wiping an old hard drive with true crypt

Random

i know theres various options out there for wiping hdd etc.

when i encrypt a hard drive with true crypt it formats the drive itself and secures it all. would this then mean that the previously contents would be unrecoverable?

thanks

cookie1977

You'd want to be very technical to crack it. I think you're safe enough but it all depends on the encryption you've used too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrueCrypt#Operation_Satyagraha

Khannie

Random wrote: »

it formats the drive itself and secures it all.

The safety of previous data depends on what this stage involves. If it writes random, or encrypted data to the drive then yes, if not then it's not safe. DBAN is worth a look. I think there are possible technical flaws in it, but to be honest there is no way anyone is going to bother trying to recover data off a DBAN'd drive IMO unless you're some super secret mega spy.

Random

i have a heap of old hdd on a shelf. they all work great and have all been used by me at various times. they usually get rotated around each time i install a new os or something, so that i can just plug the old one in via usb and copy files across etc.

im thinking i might sell some of these or give them away, and i suppose i just want to make sure that someone cant get any of my private data off them.

if the cia want to have a bash then so be it, but if the cia or fbi are chasing me then i have other worrys i think!

Khannie

In that case, DBAN is what I would be using tbh.

cookie1977

If you're doing that then just use dban. You're not going to sell a drive encrypted with truecrypt and give them a password. Dban will make your drive data virtually unrecoverable without encryption and password needed for the new owner.

http://www.dban.org

Random

i think yous are right. i reckon im trying to overcomplicate something that doesnt need to be so overcomplicated.

ill just go and use dban.

thanks

RUCKING FETARD

http://www.anti-forensics.com/disk-wiping-one-pass-is-enough

RUCKING FETARD

What storage option did you go for?

BostonB

Free space on each TrueCrypt volume is filled with random data when the volume is created

http://www.truecrypt.org/docs/?s=volume-format-specification

Looks like TrueCrypt will wipe the disk, assuming you do it properly and how you format the disk. But like everyone else has said DBAN is the correct tool for this job.

The_Thing

You could always keep the drives and use them in conjunction with FreeNAS. I did this a few years ago and had FreeNAS itself booting off of nothing more than a compact flash card inserted into a card reader. I took this approach rather than install FreeNAS onto one of the hard drives themselves so I could devote all of the space on the drives to storage.

Khannie

bedlam wrote: »

This is not true, one pass of any known pattern (e.g. 0×00) wipe will suffice.

That wasn't what I was talking about. I meant a simple format and / or partial encryption wouldn't suffice. I'd be happy enough with 0's myself. I don't see anyone getting out an electron microscope to attempt to retrieve the cack on my hard drive.