Re: Hard Drive data security

[<creative () mutemail com>]

Hi Kenneth,

a -  Encase is a professional tool you want only is you're specialized in
Computer Forensic, try to go to www.softpile.com or look for
Smartrecovery.exe on Google. These are quite simple tools, you see it all
depends on how confidential your data is.  For example you have very
sensitive data so you need to completely clean yr computer, but if it's on a
lower level of confidentiality then don't go crazy on your HDD.

If one want to recover data from you, one will only spend a time equivalent
to the value of the data. If you have any doubt about the value of your
content then go for the best level of cleaning.  try
http://www.freebits.co.uk/security.html
or search -  Erase data download free  -  on Google.

b  -  Norton Ghost is perfect for making an image of yr HDD.

c  - If you clean and don't rewrite new data on the disk, then with tools
such as Encase it is possible to find info, but         then again is the
info you own worth the trouble?  That's for you to evaluate, I beleive if I
was a bad guy trying to         spy on you I would really bother if you're a
competitor, a bank manager, etc.  Otherwise I don't see why I should
bother so much.  I hope you see what I'm trying to explain.

d  -  So suggestion is :

    Take a brand new HDD or one completely clean.

    Use Norton Ghost to make an image of your 'old' HDD, check the integrity
on an other computer, if it is ok then         you can wipe your 'old' HDD.

    Use Smartrecovery or similar tool on 'old' HDD to try to recover data,
if you can, then you will have to keep on         cleaning it and reformat
it until you are satisfied.

Hope that will answer yr questions,

Creative


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leong Kok Wah Kenneth" <LeongKWKenneth () ocbc com sg>
To: <creative () mutemail com>
Sent: Monday, October 04, 2004 3:52 AM
Subject: RE: Hard Drive data security


Hi, Creative.

Thanks for responding to my email.

Indeed, I appreciated your sharing.

I have further queries and confusion which I hope you could advise me :
a. from what I understood and tried to search for Computer Forensic
tools before, most of popular trial version such as Encase are not
   available as Full version. I meant that they can be only used to
detect but not available to recover all the lost/corrupted data.
   So, where do you think I could find a full working version(limited by
trial period-30days)?

b. I heard some people suggested using the Norton Ghost to dump the full
image and load it onto another machine.  Is it workable?

c. Instead of using any free/commerical diskwiping tools to 'cleaned'
the data away, by restoring another image into the system and then do
   a fdisk followed by re-formatting the hdd. Do you think the original
data (ie before reloading the restored imaged)could be recovered?



kenneth

-----Original Message-----
From: creative () mutemail com [mailto:creative () mutemail com]
Sent: 02 October 2004 06:36
To: Leong Kok Wah Kenneth; Paul Kurczaba;
security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Hard Drive data security


Kenneth,

I personnaly use Computer Forensic Tools, try a search on Google, you
will probably find a trial version available, the good point of this
kind of tool is that they will allow you to make a bit & bit copy of the
HD, plus will include a tool to erase the data when its done.  Then you
can try to restore info just to check if HD is completely clean.

Use a new HD if possible or a HD which has been completely formatted and
make sure there is nothing left in it.  Use this HD as a slave and the
old one as a master then you can start the copy.

Check the slave HD on another computer to be sure the copy is complete
and well done (that should normally work very well).  You will then have
an exact copy of your HD including applications, data, etc.

This is the way we work when doing investigation, data are NEVER
recovered from the original HD, so you can be pretty confident.

Creative


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Leong Kok Wah Kenneth" <LeongKWKenneth () ocbc com sg>
To: <creative () mutemail com>; "Paul Kurczaba" <paul () myipis com>;
<security-basics () securityfocus com>
Sent: Friday, October 01, 2004 4:02 AM
Subject: RE: Hard Drive data security


Hi, guys.

May I joined in the discussion?

Creative : 1. what software should we use to make a copy bit & bit of
data and what about if it is failing?
           2. won't these data after restoring into another drive fail
to boot-up the system if the 'bad' data is a system file, etc?


Thanks
kenneth


-----Original Message-----
From: creative () mutemail com [mailto:creative () mutemail com]
Sent: 01 October 2004 06:11
To: Paul Kurczaba; security-basics () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Hard Drive data security


You will have to make a copy bit by bit of your hard drive, then you
must use a software like Evidence Eliminator in order to delete your
data from the HD that Dell will take back.

Creative


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Paul Kurczaba" <paul () myipis com>
To: <security-basics () securityfocus com>
Sent: Tuesday, September 28, 2004 6:11 PM
Subject: Hard Drive data security


Hi,
   I have a question about hard drive data security. The hard drive on
my notebook is failing and Dell is going to replace it. They are going
to take the old one with them. How can I securely remove the data from
the hard drive?

Thanks,
Paul



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