Erasing iBook drive

I am thinking about selling my G3 iBook and wanted to erase the 40GB
internal drive for data security. I inserted the Panther install disk
(I don't have a retail version of Tiger), ran the installer, opened
Disk Utility, went to "Erase", and under "options" chose the 8x random
write option. Twenty four hours later the progress bar had crawled up
to about 1/4 of the way but I was in no hurry. Another day later I
noticed that the text next to the progress bar had changed from
something like "Writing random data" to "Creating Partition Map". The
progress bar was only about 50% and there was no disk activity. Another
twelve hours or so and nothing had happened. The cursor was in SPOD mode
so I held down the power button and then started up again. Since I had
no OS any more it started up from the install disk, but I don't
now whether it really finished writing over the whole disk or only
got half way. I wasn't prepared to wait another three days to find
out if the same thing would happen again so I opened Disk Utility
again and this time just chose the less secure option to "Zero all
data", which should be about 8 times quicker. It is making fairly
rapid progress and I should know in a few hours whether it has
cleanly completed. Anyone else experienced anything like this?

Ian

--
Ian Gregory
http://www.zenatode.org.uk/ian/

In article <4usis1F19dsglU1@mid.individual.net>, Ian Gregory
<foo@bar.invalid> wrote:

> I am thinking about selling my G3 iBook and wanted to erase the 40GB
> internal drive for data security. I inserted the Panther install disk
> (I don't have a retail version of Tiger), ran the installer, opened
> Disk Utility, went to "Erase", and under "options" chose the 8x random
> write option. Twenty four hours later the progress bar had crawled up
> to about 1/4 of the way but I was in no hurry. Another day later I
> noticed that the text next to the progress bar had changed from
> something like "Writing random data" to "Creating Partition Map". The
> progress bar was only about 50% and there was no disk activity. Another
> twelve hours or so and nothing had happened. The cursor was in SPOD mode
> so I held down the power button and then started up again. Since I had
> no OS any more it started up from the install disk, but I don't
> now whether it really finished writing over the whole disk or only
> got half way. I wasn't prepared to wait another three days to find
> out if the same thing would happen again so I opened Disk Utility
> again and this time just chose the less secure option to "Zero all
> data", which should be about 8 times quicker. It is making fairly
> rapid progress and I should know in a few hours whether it has
> cleanly completed. Anyone else experienced anything like this?

as you've noticed, the built-in secure erase is ridiculously slow, so
much so that it is not even usable. i often wonder if anyone at apple
ever tested it! fortunately, there are other secure erase utilities
that run at a more acceptable speed. check versiontracker.

also, unless the person to whom you are selling it is *really*
interested in what was on there and wants to expend the time and money
to recover it, zeroing the drive should be sufficient.

Ian Gregory <foo@bar.invalid> wrote:

> I am thinking about selling my G3 iBook and wanted to erase the 40GB
> internal drive for data security. I inserted the Panther install disk
> (I don't have a retail version of Tiger), ran the installer, opened
> Disk Utility, went to "Erase", and under "options" chose the 8x random
> write option. Twenty four hours later the progress bar had crawled up
> to about 1/4 of the way but I was in no hurry. Another day later I
> noticed that the text next to the progress bar had changed from
> something like "Writing random data" to "Creating Partition Map". The
> progress bar was only about 50% and there was no disk activity. Another
> twelve hours or so and nothing had happened. The cursor was in SPOD mode
> so I held down the power button and then started up again. Since I had
> no OS any more it started up from the install disk, but I don't
> now whether it really finished writing over the whole disk or only
> got half way. I wasn't prepared to wait another three days to find
> out if the same thing would happen again so I opened Disk Utility
> again and this time just chose the less secure option to "Zero all
> data", which should be about 8 times quicker. It is making fairly
> rapid progress and I should know in a few hours whether it has
> cleanly completed. Anyone else experienced anything like this?

I've only ever used "zero all data". I didn't find it slow. I am not the
NSA so I don't know how secure it is. m.

--
matt neuburg, phd = matt@tidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
Tiger - http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-customizing.html
AppleScript - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596102119
Read TidBITS! It's free and smart. http://www.tidbits.com

matt neuburg <matt@tidbits.com> wrote:
> I've only ever used "zero all data". I didn't find it slow. I am not the
> NSA so I don't know how secure it is. m.

I have found the really, really quick way to securely erase sensitive
data when wiping a drive is to make sure all sensitive files are in my
home folder, turn on FileVault, and then just do a quick erase without
zeroing. Even if the FileVault image gets recovered, the data
inside is still secure.

--
K.

Lang may your lum reek.

Király <me@home.spamsucks.ca> wrote:

> I have found the really, really quick way to securely erase sensitive
> data when wiping a drive is to make sure all sensitive files are in my
> home folder, turn on FileVault, and then just do a quick erase without
> zeroing. Even if the FileVault image gets recovered, the data
> inside is still secure.

Good hint! Thanks.
--
/Jon
For contact info, run the following in Terminal:
Mail: echo 36199371860304980107073482417748002696458P|dc
Skype: echo 139576319600233690471689738P|dc

Jon <see_signature@mac.com.invalid> wrote:

> Király <me@home.spamsucks.ca> wrote:
>
> > I have found the really, really quick way to securely erase sensitive
> > data when wiping a drive is to make sure all sensitive files are in my
> > home folder, turn on FileVault, and then just do a quick erase without
> > zeroing. Even if the FileVault image gets recovered, the data
> > inside is still secure.
>
> Good hint! Thanks.

That *is* a good hint. FileVault might be over the top, though;
typically you've only got a few sensitive files, and it suffices to keep
them all in an encrypted disk image. We covered that technique here:

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/8578>

m.


--
matt neuburg, phd = matt@tidbits.com, http://www.tidbits.com/matt/
Tiger - http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/tiger-customizing.html
AppleScript - http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0596102119
Read TidBITS! It's free and smart. http://www.tidbits.com

In article <Jqeih.74112$YV4.10653@edtnps89>,
me@home.spamsucks.ca (Király) wrote:

> matt neuburg <matt@tidbits.com> wrote:
> > I've only ever used "zero all data". I didn't find it slow. I am not the
> > NSA so I don't know how secure it is. m.
>
> I have found the really, really quick way to securely erase sensitive
> data when wiping a drive is to make sure all sensitive files are in my
> home folder, turn on FileVault, and then just do a quick erase without
> zeroing. Even if the FileVault image gets recovered, the data
> inside is still secure.

The big question is what does Filevault do with your old files after
they are moved to the encrypted image, as it sounds like it copies them
over:

"You need at least as much space as your home folder takes up. For
example, if your home folder is 20 MB, make sure you have at least 20 MB
of free space available."

This would be secure only if Filevault securely erased the previous
files when it moved them to the image. I would hope so, but don't know
exactly how it works.

Steve

In article <Jqeih.74112$YV4.10653@edtnps89>,
me@home.spamsucks.ca (Király) wrote:

> matt neuburg <matt@tidbits.com> wrote:
> > I've only ever used "zero all data". I didn't find it slow. I am not the
> > NSA so I don't know how secure it is. m.
>
> I have found the really, really quick way to securely erase sensitive
> data when wiping a drive is to make sure all sensitive files are in my
> home folder, turn on FileVault, and then just do a quick erase without
> zeroing. Even if the FileVault image gets recovered, the data
> inside is still secure.

It seems to me that the data would be copied into FileVault, being
encrypted in the process. Wouldn't a hacker be able to access the files
where they were located prior to encryption? Zeroing the drive wouldn't
hurt.

Fred

Fred McKenzie <fmmck@aol.com> wrote:
> It seems to me that the data would be copied into FileVault, being
> encrypted in the process. Wouldn't a hacker be able to access the files
> where they were located prior to encryption? Zeroing the drive wouldn't
> hurt.

One has to remember to check "Use secure erase" when turning on
FileVault. That will securely erase everything that was copied to the
FileVault disk image. Unless ones home folder is very large, it should
take less time than zeroing the whole disk.

--
K.

Lang may your lum reek.

Steve Jones <jones948@hotmail.com> wrote:

> This would be secure only if Filevault securely erased the previous
> files when it moved them to the image. I would hope so, but don't know
> exactly how it works.

It does. How secure _that_ erasing is, I do not know though.
--
/Jon
For contact info, run the following in Terminal:
Mail: echo 36199371860304980107073482417748002696458P|dc
Skype: echo 139576319600233690471689738P|dc