Going to sell my 500g Passport to upgrade, how many times to Format?

[JohnnyScience]

Ok I currently have a 500g WD Passport that I am going to sell only because I need to upgrade to the 1TB Passport.

Now I used the Passport for my entire computer backup, so it has personal & sensitive files.

How many times should I do a full & complete format to make sure everything is as deleted as possible so no one could ever restore any of my info?

I've always read that even with formatting you can still pull up old data...

 

[pparks1]

Use something like dban on it.

 

[Phone Man]

Try Eraser to securely overwrite your data.

Jim

 

[JohnnyScience]

Which is better, dban or Eraser?

Are they both free?

So the normal formatting that Windows 7 offers isnt enough?

 

[seekermeister]

So the normal formatting that Windows 7 offers isnt enough?

No. How many times to format depends on just how securely that you want to erase the drive. If I recall, the government standard is 32 passes, but for the average person that is an overkill. I would settle for a single low level format pass.

 

[JohnnyScience]

Ok, so is dban or Eraser better?

I'm looking for a good free one...

 

[Fumz]

A hammer and nail will also work wonders. Of course, this route will make it more difficult to sell, but at least you would be assured the drive would never again be read.

 

[seekermeister]

Ok, so is dban or Eraser better?

I'm looking for a good free one...

I really don't think that it matters which program that you use, in terms of effectiveness, as long as it does do a low level format. The only difference in these programs is their ease of use, and the number of passes they can make.

If you happen to have a drive recovery program, you could use it to test the drive after formatting, to see if it could recover any files. That would help you decide whether to run more passes or not.

 

[lovewin7yea]

i use white canyon wipe drive. works excellent

 

[JohnnyScience]

i use white canyon wipe drive. works excellent

Hmm, seems that's a $20 program while Eraser is free.

Do you guys think Eraser is effective enough that I can rest easy at night knowing the drive is completely wiped?

 

[Fumz]

If piece of mind is what you're after, why not just destroy the drive and get rid of it? I didn't even realize there was a market for used hard drives...

 

[JohnnyScience]

If piece of mind is what you're after, why not just destroy the drive and get rid of it? I didn't even realize there was a market for used hard drives...

I think a used 500g Passport that is in great condition still has a market out there... I could probably get $60 for it, which is half of what a new 1TB Passport is going to cost me.

I just want to wipe the drive the best I can.

 

[Fumz]

$60.00 for used $50.00 hard drive? Western Digital - My Passport Essential 500GB External USB 2.0 Hard Drive - Black - WDBAAA5000ABK-NESN That might be wishful thinking?

Really, any of the programs already listed here will do what you want; however, whether or not any data is retrieved really isn't up to you. If someone really wanted to read that drive, they're going to read that drive. The only way to prevent that happening with certainty is to destroy the drive... hence the nail.

If you're giving it to some school or selling it to a friend, you're probably reasonably safe. If however you toss it up on ebay... well, who knows? I mean, who buys used hard drives? Mechanical drives only live a few years anyway. I'd be real suspicious of some guy stocking up on old drives.

 

[JohnnyScience]

pffttt I didnt realize they go for $50 new.

I'm just going to run Eraser & give it to a friend & just buy the 1TB on it's own I guess.

 

[jimbo45]

Hi there
You don't really need any specialized programs

What I would do is

1) Format it as per windows.

2) Download a Linux Live CD

3) Get the linux system to format the HDD as ext3 and then write X'00' (Binary zeros) on EVERY sector -- not just the file areas.

(DEBIAN type distros -- Ubuntu is one of these have a WIPE command which will do just this. Knoppix is another Debian based distro -- also good).

You don't need to spend money on it.

Incidentally why SELL the 500GB disk -- there isn't much of a market for these -- a NEW one is only around 35 - 40 USD so who on earth would trust in committing their data to a USED USB HDD.

You can even get powered USB small 2 TB disks for around 90 USD (thats 2 * 1000 GB on ONE drive).

In any case you will soon find that you can NEVER have too much storage space -- I'm now on my 3rd 2 TB Disk !!!!!. I still have a few 500 and 1TB portable small USB drives too that I use for backups / archives.


I'd keep the 500 GB disk and use it for archiving / backking up some of your data such as music etc and of course image the OS.

Cheers
jimbo

 

[lovewin7yea]

i use white canyon wipe drive. works excellent

Hmm, seems that's a $20 program while Eraser is free.

Do you guys think Eraser is effective enough that I can rest easy at night knowing the drive is completely wiped?

i paid the 20


well worth it, i use it on every drive i have ever owned if disposing or doing a full wipe


offers x12 over write so nothing can be recovered and is approved by the US department of defense, thats says alot, great software

 

[SledgeDG]

I spend like $1.75 on a small Torx wrench and ever since I sleep fine
No seriously. use jimbo's idea with the Knopix life CD. That works