ThinkPad finally shipped...

[Jim Thompson]

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

 

[[email protected]]

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson
--
| James E.Thompson, P.E. | mens |
| Analog Innovations, Inc. | et |
| Analog/Mixed-Signal ASIC's and Discrete Systems | manus |
| Phoenix, Arizona Voice480)460-2350 | |
| E-mail Address at Website Fax480)460-2142 | Brass Rat |
| http://www.analog-innovations.com | 1962 |

America: Land of the Free, Because of the Brave

Replacing the hard drive should do the trick.

 

[John Larkin]

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

She doesn't want to run pspice?

John

 

[Jim Thompson]

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

She doesn't want to run pspice?

I don't know. She's really good at math ;-)

John

...Jim Thompson

 

[Joerg]

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

What about letting the webcam record afterwards until it stops because
the disk is full, then delete that "video"?

She doesn't want to run pspice?

Real engineers grow up with the soldering iron and build real stuff

 

[[email protected]]

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

install ultrasentry(from the guys that make ultraedit32) and run wipe
freespace?

-Lasse

 

[Jim Thompson]

install ultrasentry(from the guys that make ultraedit32) and run wipe
freespace?

-Lasse

Aha! I LOVE UltraEdit!

...Jim Thompson

 

[J.A. Legris]

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

Now that the whole world knows about it, you'd better scrub the disk,
and then tell the world again.

 

[Jim Thompson]

Now that the whole world knows about it, you'd better scrub the disk,
and then tell the world again.

I can't get the "world" to even come here for a free party. Why would
the "world" seek out that laptop?

...Jim Thompson

 

[me]

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

fdisk , format c:

 

[Jim Thompson]

fdisk , format c:

I don't want to remove everything.

...Jim Thompson

 

[TT_Man]

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands
if she lost it.

...Jim Thompson

How about the delete key?

 

[John Fields]

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

 

[joseph2k]

fdisk , format c:

----== Posted via Newsfeeds.Com - Unlimited-Unrestricted-Secure Usenet
News==---- http://www.newsfeeds.com The #1 Newsgroup Service in the World!
120,000+ Newsgroups ----= East and West-Coast Server Farms - Total Privacy
via Encryption =----

I'll tell you what, you do that to a disk (not too large, say, not over 100
GB) send it to me and i will recover it and sent it back to you along with
a backup on DVD's.
If i get over 95% of the data back, you ship the disk back to me as prize.
Mind, the only security measure you use is "fidsk, format c:". This also
assumes that the disk was not encrypted in the first place.

 

[Rich Grise]

I just got a notice that my ThinkPad has finally shipped.

I promised my old Sony Vaio to a granddaughter.

What is recommended to scrub it of client files and PSpice?

I wouldn't want proprietary information to fall into the wrong hands if
she lost it.

A Linux Live boot disk, assuming it has a CD. You boot Linux live, and
write 0's to all your hard drives, then write 1's to all your hard
drives, then write '0xA' to your hard drives, then write 5's to your
hard drives, then write 0's to your hard drives twice more.

Actually, if you're not worried about Homeland Security, just booting
Linux Live and doing

$ dd if=/dev/null of=/dev/hda

would do it.

Of course, you'd then have to install something. ;-)

How about test Vista and give us a report? >:->

Have Fun!
Rich

 

[John Larkin]

A Linux Live boot disk, assuming it has a CD. You boot Linux live, and
write 0's to all your hard drives, then write 1's to all your hard
drives, then write '0xA' to your hard drives, then write 5's to your
hard drives, then write 0's to your hard drives twice more.

Do you think all that's necessary? I'm guessing that writing anything,
once, to each disk block would make the old data unrecoverable.

John

 

[qrk]

Delete the files and defrag it; that's probably good enough.

There are commercial disk wipers that write all over the drive to
really lose stuff, but how many laptop thieves have sophisticated data
recovery tools?

She doesn't want to run pspice?

John

There are free programs that do a simple write-over of empty space
with FF. This is enough to thwart common data recovery tools. If I
remember, I'll see what's on my work computer. When I left my old job,
I scrubbed my hard drives. Those same tools will do a much better
scrub where they write over the free space multiple times with random
data if you think someone will do a fancy recovery of data.

Beware, if you used this machine for accessing password protected
accounts (banking, email, ...), Windows likes to store these
passwords. I have seen a tool in action pull out all sorts of fun
password data. Why Windows does this is baffling. If this is so, clear
off the old drive and reinstall the OS and programs she needs. Windows
is really a dangerous OS when it comes to security.

BTW John, there are everyday tools to bring back deleted files,
including freeware on Sourceforge. I've done this many times to get
back accidentally deleted files on crashed drives and servers.

 

[qrk]

Sure, it rewrites partition data and FATs. The reloading writes on the
disk. More than adequate for giving to granddaughter....

Simple tools can still recover data. Jim is worried about the computer
getting into the hands of someone who has these tools. Heck, a ten
years ago my work colleague wrote up a low-level disk reader in an
evening so we could recover some data off a buggered drive. The new
tools make this really easy. You need to scrub the free space after
reloading the OS.

 

[qrk]

Do you think all that's necessary? I'm guessing that writing anything,
once, to each disk block would make the old data unrecoverable.

John

Only writing once is not enough for folks with really expensive tools.
However, it is probably enough for Jim's scenario.

 

[Jim Thompson]

There are free programs that do a simple write-over of empty space
with FF. This is enough to thwart common data recovery tools. If I
remember, I'll see what's on my work computer. When I left my old job,
I scrubbed my hard drives. Those same tools will do a much better
scrub where they write over the free space multiple times with random
data if you think someone will do a fancy recovery of data.

Beware, if you used this machine for accessing password protected
accounts (banking, email, ...),

Nothing but project work on this machine. Even old Reson files ;-)

Windows likes to store these
passwords. I have seen a tool in action pull out all sorts of fun
password data. Why Windows does this is baffling.

You have to ask? Bill envisions himself Emperor ;-)

If this is so, clear
off the old drive and reinstall the OS and programs she needs. Windows
is really a dangerous OS when it comes to security.

BTW John, there are everyday tools to bring back deleted files,
including freeware on Sourceforge. I've done this many times to get
back accidentally deleted files on crashed drives and servers.

...Jim Thompson