HDD Hardware Eraser

Any ideas anyone...

An independant battery powered circuit that either sits inline with an IDE cable between the motherboard and the hard drive(s) or some sort of external coil arrangement that can erase/overwrite the disc(s) triggered by remote or resetable run down timer (whatever)

Idealy the whole circuit and battery pack has to be concealed in the remaining space of a removable drive caddy and must render the disc unreadable to even the best recovery software before the batteries give out.

Please , no recipes for homemade thermite :lol:

tansis said:

Any ideas anyone...

An independant battery powered circuit that either sits inline with an IDE cable between the motherboard and the hard drive(s) or some sort of external coil arrangement that can erase/overwrite the disc(s) triggered by remote or resetable run down timer (whatever)

Idealy the whole circuit and battery pack has to be concealed in the remaining space of a removable drive caddy and must render the disc unreadable to even the best recovery software before the batteries give out.

Click to expand...

Don't want much do you?.

I suspect the only cost effective way would be physically smash the platters - but this would require modifications to the hard drive (which I presume you don't want to do?).

The classic way to wipe a hard drive is to overwrite every single sector on the drive with every possible bit pattern, this is (obviously) a slow procedure, and may not provide the absolute level of security you appear to be looking for.

:lol: I know Nigel , it's a real rat hole engineering project spawned by the nervous mind of a somewhat parnoid hacker in the states.

You can get IDE encryption hardware. I have one here that came with my motherboard, that I don't use. It has 2 hardware keys that you remove whenever you leave the computer. The drive can only be decrypted with the keys. Of course I don't know how strong the encryption is. Anything less than 128bit and someone with enough resources would be able to get in.

Otherwise, there's plenty of those Microcontroller to IDE interfaces. Maybe something that sits inline, and takes over when initiated. It can start a low level format, which I don't think is that difficult. Only problem is that it would take a while to erase the disk, depending on it's size.

EDIT: The encryption hardware I have is made by A-Bit, using an X-Wall chip by Enovatech. I checked their site www.enovatech.com and they have 128 and 192bit hardware encryption systems. These would be more than adequate to protect whatever data.

**broken link removed**
Click on "watch the video" on the left side below "the power of thermite"
(it took a while to find it)
Overkill but it will work
Pre g4techtv screen savers

**broken link removed**http://www.secinf.net/uplarticle/4/part6.pdfHappy paranoia!

Tansis, thats a really cool idea. There's gotta be something like that out there.

If you cannot find that something, how about a very strong electromagnet :lol:

Thankyou all for the spirited responces so far...

Enrcryption seems the ideal solution , provided the one can remember the 128 bit key in your head that is, if it it's kept anyplace else it's not secure.
Systems based upon modulo arithmetic are under constant assault by Moores Law , with the aid of "supercomputer" cluster and a solid state hard drive measured in TerraBytes one has to wonder just how long it would take to create a look up table for a given range of key lengths.

Qwipes! now I'm sounding paranoid.

Still , the fact remains these computers are getting quicker. The first computer I programmed used thumbwheels to select Hexidecimal!

My generation has already seen the demise of thermonic tubes,
it may well see the end of silicon at this rate, some very interesting work going on with crystaline carbon deposition (other than making fake diamonds) at the moment. Though having your chipsets running at over 200 degrees C is going to take case modding to another level 8)

Special thanks to Jordanau for that link. I would like to point out
though that the chemical reaction involved provides its own oxygen
and will burn quite merrily under water, so what that guy with the co2
extinguisher hoped to achieve we shall never know.

Now if someone can come up with a way of keeping the molten metal
from ruining the rest of the computer we would be on a winner :wink:

Fried's link makes a real eye opener.
For those who have not read it yet , do it!
Twenty or more ovewrites and still a good chance of extracting HDD data!

A degausing coil of sorts looks another promising method
after seeing what the HV community can do. Hmm, might be worth asking.

You just have to make the Key longer . You get your key long enough and all the computing power today will take more time than the universe has been in existance to break your key. How long does your data need to stay safe? Say 100 years - just plan ahead and use enough bits.

Quantum computing represents the biggest threat to current encryption. The superposition of states would let you try all the possible combinations in one operation.

Instead of trying an elaborate electronics device (i know it wont be as fun) maybe you could make a cradle for the hard drive in your computer and be able to quickly jerk it out of the computer from a 5 1/4 inch bay. A little trap door and just reach in real quick and jerk it out and smash it as fast as you can. Just a thought. Smashing it with a hammer would make you feel a lot more certain about safety. Maybe you could push a button and the hard drive will eject like a video player. Come out about 2-3 inches and you can snag it out from there.