Why is multiple full format not good enough?

[flw]

To clean you data off your hard drive, why is several full formats not considered good for all but the NSA to make the data to far down to read?

Its my understanding that the data on a drive is like a layer on a cake with each rewrite adding another layer. So why is a second or third complete hard drive format not considered good enough for sensitive data protection?

Are programs like Spin Rite still able to read or reconstruct the data?

 

[wolluf]

even full formatting doesn't actually overwrite the filestore with binary zeros - so if you want to wipe a disk, use a utility that does than (eg, killdisk).

 

[wahnula]

Look at your HDD as a book...formatting only erases the table of contents, the text is still there, there's just no index of what's where. Multiple passes of writing zeros to the drive will ensure it is unreadable. I really like DBAN :

http://dban.sourceforge.net/

for drive cleaning but there are also file shredders that overwrite blank space (deleted files that are still present on the disk in the 'blank' space).

I recently used Davory to recover pictures from a corrupted Memory Stick, it produced photos (or parts of photos) from several years ago. Just deleting a file or formatting a disk is never enough if you want the data destroyed for good...or evil!

Tony

"Buy what you like, or you'll be forced to like what you buy"...me

 

[flw]

So a full format (not a quick format) does not erase each of the clusters and only does the mbr & file index ?

 

[acewarlock]

Yes, just like (wahnula) said.




This is a Signature and not part of the answer, it appears on every reply.

This is an Analogy so don't take it personally as some have.

Why change the engine if all you need is to change the spark plugs.

 

[cdogg]

Yes, that's right. The only difference between the quick and full format options in Windows is that a full format includes a surface scan for bad sectors and the file structure is rebuilt.

If you are confident that the drive you're using isn't bad, then a full format doesn't really do much for you except waste time!

You would have to use a third-party utility like Killdisk or Symantec Systemworks to erase data. They will write 0's and 1's randomly across the disk in an attempt to hide what was stored there previously (the free version of Killdisk only does 0's). The more passes you make over the drive, the less likely data can be recovered. You can find dozens of free or low-cost utilities on the web that can do multiple passes like the standard government D.O.D. 7-pass wipe.

~cdogg
"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Einstein
[tab][navy]For posting policies, click [/navy]here.