Hard drive format

[Feardis]

so im sure this is the wrong thread, but this is pretty much the only one i browse so yeh
ok so i wanna format my hard drive, ive done it before so this is not a "omghowtowipemeevirususahhh" :D
i was just wondering
a year or so ago i was told of a program that you use while formatting that changes your drive to all zero's 00000 (thus eliminating all residual info, like spyware etc)
the guy who told me was in the military and he said they use them all the time. are there any commercial apps?
also
is it necessary for just a regular format? MrSmith has been poking around inside my matrix, do people use these type of things often?

im in the market for a new antivirus/spyware/firewall also
i use spybot/avgfree but ive just realised i still have alot of spyware.. even tho i do regular checks

any advise would be bonza :P haha
yeh i'd greatly appreciate it :)
cheers
Imor

[aboron]

Using a program to wipe your drive to all zeros (or zeros, then ones, then zeros again, repeating <n> times...) is mostly a tool for gov't and the highly security conscious to ensure a hard drive contains no sensitive data before disposing of it (as surplus or scrap). If you are just reformatting to use the drive again yourself then save some time and do a quick format, it will get rid of viruses and spyware just as effectively as any other format/wipe. (Just make sure you do the format from a cd rom install disc, so it gets everything on the drive)

I can't recommend any great anti-spyware/anti-virus since the only virus i ever caught was the one i deliberately ran to see what it would do. I make my wife use MS one-care because it came with 3 user licenses and I gave one to my Dad, and the other I run on my work laptop mostly just to monitor the other 2.

[Feardis]

ah ok sweet
yeh AV's are a much of a muchness i guess
thanks for ya help aboron

[Buefurd]

If you reeeeallly want to make sure you get rid of all that spyware for good, take a LARGE magnet (the larger the better) and rub it all over your hard drive.

THEN

Take a LARGE mallet or hammer, and just begin hitting the hard drive with all your might. The more / harder you hit it, the better the chances that spyware will NOT be back to harm you again!

Just to make extra sure, you might want to get that magnet back out and give it another good once over. :thumbsup:

err..do you want to use it again?

Ah ok just do what he said ^

[Yamio]

I knew a guy at one place where I worked who was always tweaking and messing up his system. About every other week, (sometimes every week), he'd mess up and ask for a low level format "Cause that's what I do at the house! There's nothing better!" he'd tell us. We'd say okay and just slam his laptop, but we'd keep it for a day or two to make him think we did that low level format, just like we had promised. ^^

Just what Aboron said; that kind of format is not needed by normal folks unless you're really worried about what's been on your drive AND you're getting rid of it. You been doing any 007 shit that we need to know about?

Everybody has different suggestions and mine is; when I run into a badly infected system, I run every virus/malware remover I can find; Ewido, AVG, Spy-bot, Ad-Aware, CounterSpy, Spy Sweeper, and Trend Micro Scan one after another. Some will catch stuff, but not be able to clean it all out. You'll be surprised by what each finds that the others missed.

And there isn't one (that I've found) that'll detect and clean everything.

Buddy Builder viruses used to give me nightmares. Just about the time you think you've cleared it all out, here it comes back again.

[daviddoran]

Government Wipe.

http://www.dban.org/

Free. Have at it. Personally I think its overkill.


If you reeeeallly want to make sure you get rid of all that spyware for good, take a LARGE magnet (the larger the better) and rub it all over your hard drive.

FYI - this is called degassing. This will RUIN the HDD, not just erase it. It'll be nothing more than a doorstop after you're done.

I think that was his point, hence he part about the hammer...

[Starbuck_Jones]

In my opinion anti-virus and spyware removal tools are all frauds and nothing more than scareware. A properly updated OS and internet browser along with User Account Controls (vista) will prevent 99.9% of all spyware and viruses. And for gods sake, stay away from java and use web mail.

[Buefurd]

Yeah I know it destroys it...lol :P

[Feardis]

yeh i know that destroys it, i was going to have a go at him for insulting me but i knew it was a joke
thanks for the link fur
i'll check it out

[Feardis]

how can one stay away from java when its all over the place?

[Caspian]

how can one stay away from java when its all over the place?With a Starbucks on every corner I know what you mean.

As far as wiping your disk, use the link Fur posted. This level of wiping is not just for government or security. Just about all public US companies are required to do multi pass wipes on HDD that are going away. If you have the time for it, it will not hurt anything at all. I did some contract work for a large bank. At their data center they had this cool box that you would put a HDD in, lock this thick door and hit the button. You could hear it spin up for about 20 seconds and then it would have this audible pop as it released a ratehr large electomagnetic pulse and you could hear the disk bounce and *poof* your disk was clean - and would never hold data again.


Re: java - just don't install it. If it is installed, uninstall it through the control panel like any other program. If you go to a site that asks you to install java, don't unless you really want to use whatever it is they have.

[Catamer]

a full wipe like that wouldn't hurt the drive and would help you get rid of your virus, however I would think that it's probably not any different than doing the "slow" format of the drive where it validates that there aren't any bad sectors on the drive by writing info and reading it back.
there is an information area about the drive partitions that might get flushed better with the special program.

as for the virtus checker, I personally use Avast ('http://www.avast.com/') only because they were one of the first to claim to run on x64 and they have a freeware version.
I'm not that big of an internet browser kind of person so I'm not sure how great this checker is. ( I browse here and a couple of the wow sites, semi safe if you ask me ) and I have a blizzard authenticator so I can care less about key loggers on my wow accounts.
I had my yahoo email hacked into once but that was because I had open wireless and no local pc passwords on my LAN, once I disabled the wirless and placed passwords I've not had any problems since.

[wowphreak]

If all yer doing is redoing yer system then all yeh need to do is a quick format.

If yer getting rid of the drive like throwing it away due a secure format there's people that specialize in recovering interesting thing off of hard drives that people have tossed out :P

[Powerwar]

Boot any linux install CD in rescue mode.

dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
Wait lots of time until it give you end of device error.
dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/sda
Wait lots of time until it give you end of device error again. This will take lots of more time because it will basically exhaust the RNG capability of your computer.

After that you are ready to format the HD in any kind of partition table you want. Be warned that some Os installers like windows95 and windows98 ones will think that your HD has about several Zetabytes (about 1.000.000 TB or alot more). Just start again your linux install Cd and create a new big partition in this case. After that you can install windows if you want. Vista and XP installers rarely have such problems anyways.

[Mooni]

Just about all public US companies are required to do multi pass wipes on HDD that are going away.
Mool-tee-pass. Corbin Dallas Mool-tee-pass.

[Yamio]

Great movie.