RE: [Full-Disclosure] Erasing a hard disk easily

["Schmidt, Michael R." <Michael.Schmidt@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

IDE drives are typically formatted "at the factory" so you may actually make 
the drives unusable if you use a magnet.

Michael R. Schmidt

-----Original Message-----
From: full-disclosure-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx 
[mailto:full-disclosure-admin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx]On Behalf Of amilabs
Sent: Monday, July 12, 2004 11:49 AM
To: full-disclosure@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Full-Disclosure] Erasing a hard disk easily


I have a bunch of old computers I would like to donate. Old laptops with win
95/98 on them and some old tower desktops all circa 1995-2k.
I would like to know if I can just use a magnet to completely wipe out the
data for obvious security reasons. I have heard about the disk erasers like
active kill and Perl utilities for this but with the ability of data
ghosting etc. is this enough? Can I use a big magnet like a speaker magnet
or something like a degasser to just wipe out the data without having to
boot these old boxes and go through all the extra work.

Thanks

_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html

_______________________________________________
Full-Disclosure - We believe in it.
Charter: http://lists.netsys.com/full-disclosure-charter.html