Wiping the hardrive of an old PC

leaving the Operating System and programmes intact.

[limbo]

Hi folks

My Dad has recently retired from a British University. He is entertaining the Idea of setting up an online learning service with my help.

Only he has worries that the universty may access his folders and utilise his work for their gain when he has left(the retirement was not exactly amicable)

Is there a way of deleting all the files and history of those files on the PC's harddrive, leaving the PC in a 'default' and perfectly operable state.

His PC is windows 2000 professional standalone.

I know this is not exactly a webmaster issue but it may well become one if we can get the new project off the ground :)

Many thanks

Limbo

[Mike12345]

Hi, Im not sure there is a way to clean the whole drive leaving nothing but the OS. But you could do a full format and then re-install the OS and they would never be any the wiser.

However if you think that they might be really interested in stealing your pops work then i would imagine they could still retrieve some of the info after the format. With it being a uni they will have the know how and software they need to do this. So if your really paranoid. Buy a hard disk on ebay of the same size (nice and cheap) take the existing drive and smash it into lots of pieces then burn it.

Then install the new drive and install the appropriate OS, again they would be non the wiser, unless they looked really hard.

Best of luck.

<added> You could just delete all the files you dont want them to see, but if they really reallt wante to get them they might have some limited success.</added>

[pixel_juice]

Use a secure file deletion utility (like Eraser) to remove (and overwrite with random data) all the file and folders on the machine that aren't in the operating system directory or aren't marked as system files. This way they might be able to recover some things like browser histories, but none of the files you want to protect. If you need some help on what to delete and what to keep to make sure the OS still works, give me a shout.

[mack]

not totaly sure about win 2k but using win 98 you can insert th einstall cd rom . goto my computer and select the drive wher eth einstall cd resides. they click on setup. this erased all work but left all programs intact. basicaly it over wrote with a resh install of the os.

[pixel_juice]

The only problem with your suggestion mack is that it is simplicity itself to recover old data with a reinstall. I doubt if the uni would go to these lengths, but if it is a possibility then more secure methods are needed IMO.

You're right to say that the reinstall should leave program files in place (because the install doesn't overwrite the existing registry). However all the files that no longer show are essentially still there - windows just tells you that they aren't ;)

[limbo]

Thank you all

Interesting points of view. To quote you mike12345 "So if your really paranoid" - this is kind of understatement - the university has already made hints to its intentions.

I was hoping there would be a simple windows command - but that would be too easy ;)

Pixel juice - The secure file deletion facility - Eraser, sounds like a good method. Is this freeware and do you have to be a pc expert to use it. My background in this type of process is non existant. As a mac user my knowledge of PCs and the best way to manipulate them is limited to the cross platform work I do for the web. Any input here would be appreciated

Thanks all

Limbo

[gsx]

If you have Norton Firewall and Utilities installed, you can use Norton WipeInfo. Select the Goverment option, it takes ages, but over-writes the data so much that it is virtually impossible to get the data back. Of course, this should be followed by a defrag or Norton SpeedDisk to shuffle up the disk indexes. You should do this several times also...apparently it is about 7 over-writes where the data cannot be recovered so easily.

[Josk]

If you're paranoid of someone accessing the computer then don't leave it plugged into a network of any kind. Or am I missing something obvious here...?

[gsx]

Josk, I believe he is talking about the Universities computer. He does not want his previous employers to have access to all of his work that he has saved onto their computer.

[Compworld]

Hello -

The best way is to do the following.
1) Backup the files that your father needs or wants.
2) Download the following file @ Maxtor.com - [maxtor.com...]
3) This program should low level format the drive back to the orignal factory default. Once this is done, there would be no way for anyone to access that data. It would be gone 100%.

Hope this helps.

- CompWorld

[pixel_juice]

The secure file deletion facility - Eraser, sounds like a good method. Is this freeware and do you have to be a pc expert to use it

It is freeware and open source (search google and you should find it without any trouble). I'm never good at answering 'do I need to be an expert?' questions because I'm pretty technical myself, but you can drag and drop files or select directories etc. to erase so it shouldn't be too difficult. It also uses military strength overwriting patterns. If you just wanted to overwrite a batch of files it should present no difficulties. Your best solution is to use eraser to overwrite specific sensitive files and directories and then do the reinstall that Mack suggested.

One thing, I don't know for a fact that win 2k prserves programs very well after the reinstall. I know this works on 98 XP but 2k is not my speciality.

apparently it is about 7 over-writes where the data cannot be recovered so easily

The program I mention uses 35 passes (overwrites) as default. 7 overwrites qualifies as 'military strength' deletion, although it can sometimes be possible to recover partial files in this situation. After 35 overwrites the data is nigh on impossible top recover with software, although hardware investigation can still yield results for the extremely determined and if money is no object in the recovery.

An interesting paper on the subject is here [usenix.org]

[limbo]

Niceone all.

'military strength' overwriting sounds like the badger!

I mailed My Dad a link to this disscussion and he is amazed at the speed and knowledge of the responses. He thanks you all for your help on this matter. I told him that WW would be a good forum to get concise and informed answers but I know he was not expecting this :)

I think we will try one of the free file overwiter packges before taking more drastic measures - this should be enough to solve the dilemma.

Ta

Limbo

>> Pendanticist, thanks for the stickies

[onlineleben]

I used to use a defragmentation tool (either defrag or vopt) after deleting all personal files.
Then I filled the harddrive with lots (many 1000s) of small files to get the fat entries overwritten. defragmentated again, deleted the small stuff and finaly defragmentated again.
Probably this solution is not as secure as the ones mentioned here, but it helps when nothing else available. OS was Win98.

[bill]

Josk
If you're paranoid of someone accessing the computer then don't leave it plugged into a network of any kind. Or am I missing something obvious here...?

If this PC is plugged into the University's network now chances are that the data has already been copied off already. If there was no encryption on the disk in the first place I'd bet that they've already got all the data they want. For example, if any of this data was ever backed up onto one of the servers it won't mean anything if you destroy the data on this PC.

Josk was right. If this data wasn't protected prior to connection to the network it's highly likely it's already been compromised.

[limbo]

Cheers bill

I had this thought. too. I make the back up tapes for our LAN at work so was concerned of this when my dad told me his position. He has since checked and confirmed the PC is stand alone so there will be no copies of his work other than those we have made ;)

Thanks.