Quick legal computer ques.

[Serenity Head]

So here somone is with a fairly new computer and wants to star a clean slate...no more garbage on it. Do you have to get rid of it or can I simply put in a new harddrive. Is there any way to keep the cost down on this transformation. Also if there is evidence on your computer and you stop, lets say today and get raided in one year. What if you say you stopped using AAS one year ago and went through "rehab." What is stored in the computer...everything or bits and pieces.

Don't answer this unless you are 110% sure. I hate it when we get bullshit threads where everyone knows someone that says...well you know what I mean.

What if hypothetically you were writing a paper on the use and accesability of AAS and were going to send it into flex so you've been doing a couple years of research, how would that fly in court. I guess it would depend on what else you have written. What if you never say anything about AAS as directly to you in your computer. In otherwords, after someone trashes his computer is there anyway to allow yourself to use it at home???

Thanks

 

[Serenity Head]

Is there anyway I can break this computer without them knowing so I can get a new one under warrranty?

Come on let me know your cheap, warranty abusing secrets. Would they fix the problem if I rubbed a magnet over it. How about pouring a little water in the power supply.

Help!

 

[doctor proctor]

you can dump the hard drive then reboot it useing your recovery disks.just put them in then run coputer from disk. call customer serive to walk you throught it.

 

[MuSuLPhReAk]

Get a new hard drive. Reformatting won't keep you safe 100%.

 

[thate]

Get a new hard drive. Reformatting won't keep you safe 100%.

true, but g disk will clear it.

 

[VitorBelfort]

....

If you whant to be 110% you have to buy a new hard drive. Just format it wont cover it. If they whant they can still read what files etc that has been on your computer. My advice buy a new harddrive it isn't that expensive and you dont have to replace anything else.

 

[Nutzz]

don't waste money on a new harddrive, get something like this.

http://www.killdisk.com/eraser.htm

 

[Spidey]

Get a new hard drive. Reformatting won't keep you safe 100%.

A low level format overwrites all the data with zeros. That should be totally unrecoverable shouldn't it?

-Spidey

 

[hellorhih2o]

If you really worry that much about it, isn't a new hard drive for under $100 worth the peace of mind? Internal hard drives are C-H-E-A-P. I just did a quick search and you can get a 40G hard drive for $60 at Compusa.

 

[daemon]

Well... some replies were good.

Like most people said, to be truly sure you need to get rid of the harddrive. Period. End of story.

If your too cheap to buy a new harddrive, find an old dos program that will run from a bootdisk that does multiple pass alternating bit writes (a little search on google should find something). Use at least 8 passes. This will destroy the data to the point that it will take machines costing 10's of thousands of dollars and a lot of time to recover your data. Unless your some terrorist or international drug lord, this should provide enough protection.

 

[robsatx]

Not sure where everyone gets their info

A hard drive is magnetic media. It is charged and discharged sections on a drive. The heads in hard drive write to the platters as it spins. True if you perform a format the data is still partially there. When you format the drive, it writes a new (FAT) File Allocation Table. The data can be re-constructed if you have not written anything else to the hard drive. Format the drive then copy a bunch of music files from Kazaa or the like. Fill the hard disk completetly. Once the new data has been written to the drive. The old data is history. THERE is no way to recover it. Most of the programs that you buy are just doing all these unnecessary steps. A hard drive is not like a CDrw. The disk is never physically changed. Only charged and discharged to create 1s and 0s (binary) that the IDE or SCSI controller can convert back to a higher level language.

I have personal experience in this. Not for legal purposes but for clients. We do a fair amount of disaster recovery. We have had to use the "big boys" on a few occasions. As long as no one has "written" to the drive, we can usually get the data. Once written to, we can only recover bits and pieces of the data (where the drive was not written to). IN most cases, you can not take "parts" of a file as they will be corrupted and unreadable. Although not impossible highly improbable.
Summary:
If you fill the drive with bogus info the previous info is gone. If you do not completely overwrite the disk. Bits and pieces may resdie. I hope this helps!

 

[massradius]

good article

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/01/15/national1617EST0765.DTL

if you need some cheap software to do the job the above artivle reccomends AccessData

http://www.accessdata.com/Product07_Overview.htm?ProductNum=07

 

[robsatx]

That article backs my post up 100%

Thanks!

 

[icelandic]

A low level format overwrites all the data with zeros. That should be totally unrecoverable shouldn't it?

I theory, yes. Truth to be told, however, it depends on exactly how secret the data was and who your possible adversary is. Let me give you this example: For drives which stored Top Secret information at the CIA. First they undergo what is called a DoD wipe (continous binary stream written to the drive repeated six times), next holes are drilled through the magnetic platter, finally the remaining "drive" is incinerated.

Do you have to go to this extreme? Of course not. Just be very wary of any software solution (such as "evidence-eliminator") which promises to wipe a drive. As a former EE, I can tell you there are some extraordinarily smart people working in the field of data recovery, and they are mostly employed in the govt sector. Luckily, I doubt anybody here is importatn enough to arouse their suspicion. If you're really paranoid however, first wipe the drive, then smash the fucker!

 

[lousygenes]

Robsatx,
I normally reformat my hard drive a couple of times a year. While I know that it's possible to restore data from previous formats, how difficult is it? I mean, let's look at this pragmatically. If your house gets raided and they seize your computer, how much time are they really going to spend trying to recover data on your computer if they've only found personal use quantities of roids in your house? I wouldn't think that they'd spend a whole lot of time.

Serenity head, I'd simply reformat the hard drive. Don't try a low level reformat if it's a laptop; it's possible to fry the hard drive. While you can get replacement hard drives for laptops, they're a lot more expensive than buying a replacement hard drive for a desktop.

 

[icelandic]

No!!!!
Simply reformating the drive does little to anything to deter law enforcement from having a look see at your data. A reformat simply rewrites the boundaries of the drive, so to speak - the data contained within those boundaries will be left largely intact. A simple hex editor will allow you to have a look see.

Here is a timely link on the subject of data recovery:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/01/15/national1617EST0765.DTL

Note that many of the drives on which data were recovered were reformated

 

[robsatx]

Ice, read my post - then compare to the article.

No!!!!
Simply reformating the drive does little to anything to deter law enforcement from having a look see at your data. A reformat simply rewrites the boundaries of the drive, so to speak - the data contained within those boundaries will be left largely intact. A simple hex editor will allow you to have a look see.

Here is a timely link on the subject of data recovery:

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/01/15/national1617EST0765.DTL

Note that many of the drives on which data were recovered were reformated

Ice, read my post - then compare to the article.

 

[icelandic]

Sorry, i have nasty habbit of just reading the first post of an archive, not enough time to soak it all up. Looks like im not the only slashdot reader, eh?

 

[robsatx]

Thanks for the honest reply!

Sorry, i have nasty habbit of just reading the first post of an archive, not enough time to soak it all up. Looks like im not the only slashdot reader, eh?

Others on this board would have started getting caustic.

Karma your way . . .

 

[icelandic]

Cool you work in the field. I have a degree in EE but never pursued a career in the field. I don't really do anything funky on my windows box but read my email and surf the boards. For other stuff I run freebsd. Since there is 1024mb of memory in the box, I use a "memory drive" for the swap space - when the box reboots, goodbye swap. I also employ a "disposable partition" - when the data has outlived its usefulness, the entire partition is dod-wiped.