Who has more porn!?

[Blaze]

*shrug*

[Newby]

Want me to send you a 3gb hard-drive that has been overwritten 35 times with random bytes (then finally re-written with 0s) to see how it stands up? :p

[Sidoh]

If it's been running for a couple of months, there's no utility (unless it can conjure the item from several weeks earlier in time) that can recover data like that.

It can recover harddrives that have been written over 32 times with 0's.  Its also only available to intelligence agencys (US, UK, CA).

What about drives that have had random bits written over it 31 times, then a final wipe with 0s?

More than 31, I'll tell you that much. 

Even if it could revive 3-month old data off of a heavily used harddrive, it'd be corrupt as hell.

[Joe]

Blaze, I hate to tell you this, but unless it was in a disk array then moved to a single disk setup, that is impossible. It just is.

EDIT -
And even then, it can't be recovered. It would be recovered by plugging the used disk back in and recovering it with the error-checking disks.

[Newby]

EDIT -
And even then, it can't be recovered. It would be recovered by plugging the used disk back in and recovering it with the error-checking disks.

I have software that recovers data after it's been "deleted from the hard-drive" in Windows.

I also have software that recovers data from "corrupt" drives (including those that claim to be clean)

I also have software that scrubs drives!

[Blaze]

I don't know how the program works, but it does... *shrug*

[Sidoh]

I don't know how the program works, but it does... *shrug*

It makes up phony bits?  Its impossible, unless the bits on a harddrive retain a history of their magnetic status, which would prove useless.

[Towelie]

lol @ Sidos new baner. I did that on purpose :-)

[trust]

So....I win?

[Newby]

It makes up phony bits?  Its impossible, unless the bits on a harddrive retain a history of their magnetic status, which would prove useless.

My dad told me allllll about how they recover data. Some of their shit is fucking crazy. They read each byte one by one. You're pretty much fucked.

[iago]

I've spent a reasonable amount of time doing forensics at work, so I guess I could put this to rest. 

If you overwrite every byte on a harddrive once, you're good for 99.999% of the world.  Only the richest and most powerful organizations (US Government, and a few private data-recovery organizations) can recover it.  If you overwrite it 3 times, you're safe from probably everybody, except maybe the US Government.  If you overwrite it 7 times, you have absolutely nothing to worry about. 

If you overwrite every byte, it makes it impossible for any software tool to pick it up.  You have to remove the platters and scan the magnetics whozzits of each one to pick up bits and pieces of data.  Once it's been overwritten, you'll never get a 100% clean image.  No matter what technology you have, physics is against you. 

Once it's been overwritten 3 times, each bit is so mucked up that it's basically impossible to detect the magnetic discrepencies of the original data. 

The only true solution, of course, is to destroy it. 

In the Canadian government, there are 6 data classifications:
Classified, Level 1, Level 2 -- wipe the disk 3 times, then it can be sold or donated
Secret, Top Secret, Level 3 -- disintegrate the disk into pieces that can fit through a 1/4" screen, then recycle them.  The recycling is important, because once the plate from the harddrive is built into a house, it's pretty tough to recover it

I had a link to an article on data recovery written by the Canadian DND, but I don't have it now.  Oh well

[MyndFyre]

Canadian hard drive security is pansy because they don't have anything valuable to protect.

[iago]

Canadian hard drive security is pansy because they don't have anything valuable to protect.

I'll just ignore your typical American ignorance

[Newby]

If you overwrite every byte on a harddrive once, you're good for 99.999% of the world.  Only the richest and most powerful organizations (US Government, and a few private data-recovery organizations) can recover it.  If you overwrite it 3 times, you're safe from probably everybody, except maybe the US Government.  If you overwrite it 7 times, you have absolutely nothing to worry about.

My drive scrubber says 7 times is government standard for secure data deletion.

[GameSnake]

NERDS.