High-level formatting - This refers to creating a filesystem on a disk.Low-level formatting - This refers to creating the data structures that define the sectors and tracks on a disk.In the past, a distinction was made between two types of disk formatting: I want to elaborate on a detail in the question that no other answer has touched upon: low-level formatting. So, if you're using a SSD, the best solution is probably sticking to the manufacturer's ATA SECURE_ERASE command implementation (as described in meuh's answer), hoping that this will be robust enough for the purpose. The second one being the fact that commercial SSDs usually come with additional replacement cells, which are initially not being used by the drive, and which are intended to act as a replacement for cells being damaged during the usage of the drive this leading to, possibly, the SSD controller unmapping such damaged cells (possibly containing sensitive informations) at some point of the drive's life making them physically inaccessible from low-level tools. The first one being that writing a flash-based memory (expecially multiple times) is not really healthy for the memory itself, altough the wear-leveling issue is highly overestimated (expecially on MLC SSDs), i.e.: you indeed don't want to dd a SSD drive every day, but once, twice or even thrice (or even more) in its whole life-span is absolutely not a big deal However, for the purpose of erasing a hard disk containing personal data, each of the methods above will work fine against a software recovery attempt it might be noted, however, that methods using low-level utilities are not good to be used on SSDs, for multiple reasons. There are lots of methods and lots of debates around the topic basically this is about the type of the support (magnetical disk or flash disk) and about the sensitivity of your informations.ĭata which are really sensitive might be considered undeniably safe only when the physical drive is destroyed, since, theoretically (placeholder for the link if I ever manage to find it again) laboratory methods capable of measuring differences in the magnetic / electronic fields of a support, joined with the knowledge of the algorithm used by firmware of the drive to handle the data might be able to extract even data that has been overwritten multiple times. NaA, but some additional informations, expecially about SSDs If you work under confidentially agreements (especially those involving the government) you need something a little more secure. Plus, I wasn't going to bin the Hard Drive - it's now a bird scarer for the allotment. However, I'm a student and nobody wants to hack into an empty bank account, so it didn't need to be as secure. You do have a few options - the one I've relied on in the past is hitting it with a hammer lots of times, then wiping the magnets over it. It is thought that some of the 3-letter agencies (FBI, CIA, MI6) require physical destruction of magnetic media (e.g., melting in a furnace). release to lower level classified information controls) of IS storage devices (e.g., hard drives) used for classified processing. Apple Macs offer a 35 overwrite feature - which they claim is what the government requires, but it's complicated:Įffective immediately, DSS will no longer approve overwriting procedures for the sanitization or downgrading (e.g. If this is really important data that should never be recovered, it's not safe to use the disk any more. This doesn't really answer your question, as you want to use the HDD.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |