Resolved Wipe a slaved hard drive?

I'm running Windows 7.

I have a slaved 160GB SATA hard drive (sitting in a USB Thermaltake dock, actually) and I want to completely nuke it - ie write zero's to it.

I have WipeDrive Pro and several other apps that'll do the job at bootup, and I realize that Windows will "format" the slaved drive, but that's not what I'm trying to do - I want to thoroughly remove all data from the drive, while remaining in the Windows environment.

Anyone know of suitable software?

 

Use the Drive Wiper on the Tools tab in CCleaner

Be sure only the drive you want to wipe is checked

Choose Entire Drive on the first drop down box

Choose the number of passes in the second box

 

Is that the same thing as writing zeros to the drive, antik?

 

But is that the same thing as writing zeros to the drive? Is it the same pattern?

Sorry for the confusion. I've heard of writing zeros to the drive with formatting tools, and I used programs like Eraser to overwrite sensitive data many times, and CCleaner to overwrite empty drive space, but I have no idea what kind patterns (or random patterns) these programs use.

 

Thanks guys, I didn't know CCleaner had that capability.

Re the "writing zeros" facility, I only mentioned that because my WipeDrive Pro disc seems to do it that way, and so does the bootable CD that Window Washer creates for DOS use.

All I really want to do is fully erase all previous data from the disk. It sounds like CCleaner is the go-to app - I'll try it now.

Cheers

 

I've used WDC Data Lifeguard to write zeros to my WDC drives. I used it to wipe my slaved drive without any problems with my master drive. I was never really sure if it actually did write zeros to the drives. I now use a hardware unit called Drive eRazer Ultra with one drawback you have to pull the drive. You can set it up to run passes in DoD mode. Thanks antik for the CCleaner info I didn't know it had that capability. You learn something new every day.

 

No you don't! There is no such thing as "slave" and "master" with SATA drives. This is because with SATA, there is only 1 drive per cable. On older PATA (EIDE, IDE, ATA) drives, you could connect 2 drives per cable, so the first was set to master and the second slave (or CS for cable select, then the interface assigned master or slave depending on the cable connector used).

And yes, CCleaner's Drive Wiper feature will do that. It will also "wipe" only the free space - a nice feature. You can also use Eraser – which uses DBAN technologies.

James - you seem to be hung up on writing "zeros" and that is causing confusion. So knock it off!!!

It does not matter what the "wipe" program writes (saves) to the disk. It can be "Mary Had a Little Lamb ", "Four score and seven years ago ", a bunch of 1s, or a bunch of 0s. Or the wipe program can use ANY pattern of 1s and 0s, or totally random. IT DOES NOT MATTER!

What DOES matter is that your data is overwritten with something, anything other than your data, and hopefully overwritten more than once to ensure no "residual magnetism" indicating your data remains in those sectors.

This is why we really don't need any "wipe" program - those are just "convenience tools ". On many occasions, I have "wiped" a drive by deleting all files, filling the drive (dragging and dropping) with 100s of songs until I get the disk is full error, delete the songs, then fill it again.

If a badguy then wants to see if I have left any valuable data behind, all he'll find is Stairway to Heaven.

Do note another solution is to drill 3 or more holes all they way through the drive about 1" from the center hub. I have done this on corporate and government drives that failed, but still had data on them.

Finally - just to ensure clarity, "wipe ", "erase ", and "delete" do NOT "wipe ", "erase" or "delete" anything from the disk. Erase and delete simply mark disk sectors as free or available. And wipe overwrites the data in those sectors with new data - making the old unretrievable. That is, none of these commands make the disk sector "blank" or empty of data.

 

I suggested CCleaner because most people already have the program installed and it gets good reviews.

masonite, you asked "is that the same thing as writing zeros to the drive." The answer is YES, although one account by a police forensics trainee described the overwritten data as Z's rather than zeroes. He couldn't be certain CCleaner was the program, but it was the only one installed on the machine.

One account described wiping a 120GB drive with CCleaner as taking nine hours for a 3 pass overwrite. You can see why organizations with large numbers of drives to wipe might favor reformatting followed by mechanical destruction.

Several accounts used Recuva as a means of verification. Recuva found nothing to recover, so the wiping must have been adequate. I have not found an account of anybody actually examining every sector of a large high density modern drive.

masonite, I understood you to want to wipe a data drive that does not have an operating system on it.. IMHO a one pass wipe with CCleaner is sufficient.

There are issues with wiping a C: active system partition, and CCleaner will not do that. I think you have to repartition first. The programs that run from a bootable disk are probably a better option.

masonite, if you do wipe your 160GB drive with CCleaner, it would be valuable if you would report how many passes you selected and how long it takes.

 

Bill I should have specified that the machine I was referring to is from the year 2000 and not SATA.

 

Badguys are opportunists. So they would not waste their time once they noticed it had been wiped, and instead move on to easier pickings. The exception would be a badguy who is specifically targeting you, and looking for your data on your drive.

Then there are forensic data recovery services who will examine every sector for recoverable data - if you are willing to pay them outlandish sums of cash.

Then of course, there are law enforcement forensic labs that look for evidence.

No, it is just a safety issue and has nothing to do with partitions. Just as you cannot format the drive (or partition) you boot from, you cannot wipe it either.

 

Ah! Then actually what you should have said is, "I have a slaved 160GB PATA hard drive... ".

No big deal as long as we are on the same page with terminologies.

 

Antik, thanks again for the tip - CCleaner worked perfectly. I selected 1 pass (which is all I've ever done with my DOS-based Wipe Drive Pro) and it took 2 hours to process the 160GB drive.

For the record, I said the drive was "slaved ", not "a slave ", and my choice of words was apparently adequate for most of you to quickly understand what I meant. Accurate terminology is useful on boards like this one, where most posts are of a technical nature, but brevity and clarity are probably more important if one's intention is to attract helpful replies.

 

Good. Thank you for the feedback.

My experiment using CCleaner Drive Wiper set to entire disk and one pass on an old 15GB Seagate drive shows that MBR and drive information is left intact, as well as formating. Every sector in the data area is hex 00 (Null).

Total used space is now 8KB. Before wiping, the drive had an operating system, applications and data files.

I created a test file, saved it to the wiped drive, and opened it from there. No problem.

 

Same difference. The point being SATA drives are not "slaved" nor can they be "a slave ".

And the terminology matters because (1) as you correctly noted, this is a technical forum and more importantly, (2) the procedures may be different.

I disagree. Clarity (which includes proper terminology), yes but when it comes to seeking help, a poster's brevity is often synonymous with "a lack of information" which then requires us responders to seek more information resulting in further delays for you getting your problem resolved.

When it comes to providing help, I would much rather work my way through too much information than not enough.

To be sure, brevity and clarity in the "subject title" is the best way to attract helpful replies!