Anti-Forensics

[Saint DH]

Secure erase is the best way to securely and completely wipe all traces of data from your solid state drive.

Block wiping programs like DBAN are not only tough on the disk, but they are also limited in effectiveness. This is because on an SSD, the SSD's controller is responsible for directing where data are written. The DBAN program does not have that control, thus it cannot erase every trace of data. With that said, a bootable program like DBAN is much more effective than a windows based wiping program that wipes over the free disk space. These programs often miss data hidden in the MFT.

The secure erase command fires a voltage spike through the SSD and clears the NAND of all stored electrons. The data is irrecoverable, and the SSD is reset to factory speeds. It is safe, fast, and extremely effective. There will be absolutely no trace of data remaining. I recommend using Parted Magic to secure erase your drive. To use this program, you will need to burn a copy of the .iso file on to a CD using a program like ISO recorder.

Once you've got the program, you'll need to boot your computer from the CD-ROM. Then you can start the wiping process.

Here is a good video tutorial on how to use Parted Magic:

How to: Secure Erase your Solid State Drive (SSD) with Parted Magic - YouTube

How to: Secure Erase your Solid State Drive (SSD) with Parted Magic - YouTube

This is a very good article talking about secure erase and the benefits over block wiping (i.e. DBAN): http://cmrr.ucsd.edu/people/Hughes/D...onTutorial.pdf.

[Mr. Blonde]

Pump the breaks, Assange. This is all great info and all (that i'm sure I could easily find in a quick google search), but I would wager none of us really need to be that secure. Or are you a budding Haxx0r now?

[Saint DH]

Nah, I'm throwing out an old laptop and just wanted to make sure the hard drive was completely erased. I'm not even close to a computer expert, and it took a lot of research to find all this shit out. I actually wiped it with DBAN first, then read about all this secure erase shit, and had to reinstall the OS, drivers, etc, and secure erase the mother fucker before I felt comfortable throwing it out.

It's also useful if you get a virus/trojen, or if your computer is just fucking up and running slow. Trust me, if you ever need to erase a hard drive, I just saved you a lot of searching through bullshit on the internet.

Also, there is more to anti-forensics than just disk wiping. I don't know shit about encryption and other stuff, but I thought maybe some other people would be interested in talking about anti-forensics. I think it's a pretty interesting subject.

Also, just trying to do my part to add content to Nubblies.

[Mr. Blonde]

Copy that. If you would have mentioned throwing out old hard drive initially it all would have made more sense. I guess i've never thrown out a hard drive.


I would just burn it.

[Saint DH]

I thought about doing that, but I didn't want to take the time to tear the computer apart and mess around with all of that. There's like 30 tiny screws you have to take out to get to the hard drive. It probably would have saved me time in long run if I would have just gone that route. I would have had to buy a tiny screwdriver set, though.

[Mr. Blonde]

Well, FFR, a tiny screwdriver set is a good investment, as long as you don't lose it (because it's tiny).

There are only about 8 screws total holding in my hard drive, but I get your point.

Are you just throwing it away, if it otherwise works? You should try to look around for a local place where you could donate it.

[Saint DH]

The laptop is in pretty bad shape. Some of the keyboard keys don't work, and the heat sinks/fan are shot so the computer gets really hot. It will overheat and shutdown if you're running a program that uses a lot of resources.

Honestly I probably would have gone out and bought a screwdirver set and just destroyed the computer, but it became a mission to figure out how to do this. I learned a lot about drives. I learned how to use the disk management function in windows to allocate hard drive space and change drive paths. I learned how to manipulate the BIOS and a bunch of other stuff. It was a pretty good experience.

[Ugly Bastard]

I have saved all of my old laptops precisely because I didn't want to risk the data on the hard drive landing in the wrong hands. So this thread could be very useful to me if I ever actually find myself in the unfortunate position of needing to give a shit about throwing out those laptops.

[THEINCREDIBLEdork]

First.

[DDTempest]

Seems like smashing a computer to bits would be enough reward in itself to justify destroying the hard drive. Or you could just take it out and microwave it! How fun would that be?
I bet a lot.

How much child porn do you have on your old computer hard drive?

[Orgazmo]

He doesn't have any child porn on his old hard drive. It was recently eradicated by Secure Erase.

[Saint DH]

Yeah microwaving it sounds like a great fucking idea. Let's produce toxic fumes in the house while simultaneously destroying a computer and a microwave. You're so smart!

[Ironic Mustache]

You could always just shoot it like that pissed off dad did to his bitch of a daughter's.

[Orgazmo]

Or just saw it in half for Christ sake. How do you think people destroyed data before Secure Erase existed? They simply sawed it in half.

[Saint DH]

Don't have a gun and don't have a power saw.

I'm fully aware that I could have just smashed it with a hammer, but god damn, this just seemed like a cleaner, easier method to achieve the same results. Maybe I was hoping I could salvage it.

[Orgazmo]

You could use a hacksaw pretty easily. Don't you have a hacksaw?

Rep for the first person to post a pic of Jim Duggan

[Saint DH]

No, all I have is a shitty wood saw. I'm severely lacking in the tools department, but good tools aren't cheap. Except for your mom.

[Ironic Mustache]

I've always wanted to open a laptop past the 180 degree mark and break its spine. I damn near did that with my last one when it was pissing me off by being too slow.

[vaga1220 *]

So.... Can I start posting cp?

[Beebs]

Originally Posted by Dirty Harry

Nah, I'm throwing out an old laptop and just wanted to make sure the hard drive was completely erased.

Not to be a dick, but if you are throwing it out, drill a hole through the hard drive, it's what I do.