How to wipe a network drive?

SparrowHawk · 20-12-2011 6:01pm #1

Hi All,

I have a network drive (Iomega StorCenter) connected to my router, which I want to wipe, prior to donating to a new home. I'm aware of several programs which will wipe a local HD, or USB drive, but cannot find any software for a network HD. I'm assuming that the same principles apply to a network hd, in terms of data can be recovered, therefore there must be software which will allow you to overwrite it?

If anyone can provide any info./ tips I'd appreciate it.

Thanks in advance,

SparrowHawk

vibe666 · 20-12-2011 6:21pm

i've not used an iomega one myself, but it should have a GUI that you can access it on for management purposes.

stick the IP address of the network drive into your web browser and login and there should be an option in the interface for wiping the drive.

SparrowHawk · 20-12-2011 6:45pm

Hi vibe666, thanks for the quick response - there is an option to format (have performed this). However if I format a hd via windows, I can always recover some files using recovery software - is this possible with network HDs too?

GarIT · 20-12-2011 6:51pm

Yeah, its impossible to completely wipe any hard drive the data will always be there just written over. All the tools for erasing hard drives will only overwrite the data several times, they can't get rid of it. Install CCleaner and see if the network drive shows up in the settings, if it does you should be able to write 0s to the free space on the drive with that.

SparrowHawk · 20-12-2011 7:00pm

Thanks for the info GarIT - tried CCleaner - it doesn't show nw Hds - only fixed & USB drives :-(

GarIT · 20-12-2011 7:02pm

I should have also said that once you write over a drive a few times your generally safe.

Tazium · 20-12-2011 7:06pm

GarIT wrote: »

Yeah, its impossible to completely wipe any hard drive the data will always be there just written over. All the tools for erasing hard drives will only overwrite the data several times, they can't get rid of it. Install CCleaner and see if the network drive shows up in the settings, if it does you should be able to write 0s to the free space on the drive with that.

What gives you the idea that it's impossible? Peter Gutmann would argue it against you

CCleaner can wipe 'free' space on a drive. It would need to formatted first. Another free tool that can wipe the data is Eraser, (http://eraser.heidi.ie/)

GarIT · 20-12-2011 7:17pm

Tazium wrote: »

What gives you the idea that it's impossible? Peter Gutmann would argue it against you

CCleaner can wipe 'free' space on a drive. It would need to formatted first. Another free tool that can wipe the data is Eraser, (http://eraser.heidi.ie/)

A Comp Forensic analyst explained it to me, without extremely powerful magnets or physically destroying the disk it is impossible to erase the data on a disk. All the gutmann method does is write over the info 35 (i think) times, it doesn't delete it. Try writing a word and then write 35 words on top of that word, its probably impossible to read the first word you wrote, but that doesn't mean the first word you wrote was never there. Thats why I said that once you overwrite a drive a few times your generally safe.

I'd say that it is safe to presume that he erased all of his data from the drive so all of it would be free space.

20-12-2011 7:19pm

Dban will do the job.

SparrowHawk · 20-12-2011 8:04pm

Thanks for all the replies - had a look at eraser - it will only wipe specific files or folders, or unused space on a local drive. Will give Dban a go when I'm finished working on the PC, as it looks like I need to boot into Dban. Will report back on the sucess (or not)!!

Thanks again.

How to wipe a network drive?

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