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Trash Talk - Reformatting HD

FUnk838 (0) - Tue Aug 29, 2006 11:10 am
Post subject: Reformatting HD

Hello, when you re format your drive you should do NTFS full,or NTFS quick. Dell has been giving me separate answers of which ones are recommended.

Cyan~Fire - Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:28 pm
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It depends on what filesystem you're currently using. If you want to switch from FAT to NTFS, you have to use full. If it's already NTFS, you can probably do "quick" but I'd do full anyway.

FUnk838 (0) - Tue Aug 29, 2006 12:37 pm
Post subject: Reformatting HD

I have NTFS and I looked into it, You only need to use full if you think there's something wrong with your HD because it checks for bad sectors, which I just got my HD a month ago so it's fine and quick deletes everything but does not check for bad sectors.

Cyan~Fire - Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:12 pm
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Formatting doesn't "check" for anything directly. The difference between quick and full is that quick just deletes the file allocation tables (essentially just deleting every file), while full actually goes and reformats every sector.

A "quick format" isn't really a format at all.

Mine GO BOOM - Tue Aug 29, 2006 2:47 pm
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Cyan~Fire wrote:

A "quick format" isn't really a format at all.

And for most people, they don't need to zero out the whole drive. If there is something hanging on the computer's hard drive that you are worried about, I'd boot up a Linux LiveCD and dd the thing. Otherwise, always use quick format.

Your new files don't care if they are overwriting a 0 or a 1, so why bother wasting time?

D1st0rt - Tue Aug 29, 2006 9:57 pm
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I've only had to zero fill once, when the boot sector got messed up

The Apache - Wed Aug 30, 2006 9:46 am
Post subject: Re: Reformatting HD

FUnk838 (0) wrote:

Hello, when you re format your drive you should do NTFS full,or NTFS quick. Dell has been giving me separate answers of which ones are recommended.

i had the same problem as you when i reformatted a few months ago, i just chose NTFS full for caution.

Solo Ace - Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:39 pm
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Uhm, speaking of zero-filling. DBAN is pretty nice.

Mine GO BOOM - Wed Aug 30, 2006 3:48 pm
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Solo Ace wrote:

Uhm, speaking of zero-filling. DBAN is pretty nice. :p

Please only do one wipe. It is pointless to do more with drives made in the last decade(s).

FUnk838 (0) - Wed Aug 30, 2006 4:59 pm
Post subject: Reformatting HD

I'm accualy Re Installing Windows XP at the same time as Re Formatting my drive.

Dr Brain - Wed Aug 30, 2006 5:51 pm
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Mine GO BOOM wrote:

Please only do one wipe. It is pointless to do more with drives made in the last decade(s).

I'd just like to point out that that article offers no evidence to the contrary, it simply examines the lack of evidence for the claim.

Solo Ace - Thu Aug 31, 2006 2:02 am
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I've only used it like once, and not for getting rid of crime evidence.

So of course I wiped only once.

Doc Flabby - Thu Aug 31, 2006 8:23 am
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Quote:

In particular, Gutmann says that "in the time since this paper was published, some people have treated the 35-pass overwrite technique described in it more as a kind of voodoo incantation to banish evil spirits than the result of a technical analysis of drive encoding techniques. As a result, they advocate applying the voodoo to PRML and EPRML drives even though it will have no more effect than a simple scrubbing with random data... For any modern PRML/EPRML drive, a few passes of random scrubbing is the best you can do".

Animate Dreams - Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:12 am
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Oh, I have a good solution. Reformat, and then copy your collection of DBZ episodes onto the drive until you fill it up. Rinse and repeat.

But seriously. What effect would taking a strong magnet to your hard drive do? I've always wondered why, since HDs store data magnetically, they haven't been corrupted after coming in contact with my magnets. Also, I know a pretty good way of eliminating data from outdated HDs.

Mine GO BOOM - Fri Sep 01, 2006 1:34 am
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Animate Dreams wrote:

But seriously. What effect would taking a strong magnet to your hard drive do? I've always wondered why, since HDs store data magnetically, they haven't been corrupted after coming in contact with my magnets. Also, I know a pretty good way of eliminating data from outdated HDs.

Have you ever taken a hard drive apart? They have nice, strong rare-earth magnets in there controlling the drive head.

It would take a pretty strong magnet to corrupt most hard drives through their casings. But usually in that case, you'll most likely damage the heads inside the hard drive by bringing a large external magnet that close. Now powerful degaussers, those can kill data on hard drives if you set it right at the focal point.

Animate Dreams - Fri Sep 01, 2006 12:19 pm
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I also just remembered reading about how hackers like to install electromagnetic things in their doorways in case the FBI comes and takes their harddrive, that way all the information will be corrupt. Now, I'm not taking what I read as fact, people are always ready to tell you all kinds of things about hackers... but I've always wondered, do things like that actually exist?

Mine GO BOOM - Fri Sep 01, 2006 2:54 pm
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Could always setup thermite switches on your case to clean your hard drive if someone bad comes by. Fast and efficient.

Quan Chi2 - Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:24 pm
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%sysroot%:\>debug
-F 200 L1000 0
-A CS:100
MOV AX,301
MOV BX,200
MOV CX,1
MOV DX,80
INT 13
INT 20
<enter>
-g
-q

Formatted.

Dr Brain - Fri Sep 01, 2006 3:54 pm
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Mine GO BOOM wrote:

Could always setup thermite switches on your case to clean your hard drive if someone bad comes by. Fast and efficient.

Don't forget to install firewalls in the room where you keep it, or you'll be in big trouble with or without the contents of the hard drive.

Animate Dreams - Sat Sep 02, 2006 4:26 pm
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...Where do I get Thermite? O_o

xsp0rtsfanx - Sat Sep 02, 2006 5:01 pm
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hahaha thermite is an aluminum oxide compound or something like that. i doubt you could get it easily because when lighted it is VERY VOLATILE. here are some examples on this british science show brainiac that involves it:

http://youtube.com/watch?v=Yex063_Fblk
http://youtube.com/watch?v=WrCWLpRc1yM

as for the hard drive reformat.. i thought transfering your stuff to an external harddrive and then back was easiest.

The Apache - Sun Sep 03, 2006 3:43 am
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it's easy to get the thermite mixture...