writting zeros to the drive (low level format]

[teatimefan]

I'm posting links for people who want to set the computer hard drive to zero. posting the gwscan security info page first then I will do each company after that.
Zeroing a PC Hard Drive
To ensure that all confidential data has been removed from a computer system and cannot be restored using data restoration tools, as well as to ensure that the computer is in compliance with all software licensing issues, all information on the hard drive should not only be deleted but also overwritten (also known as zeroing out the drive). This applies not only to computers going to off-campus locations, but also to ones going to another individual at Lehigh as that individual is unlikely to have the same access rights to confidential information as the original user of the system.

In order to do this, start the computer from a bootable floppy disk or bootable CD-ROM (either of which is available at the Circulation Desk of the E.W.F.M. Library) and run the program GWSCAN as follows. (Instructions for manually creating a floppy to zero the hard drive, without visiting the library, follow below.)



* Insert the floppy drive and turn on the computer. If using a bootable CD-ROM, insert the CD-ROM while the computer is on and then restart the computer.
* GWSCAN will start automatically.
* Select the Write Zeros to Drive option and press R on the keyboard.
* The procedure may take an hour or more depending on the size of the hard disk.

Creating a Bootable Floppy Containing GWSCAN
Note: If a bootable floppy or CD-ROM was obtained from the library, follow the procedure above; otherwise, use the steps below to create a bootable floppy containing GWSCAN and use this floppy to zero the hard drive.

Step 1: Create a bootable floppy.

* Take a floppy disk and insert it in the disk drive (either a blank one or one that can be erased)

Go to My Computer, right-click on the floppy drive icon and select Format.
* On the Format dialog box select the Create an MS-DOS startup disk and click Start. Click OK on the warning message saying ALL data will be erased.



Step 2: Copy the GWSCAN program to the floppy disk.



* At this point click on the following link to download the GWSCAN program http://www.lehigh.edu/security/download/gwscan.exe . Click on the Save button and save it to the Floppy A: drive (located in My Computer) and close the dialog box.
Step 3: Reboot the computer and run GWSCAN



* Take the floppy drive out of the disk drive and restart the computer.
* When the computer screen goes blank, re-insert the floppy disk in the disk drive.
* The computer will start with an A:> prompt displaying on the screen.
* Simply type gwscan at the A:> prompt and the program will run.
* Select the Write Zeros to Drive option and press R on the keyboard.
* The procedure may take an hour or more depending on the size of the hard disk
seagate is next

[teatimefan]

here is for segate
What does "low level formatting" an ATA (IDE) drive mean?

Actually the term "low level" is a bit of a misnomer. The low level process first used years ago in MFM hard drives bears little resemblance to what we now call a "low level format" for today's ATA (IDE) drives. The only safe method of initializing all the data on a Seagate device is the Zero Fill option in DiscWizard Starter Edition.

Why would I want to Zero Fill my drive?

The most common reasons to Zero Fill an ATA (IDE) hard drive are:

1. The drive has contracted a virus that cannot be removed without destroying the boot sector.

2. You are changing from one operating system to another and wish to remove everything from the drive.

How do I low Zero Fill my drive?

Caution!

* Zero Filling an ATA (IDE) drive destroys 100% of the data on the drive. Make sure the drive is completely backed up before proceeding.

* The Zero Fill option in DiscWizard Starter Edition is the only safe method for use with Seagate hard drives. Some system BIOSs may include a Low Level Format option; use these at your own risk, as this may produce undesirable results.

DiscWizard Starter Edition can be downloaded as a part of the DiscWizard package. It includes two Zero Fill options, partitioning options, and high-level formatting options. Zero Fill writes zeros in each data sector up to the complete capacity of the drive and will clean up some file system defects.

The download routine for DiscWizard Starter Edition creates a bootable diskette. Boot from the diskette to start DiscWizard Starter Edition. After startup, select Utilities | Zero Fill Drive (Quick) or Zero Fill Drive (Full). Select the drive you want to erase, then select Zero Fill or Low Level.

Zero Fill Drive (Quick) will write over the beginning of the drive which includes the critical partition information, eliminating all partitions and information on the drive including the Master boot record. This is useful if you have a drive that has a corrupted partition or that you wish to erase to reinstalll a fresh operating system and new data.

Zero Fill Drive (Full) will write over the entire data area of the drive. This is useful if a drive has bad sectors that cannot be fixed by the operating system. This will also erase all the data on the drive, but it will take several hours.

When the process completes, reboot the system from the operating system install CD and follow the instructions to prepare (partition and format) the drive and install the operating system.
here is what low-level formating is and why it's different than writting zeros to the drive.
a formatting method that creates the tracks and sectors on a hard disk. Low-level formatting creates the physical format that dictates where data is stored on the disk. Also see high-level format.

Modern hard drives are low-level formatted at the factory for the life of the drive. A PC can not perform an LLF on a modern IDE/ATA or SCSI hard disk, and doing so would destroy the hard disk. Older MFM drives could be low-level formatted to extend the life of the disk, but modern hard drives no longer use MFM technology.

A low-level format is also called a physical format.

Floppy disks must also undergo low-level and high-level formatting, but these two are generally performed at the same time. On PCs, for example, the FORMAT command performs both a low-level and high-level format the first time a floppy is formatted.

[teatimefan]

here is maxtors
The PowerMax utility is designed to perform diagnostic tests on all Maxtor ATA and SATA hard drives, and on all Quantum

[MariMekko]

a formatting method that creates the tracks and sectors on a hard disk. Low-level formatting creates the physical format that dictates where data is stored on the disk. Also see high-level format.

Modern hard drives are low-level formatted at the factory for the life of the drive. A PC can not perform an LLF on a modern IDE/ATA or SCSI hard disk, and doing so would destroy the hard disk. Older MFM drives could be low-level formatted to extend the life of the disk, but modern hard drives no longer use MFM technology.



Thanks teatime. However I'm still a bit confused about the information in the first paragraph.

I know that a hard disk has tracks and sectors. And then data is written either as 0s or 1s. Writing 0s to all the information would obviously overwrite all the data...

How about a 'normal' format? (like what windows does.) What does it overwrite? I thought it also destroyed some of the data (though not all as it can be undone...)

What formatting modes destroy the boot sector? :)

[Ragnax]

How about a 'normal' format? (like what windows does.) What does it overwrite? I thought it also destroyed some of the data (though not all as it can be undone...)

What formatting modes destroy the boot sector? :)
A 'normal' format aka high level format destroys and then recreates the disk's MBR(master boot record) and FAT (file allocation table).

The MBR is the piece of booting software residing in the boot sector, which means a 'normal' format should destroy it. Iirc windows will not wipe the MBR if you quick-format, but will wipe it if you use regular format. Also, windows has a way to only format the MBR by using scandisk /fixmbr.

Note that for the files only the FAT entries are wiped, but the files themselves remain intact until the OS claims the 'freed' space to write something to. Specialized unformatting tools exist to restore files of which the FAT entries were removed, which is one of the biggest reasons people started using zero-fill utilities.

[teatimefan]

A 'normal' format aka high level format destroys and then recreates the disk's MBR(master boot record) and FAT (file allocation table).

The MBR is the piece of booting software residing in the boot sector, which means a 'normal' format should destroy it. Iirc windows will not wipe the MBR if you quick-format, but will wipe it if you use regular format. Also, windows has a way to only format the MBR by using scandisk /fixmbr.

Note that for the files only the FAT entries are wiped, but the files themselves remain intact until the OS claims the 'freed' space to write something to. Specialized unformatting tools exist to restore files of which the FAT entries were removed, which is one of the biggest reasons people started using zero-fill utilities.
this is correct also some viruses can restore themselves after a high level format. also the data still in the "free space" can cause problems with the hard drive. this is why all major hard drive manufacturers have diagnostic utilities so you can zero the drive and then run tests to see if it's a problem with the drive or just from the deleted data.
the levels go
highest level removes the information from the hard drive directory (leaving the data in tact.) you basic trashcan delete
high level format. deletes the major boot record the recreates it. however it is still just a delete so the old stuff is still there untill you reload something on it. This allows some viruses to load themselves into memory and reload back into the MBR when it's recreated.
writting zeros to the drive removes all information from the drive. every bit in every sector. this takes a very long time to complete.and after that nothing is left on the drive.
finally is low level format. this formating sets things like number of platters the drive has read/write heads, sectors and other very basic stuff so the hard drive will work. on all ATA and higher drives this is done at the factory can CAN NOT BE CHANGED. if you could and did change it you would destroy the drive and void any warrenty.
alot of people think that low level formating is the deleting and recreation of the MBR/FAT or that zeroing the hard drive is a low level format instead of what it really is.
I hope Ragnax's and my posts clear it up for you.

[MariMekko]

thanks Ragnax and Teatimefan. :) Hehe, no excuse for forgetting something as important as formatting, just wasn't sure so I had to ask :p Understood formatting as recreating the MBR/FAT with data intact...

What I really didn't know was how it could by software define the number of platters, tracks and sectors :) are there physically some 0s or 1s lining each sector or track so the head knows where it is?

[teatimefan]

the low level formating (platters, tracks, sectors ect...) was done in the computer's cmos in the old days now it's put on the hard drive in ROM (read only memory) if that memory is bad then your hard drive is toast and has to be sent in for repair/replacement.

[chrrox]

Low level formating doese not destroy 100% of data. Yes to most people the data is gone but with certain tools it is recoverable. to make sura all data is gone and not retrievable you need to do a dod or "department of Defence" format wich formats your drive around 7x by filling it with 1's then 0's then random patterns of the sort and finaly all 0's.

[clayge]

teatimefan, thank you for the introduction to a great disk utility,
i have been looking for it for centuries... :)

bye bye bad sectors now ;)

[Shragei]

here is for segate
What does "low level formatting" an ATA (IDE) drive mean?

Actually the term "low level" is a bit of a misnomer. The low level process first used years ago in MFM hard drives bears little resemblance to what we now call a "low level format" for today's ATA (IDE) drives. The only safe method of initializing all the data on a Seagate device is the Zero Fill option in DiscWizard Starter Edition.

low level formatting term is still the same. You can still low level format an ATA drive which is still highly unrecommended. The term that you should be using is cryptographic erasure

[MariMekko]

Anyone tried the program "Spinrite 6.0"? I saw some reference to it as the best program to test and try recover your data.

I had a 80GB western digital in my win 2003 server as a data drive (dynamic drive, 2 parititions, one 14G was mirrored to another 14G hard drive. the rest was made another logical drive). One day the server told me that the drive had failed. the mirror had status "failed" but obviously i couldn't tell if it was really not working as there was the "good" mirror. The logical drive wrote "failed" too and I coudln't access it.

After restarting, both drives were "healthy" so I tried to backup the files. However backup was slow and eventually failed after maybe 100MB transfer, then both paritions had "failed" as their status. So I had to replace the drive. After getting the drive out I put the drive in another computer and used Spinrite 6.0 to check the drive on level 4 (out of 5 levels of detail), ran it overnight but didn't find any errors at all! So now I've formatted it and placed it in an external USB case for just casual use...

Everything seems alright now after it's been formatted, anyone know the cause or what was going on? How else I can attempt to test the integrity of a hard drive?

[Desmonthes]

about the program SpinRite, i think it's good have try all his free program and it's really good :) http://www.grc.com/sr/spinrite.htm
too bad we can have demo or something like that to test, and i dont want to steal from him (note: stealing from Microsoft is ok to me :p)