full-disclosure - erase with magnet

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [thread-next>] [day] [month] [year] [list]

From: blancher at cartel-securite.fr (Cedric Blancher)
Subject: erase with magnet

Le sam 03/04/2004 ? 18:32, morning_wood a ?crit :
> > Is it possible to erase data on a hard disk drive 
> >with a powerful magnet, but then be able to use the drive and the PC again? 
> yes

Afaik, for degauss erase drive structure, you can't use it unless you
have a powerful low level format tool.

For the fun, I tested it with a simple electrical magnet on an open
drive on 2 faulty HDD (SCSI and IDE ones). IDE one was unrecoverable,
even with manufacturer userland low level format application. SCSI had
been usable using SCSI adapter BIOS low level format, but had much more
bad sectors than before, which tends to make me think that both
degaussing and format had somehow not complete what they were supposed
to do.

Many papers (well, they're quite few) I read on subject all state that :
	. degaussing is possible, but need strong magnetic field
	. drive can't be reused without manufacturer intervention for a
	  physical plates formating

Other posts on the list agree theses statements.

-- 
http://www.netexit.com/~sid/
PGP KeyID: 157E98EE FingerPrint: FA62226DA9E72FA8AECAA240008B480E157E98EE
>> Hi! I'm your friendly neighbourhood signature virus.
>> Copy me to your signature file and help me spread!