hard drive

[tommythefox]

Hi i don't know much about computers so hoping you can help,can you tell me what imformation goes onto the hard drive of a computer,i.e.would bank details be on there etc.the reason i ask is i have a dell laptop and the hard drive started to break down so out came the man from a company working for dell and replaced the hard drive but took the old one away with him he said because of data protection it would be destoryed.and i got to thinking the old hard drive could anybody get imformation off it.
cheers Tom.

 

[dave.m]

Tom,
The harddrive is the memory of the computer that holds the operating system (Windows XP or Vista etc), it contains all the folders that you have saved such as pictures, music, and all the data files and folders that you have such as any lists of details that you have typed in and saved in a folder. Your emails and letters and anything else that you have Saved to files.

When he replaced the hard drive did he transfer all your files and folders that are in My Documents, onto the new harddrive? Did he transfer all your pictures and music too?

It all depends upon how he moved or copied them over, but details of files on the old hard drive will still be recoverable should anyone want to go to the effort of doing it. The hard drive needs to be destroyed completely to prevent data being recovered.

As he said it would be destroyed, you could contact Dell to confirm what happens to it to put your mind at rest. Did you actually type all your bank details onto a file and save then in a folder in My Documents.

If you did internet banking, most banks, when you log on, only ask for random letters and numbers from your log on details, so, unless you had actually made a note of passwords and usernemaes in a folder, your banking should be pretty safe.

May I suggest changing your account log in details. You should be able to do that easily on your bank website.

dave

 

[Richard C]

If you know how to, its quiet easy to extract data from a corrupt or even partially damaged hard drive. It’s probably all above board but I wouldn’t have let him take it away; I never pass on my old HDD’s unless they've been deep formatted & I’ve heard even that can be overcome with the right software. if just a few corrupt sectors is all that’s wrong with it, it could end up re-installed or even sold on after re-formatting; I’m currently running an old drive that’s been error corrected twice so far. Simple re-formatting won’t delete data, it just hides it & the only safe way to ensure nothing of your personal data can ever be extracted from a redundant drive is to put a 2lb lump hammer through it, as I do.

Take dave.m’s advice, contact Dell & ask for confirmation that it’s been destroyed & not recycled & change all your password/log on details.

 

[tommythefox]

Hi Dave,no he did not transfer data from the old drive to the new one and i lost some info, but luckly i saved my photo's.i did not save any bank details,but i will change passwords numbers etc as you say.

thanks Tom.

 

[Synapse]

There is a fairly safe way to completely remove data from a hard drive without physically destroying the disks platters. Obviously formatting the drive does nothing if using a journal based file system.

Tools like DBAN perform a safe removal of data by writing random data to the drive multiple times, studies have shown in the past that it's impossible to retrieve usable data using publicly available means. Even forensic labs using electron microscopes would have a hard time gathering useful data from a modern hard drive where tracks are packed so closely together once a 7-pass erase with sufficient entropy had been performed. This is the same method the US Department of Defense use to securely erase data.

http://www.dban.org/

This of course can only be carried out on a fully working drive otherwise you can't safely assume that all data has been removed successfully. In which case you really should fully destroy the platters of a non working drive before disposing of it.

 

[djrock]

There is a fairly safe way to completely remove data from a hard drive without physically destroying the disks platters. Obviously formatting the drive does nothing if using a journal based file system.

Tools like DBAN perform a safe removal of data by writing random data to the drive multiple times, studies have shown in the past that it's impossible to retrieve usable data using publicly available means. Even forensic labs using electron microscopes would have a hard time gathering useful data from a modern hard drive where tracks are packed so closely together once a 7-pass erase with sufficient entropy had been performed. This is the same method the US Department of Defense use to securely erase data.

http://www.dban.org/

This of course can only be carried out on a fully working drive otherwise you can't safely assume that all data has been removed successfully. In which case you really should fully destroy the platters of a non working drive before disposing of it.

QFA