[MLUG] Re: Re: OFF TOPIC - Photocopier Hard Drive Security

[Thomas Landmann <tom.landmann AT upsidedownkingdom.org>]

Before I spent $250, I'd make an effort to yank the drive, image-copy it via partimage / clonezilla / dd / whatever, DBAN it, and stick it back in.  The copier may auto-format the disk, or prompt you to do so.

If all else fails, restore the image backup.

I wonder what the copier service people would charge to remove the disk and then reinstall it after DBAN, so that you were not paying for the disk?

Tom

ps - I like Paul's motto. :-)

On Wed, Jul 14, 2010 at 5:09 PM, Paul Schmidt <schmidthaus57 AT att.net> wrote:

I would pull the hard drive and hook it to a Linux box, just to examine it.

You could always make an exact copy of it using dd, and then see what you can do to erase the data (on the copy). Maybe you can extract the program files, then strip the drive of data using something like DBAN. This will render the drive essentially blank, but I think it then can be reformatted and reused.

It all depends on what kind of partitions are on it. If the user data is on a separate partition from the program data, this should then be relatively easy.

But, what the heck do I know? My motto is:
"Poke it with a stick and see what happens!"

Paul

--
Democracy is two wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.