: »

When you format a drive you usually get the option of quick format, I thought if you did not check this then it wiped it completely, i.e. zeroes. If not what is the difference between quick and normal formatting then?

Quick Format just erases that part of the FAT/MFT.

Overheal

how long would a full format take anyway? Just let it run overnight. Its not going to do any harm to the drive. My stepdad has helped operate the Volusia County Server Farm down in Florida for 30 years now and ensures me that hard drive failure from Read/Write is an exceptionally rare occurence. The only way you'd be doing any harm is if you dropped it or throw it against a brick wall.

300 Servers in the same room look magnificent

cormie

Thanks for all the replies

See I'd have no problem doing a full format, if I didn't have to redump 400gb of files back onto the HD, this would take about 30 hours probably, and I have two HD's exactly the same so would have to do it twice:eek:

I'm going to go with the sourceforge eraser program anyway I think, sounds like exactly what I need and uses the DBAN system which I've used before and heard great things about so it should do the job fine for what I need

Anti

Overheal wrote: »

how long would a full format take anyway? Just let it run overnight. Its not going to do any harm to the drive. My stepdad has helped operate the Volusia County Server Farm down in Florida for 30 years now and ensures me that hard drive failure from Read/Write is an exceptionally rare occurence. The only way you'd be doing any harm is if you dropped it or throw it against a brick wall.

300 Servers in the same room look magnificent

Actually, the most common time for a hard drive to die is when reading/writing. Just sdelete it as mentioned above, its quick and easy.

cormie

Had a quick look at the eraser program and it seems to be perfect for what I need it for, haven't ran it yet but you can do it to clear unused disk space too, I'd just feel a lot more comfortable with a GUI than dos