100's HOW TO TIPS" Lets face it you don't have to be a Rocket scientist to see that things are going to get a lot worse before they improve, as improve, they most certainly will but until then, if it's innovative, clever and saves you lots of money, you'll get it right here. That's my promise to you. Andy H
Friday, November 28, 2014
Wednesday, October 8, 2014
3 terrifying, but true, security tales
Just in time for Halloween, security expert Dr. Eric Cole shares three scary stories about cyber security starring the most terrifying monsters of all; humans! read on...
HOW TO COMPLETELY ERASE YOUR HARD-DRIVE BEFORE SELLING OR GIVING IT AWAY
A safe, practical approach: DBAN
Courtesy of: http://askleo.com/how_should_i_erase_my_hard_drive_before_i_give_it_away/
DBAN (which stands for “Darik’s Boot And Nuke”) is a free utility designed to do exactly what we’re talking about by living up to its name: it’s a CD that you boot from that then “nukes” the information on the drive.
Download the DBAN CD image, burn it to a CD, and then boot from the CD. I need to be really clear on what happens next:
DBAN will automatically and completely delete the contents of any hard disk that it detects.
DBAN does this not by simply deleting files, but by performing a careful overwrite of the entire hard disk surface. When it’s done, everything is erased.
Everything.
In fact, DBAN has options to overwrite/erase the hard disk multiple times, so as to prevent any possibility of future data recovery. DBAN is now my recommendation when you’re about to dispose of a hard disk or give a computer away.
Over the top: Physical destruction
It’s a common recommendation to use a big heavy magnet to really erase a hard disk. My advice is to forget it. Any magnets that you’re likely to have around the house, even your big speaker magnets, are unlikely to affect your hard disk in any significant way. I believe that there have been studies that show that even some exceptionally large magnets still leave the contents of hard disks in a recoverable state.
Another approach to really, positively, and permanently destroy your data is to physically destroy the disk.
Personally, DBAN is more than enough for me, but if I care enough to go this far, I use a drill press and drill a few holes all the way through the hard drive casing, through the disk platters, and out the other side.
Unfortunately, that level of destruction also makes your gift significantly less useful.
If you want to leave Windows on the machine…
As I said before, it’s common to want to leave Windows installed as part of your gift.
That may or may not be legal (it depends on the terms of the license for your particular copy of Windows). To keep it at least ethical, it means you would no longer keep or use that copy of Windows yourself.
The right and safe way to transfer Windows in this case is to, after running DBAN, reinstall Windows from scratch using your original installation media. If your system didn’t come with installation media, then you could try the restore media that you received or you could restore to an image backup that you took immediately after receiving the machine.
And part of your gift would be to include the product key that activated that copy of Windows.
A product key that, as I said, you would no longer use yourself, having given it away.
(This is an update to an article originally published December 24, 2004.)
Sunday, January 26, 2014
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