Data Overwriting Not Working?

[hummer1730]

Hey guys, I'm trying to wipe my HDD to remove any sensitive information by doing a 3 pass overwrite, but it doesn't seem to be working?

I let the wiping program run and it took about 14-16 hours for a 1TB drive, but when I rebooted and ran easus data recovery to check and make sure nothing was recoverable, it found hundreds of thousands of RAW files (documents, images, videos, etc., various files).

I thought doing a 3 pass overwrite was supposed to completely remove any traces of past data that was written to the HDD? I ran the free space wiper after a fresh install too, so 99.9% of the space was free.

Am I doing something wrong?

Should I be making a boot-loader of a data overwriting program instead and not running one from my OS?

 

[Golden]

Hi,

Whichn program are you using to wipe the HDD?

Regards,
Golden

 

[hummer1730]

Hi,

Whichn program are you using to wipe the HDD?

Regards,
Golden

CyberScrub Privacy Suite and I've tried Eraser.

Eraser shows A LOT of errors when I run it, saying it cannot erase this and that because it's a system file, or a files locked.

 

[hummer1730]

Can you recommend any usb bootable data overwriting programs that I could use? I think that may be the problem.

 

[aem]

Diskpart is one way. Basically a format way.

Note: You might not need to do

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE

 

[hummer1730]

Diskpart is one way. Basically a format way.

Note: You might not need to do

CREATE PARTITION PRIMARY
SELECT PARTITION 1
ACTIVE

?

Not exactly sure what these instructions are for, is this how to make a bootable usb stick? I need to overwrite all previous data multiple times (just to make sure )

I don't think diskpart does that.

 

[aem]

It's part of making a bootable USB yes but that section there is to wipe and format the stick.

Just give it a go and then see if you can find another on the stick afterwards

 

[hummer1730]

It's part of making a bootable USB yes but that section there is to wipe and format the stick.

Just give it a go and then see if you can find another on the stick afterwards

Thanks, it's formatting to NTFS now. How do I make a bootloader from an ISO now? I'm sorta lost.

 

[arkhi]

Honestly, I would use SDelete

It's safe, simple, and effective. (Complies with Department of Defense standard 5220.22-M)

Cheers!

EDIT: Examples:

To securely delete a file/s or directory/ies with 3 passes

sdelete -p 3 -a [I]filename/path[/I]

To safely delete already deleted data (i.e. make them unrecoverable) with 3 passes

sdelete -c -p 3

 

[hummer1730]

Honestly, I would use SDelete

It's safe, simple, and effective. (Complies with Department of Defense standard 5220.22-M)

Cheers!

EDIT: Examples:

To securely delete a file/s or directory/ies with 3 passes

sdelete -p 3 -a [I]filename/path[/I]

To safely delete already deleted data (i.e. make them unrecoverable) with 3 passes

sdelete -c -p 3

Thanks but I need a way to run that from a bootloader, which is my problem - a lot of data isn't being overwritten because I'm using the program's while my OS is loaded.

 

[arkhi]

It's a command line utility. I'm pretty sure it can run on a PE environment. Window's Startup Repair is a quick and good one. Just put it on a folder you can access easily like the root of a drive so you can type something like

cd /d C:
sdelete [I]blahblah[/I]

 

[hummer1730]

It's a command line utility. I'm pretty sure it can run on a PE environment. Window's Startup Repair is a quick and good one. Just put it on a folder you can access easily like the root of a drive so you can type something like

cd /d C:
sdelete [I]blahblah[/I]

Alright, I'll give that a shot if this bootloader I'm making doesn't work out. Thanks.

Not very good with the command line :S.

 

[hummer1730]

It's a command line utility. I'm pretty sure it can run on a PE environment. Window's Startup Repair is a quick and good one. Just put it on a folder you can access easily like the root of a drive so you can type something like

cd /d C:
sdelete [I]blahblah[/I]

Hey, when using sdelete, should I just type what you said or use the -z command listed in this guide?
http://www.guidingtech.com/2834/sdelete-permanently-delete-windows-files/


Something like
-z C: -p 3?
or
sdelete -c -p 3

 

[arkhi]

Thank you for pointing that out. I usually assume that some people have a certain degree of knowledge because apparently, some users get offended when I go to too much detail, thinking that I think they are stupid when I'm just being informative...

Anyway, to use this in an off-line command line, I would put the sdelete file on the root of an extra drive. Then, I would Boot to Startup Repair using either a Win7 installation disk, or pressing F8 crazily when booting up Windows. If there's a system recovery partition on your drive, there should be a "Repair your Computer" option you could use.

Next, I would select the command prompt as a system recovery option. Note we're not actually recovering anything. We're just exploiting Windows 7's nice little feature

Next, confirm the drive letter you placed your sdelete file in, and the drive letter you want to do a safe delete on. To do this, in the command prompt, I would type notepad, then press Ctrl+O when notepad is open, click Computer, and then look for the drive that has the file (selecting "All Files" under the drop down menu where the *.txt extension is listed helps too)

After I found the drive, I would close notepad and change the command prompt to that drive sdelete is in. Let's assume it's D:. I would type:

cd /d D:\

Then I would do the wiping. Let's assume the disk is C:. I would type:

sdelete -p 3 -c C:

And that's it!

Oh, one more example. To delete ALL FILES on C: and securely wipe them, [BE CAREFUL WITH THIS ONE! You don't want to accidentally wipe your main hard drive ]

sdelete -p 3 -c C:\*

 

[hummer1730]

Thank you for pointing that out. I usually assume that some people have a certain degree of knowledge because apparently, some users get offended when I go to too much detail, thinking that I think they are stupid when I'm just being informative...

Anyway, to use this in an off-line command line, I would put the sdelete file on the root of an extra drive. Then, I would Boot to Startup Repair using either a Win7 installation disk, or pressing F8 crazily when booting up Windows. If there's a system recovery partition on your drive, there should be a "Repair your Computer" option you could use.

Next, I would select the command prompt as a system recovery option. Note we're not actually recovering anything. We're just exploiting Windows 7's nice little feature

Next, confirm the drive letter you placed your sdelete file in, and the drive letter you want to do a safe delete on. To do this, in the command prompt, I would type notepad, then press Ctrl+O when notepad is open, click Computer, and then look for the drive that has the file (selecting "All Files" under the drop down menu where the *.txt extension is listed helps too)

After I found the drive, I would close notepad and change the command prompt to that drive sdelete is in. Let's assume it's D:. I would type:

cd /d D:\

Then I would do the wiping. Let's assume the disk is C:. I would type:

sdelete -p 3 -c C:

And that's it!

Oh, one more example. To delete ALL FILES on C: and securely wipe them, [BE CAREFUL WITH THIS ONE! You don't want to accidentally wipe your main hard drive ]

sdelete -p 3 -c C:\*

Thanks so much, but I encountered an error

When I try to run "sdelete -p 3 -c C:" after making the directory C:\ (sdelete on root), it gives me the error "The subsystem needed to support the image type is not present".

Any ideas?

I don't have a repair partition, I had to boot from my restore CD.

 

[arkhi]

Try using a 32-bit restore CD instead.

 

[hummer1730]

Try using a 32-bit restore CD instead.

I don't have one :huh:

Any other options?

 

[aem]

Is someone writing a thesis here?

 

[arkhi]

Try using a 32-bit restore CD instead.

I don't have one :huh:

Any other options?

Hmm... You could try Creating a Windows PE boot disk | Windows 7 Library to burn a 32-bit bootimage

 

[Corazon]

DBAN Download | Darik's Boot And Nuke

Erase hard drive by Active@ KillDisk. Low Level Format.

/me is surprised nobody has mentioned these yet!