Complete partion deletion and recovery

[CharleslRay]

Brand new to the forum and I'm looking around for two types of tools, either freeware or for purchase.

1. What is the most efficient tool to 110% delete a hard drive/partitions?
-For those clients that 'really, REALLY' "need" their stuff wiped ;]


2. What is the most efficient tool to 110% recover a hard drive/partitions?
-For those clients that kinda sorta REALLY want their stuff recovered. Tax season anyone? Crashed drives haha!

Wouldn't doubt that there could already be a thread on this subject, but I wanted the freshest input on it. Thanks guys! Love this site and how helpful everyone is. Keep it comin!

-Charles

[LunchBox]

Brand new to the forum and I'm looking around for two types of tools, either freeware or for purchase.

1. What is the most efficient tool to 110% delete a hard drive/partitions?
-For those clients that 'really, REALLY' "need" their stuff wiped ;]


2. What is the most efficient tool to 110% recover a hard drive/partitions?
-For those clients that kinda sorta REALLY want their stuff recovered. Tax season anyone? Crashed drives haha!

Wouldn't doubt that there could already be a thread on this subject, but I wanted the freshest input on it. Thanks guys! Love this site and how helpful everyone is. Keep it comin!

-Charles


To wipe a HD I use "eraser" which is free. You can choose multiple passes.

To recover there are many you can probably use getdataback.

Of course, you will find what you are looking for and more, along with each members options by searching the forum.

[CharleslRay]

Sounds good. I'll give eraser a shot. I use a thing called FileShredder that comes with Spybot S&D and it seems pretty good. Currently testing Recuva against the deleted files that were passed six times over. I'll post the results soon.

[purple_minion]

DBAN for erasing, though you really should find something that uses the secure ata specs for secure deleting even the bad relocated sectors.

Unerasing would be GetDataBack as well as testdisk (for partition tables) and photorec. There are others as well as have been mentioned.

For certain files only eraser is nice, however journaling filesystems like NTFS and ext3, etc. will most likely leak information so the only sure proof way is to overwrite the whole partition. Don't forget leaks in swap/temp files too, too much to worry about.

[LunchBox]

DBAN for erasing, though you really should find something that uses the secure ata specs for secure deleting even the bad relocated sectors.

Unerasing would be GetDataBack as well as testdisk (for partition tables) and photorec. There are others as well as have been mentioned.

For certain files only eraser is nice, however journaling filesystems like NTFS and ext3, etc. will most likely leak information so the only sure proof way is to overwrite the whole partition. Don't forget leaks in swap/temp files too, too much to worry about.

Test disk (and its free) is probably the test out there for partition table recovery but it is command line and the documentation is never clear enough for me to make it work. I need a screwed up HD so test my test disk skill that I been building by reading.

I heard of DBAN but it didn't really click that it was for wiping. I will have to check it out.

The reason I use eraser is for files, partition, directory erasing. But it also has the ability to create a boot n nuke. I do like that DBAN can be pre set to wipe every HD it sees. This would have made my wiping much easer.

[CharleslRay]

Thanks for the info guys. I'll get back to everyone on how it works. Gonna try a few differnet apps. I have two test drives. One thats brand new, one that looks like it's been thrown off a roof, so wish me luck!

[angry_geek]

For erasing a disk, I find that nothing is as secure or quite as satisfying as a big drill press. Punch a few holes right through the thing. Destruction guaranteed!
For recovering, I use getdataback. If that doesn't work after one or two passes, then I suggest a dedicated data recovery service with clean room facilities. ESS in Edwardsville, Il is the best in the business. http://www.essdatarecovery.com/ They do a lot of work for the government and universities.

[CharleslRay]

For erasing a disk, I find that nothing is as secure or quite as satisfying as a big drill press. Punch a few holes right through the thing. Destruction guaranteed!


I'll have to try that! I've only used a baseball bat and that was when I was fourteen and just thought that had to be most efficient way to kill the thing ;]

[vontreigo]

open the drive, apply power, apply dental pick.